Posted by Malcolm G. Fleming, Oxfam in Scotland.

Protests are uncommon in Singapore, in fact they all but unheard of here. Thus the fact that the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), which Oxfam is a member of, planned to stage a 'silent protest' in the conference centre where the IMF and World Bank meetings are being held, created considerable media interest, not least amongst the Singapore media who had never experienced anything of this sort before.

Over thirty activists from every continent, and including my Oxfam colleagues and myself, walked in silent protest to the "official protest area". The official protest site is a small roped off area with lots of security. You can't take anything into it, even a bag, and you need to swipe your ID card through a scanner before you are let in. The efforts of the authorities to stifle freedom of expression have reached a rather farcical level.

We wore white t-shirts with the message 'Stand Up Against Poverty: We Must Have a Voice" and gags across our mouths with the message 'NO VOICE'. The protest was designed to illustrate the fact that poor countries have no voice at the World Bank and IMF. In fact the 44 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa get just 2 seats on the excutive boards, whilst Europe gets 9 seats. Despite this lack of representation the Bank and Fund make many decisions affecting poor countries, not least attaching damaging conditions to aid or debt relief, e.g. that countries must privatise public services and 'liberalise' their markets.

However the 'No Voice' message has taken on an additional aspect this week with increasing numbers of civil society campaigners turned back at Singapore Airport and denied entry to the country, despite having full accreditation to attend the meetings. Several people have experienced lengthy waits at the airport, only to be put onto a plane out of the country.

The NO VOICE message clearly hit home with the media, but also with the locals, with several members of the conference centre staff quietly congratulating us for undertaking the protest and asking if they could have a t-shirt. The Government may have tried to gag civil society here, but even when you have no voice, you can sometimes still get your message across!