(Clearwisdom.net) Singapore is a small country in Southeast Asia with almost no natural resources. In the past few years, it has tried its best to approach and please China politically and economically. Singapore is also an affluent nation with a tight political control by the government. Although freedom of speech and freedom of religion are guaranteed by its Constitution, people know that the reality is different and if one demands those rights one may pay a high price. In Singapore, if a person doesn't do anything that is disliked by the government, he can usually lead a reasonably good life by studying and working hard. Having lived in such an environment for a long period of time, people thus often only care about a wealthy and stable life. They tend to speak, think and do things according to the government's wishes. Many have gradually forgotten about their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
To various degrees these ordinary human notions existed in local Dafa practitioners' minds as well, and consequently the Fa-rectification process in this area dragged behind. For example, some practitioners did not dare to boldly ask for their own rights, did not even dare to think that these rights belonged to them, and used the excuse that "this is Singapore." Some practitioners were anxious to catch up with the Fa-rectification process, but hesitated and thought too much about various issues. They were not sure about the contents and strength of truth clarification and could not decide to put forth the effort based on the requirements of Fa-rectification; instead they relied on their own human notions as to what was appropriate and what was sensitive. Let's go back a few years when the Minghui website exposed a great amount of facts concerning the persecution of Falun Gong. Some practitioners here thought that it was all right to do this in other areas but not ours because it was too sensitive an issue here. As a result and for a long period of time, we only talked about the healing effects of Falun Gong. The current "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" and "Quitting the CCP" are even more untouchable topics for some practitioners, as they think that these should be spread by practitioners in China.
Some practitioners have a limited understanding of "Compassion." They believe that compassion means not having any conflicts. When they finally found the courage to meet with parliament members and these members said, "We are only concerned about economic relationships with China and have no other interests," after hearing that one sentence, all they were able to do was to leave. In fact, this is not the compassion we practitioners should have; rather it is the compromising mentality of ordinary people. The compassion of a practitioner is manifested by being calm and understanding of others while clarifying the truth. We should not prove our "kindness" by avoiding telling others about the real situation of Falun Gong.
The Falun Dafa Association was established in Singapore as early as 1996. However, our legal rights are often not guaranteed. For example, before July 20, 1999, local practitioners often taught and organized group Falun Gong exercises in local community centers that were provided by the government or the ruling party. However, since July 20, 1999, they suddenly denied us access to these centers up through the present. In the past five years, some practitioners have raised the issue many times that we should openly claim back our right as a legal organization, yet each time no actions were taken. In recent years, even our applications to activities such as book exhibitions, National Day celebrations and consumer fairs were rejected. Our usual response was not to complain. We told ourselves "Singapore has its own situation." As for attending activities such as practicing Falun Gong in front of the Chinese Embassy and holding anti-torture exhibitions in the downtown area, our practitioners could only participate when they went abroad.
This was our understanding of issues that were specifically pointed out on the Minghui website, not to mention our own local issues. Without referring to Minghui's articles, it was even harder for us to make a decision. For example, on December 31, 2000 in the very quiet MacRitchie Reservoir area, dozens of practitioners held a candlelight vigil one night to commemorate the then 107 Falun Gong practitioners who died during the persecution in China. Because we didn't apply for a permit in advance, many police officers came to interfere with our activities. In the end, the police took 15 practitioners away forcefully and punished them heavily.
After this apparent persecution incident, we practitioners didn't share our understandings based on the Fa. Our minds were severely blocked by our human notions, not to mention saving other sentient beings. For a long period of time, we took a detour whenever the MacRitchie incident was brought up. However, the more we feared to hear about it, the more frequently it would pop up. It interfered with us endlessly. Some practitioners didn't even know how to respond to questions from the public when this incident was brought up. The only thing they were able to do was blame the practitioners who had participated in that event. It has been like this for the past few years.
In fact, we can use any incident in order to clarify the truth. How and to what extend we achieve this depends on the strength of our practitioners' righteous thoughts. We not only missed the opportunity with this incident to clarify the truth about the real situation of Falun Gong, but also voluntarily accepted the charge of having an "assembly without a permit" from the police, thus accepting the persecution from the old forces in other dimensions and humanly fostering the evil demons. On the level of the human world, we severely misguided the local police, government and general public, which led directly to the second police action against practitioners in May 2004 under a very similar situation. The verdict of the first trial gave the police the false impression that in order to restrain our truth clarification efforts or achieve their goals, they could arrest our practitioners on any pretense to suit their needs and the final outcome would be that we would plead guilty. They really believed that there was no other possibility.
In recent court hearings regarding the 2004 incident, due to persistent Fa-study and sharing among the practitioners involved, we had a better understanding of the issue based on the Fa. Under the strong righteous field of the practitioners, the police have been in a defensive position all the time. While exposing the persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang's regime, our witness also pointed out that the two incidents both carried the nature of persecution, and thus we will completely negate their legality. In the beginning, the police even tried to exert pressure on us by using the MacRitchie case. They expected us to back off to a defensive position, they never expected that our witnesses were all pleased that they could bring it up and frankly voice their personal opinions regarding this issue. Five practitioners who answered the related questions have all displayed openness, dignity and rationality. They practiced "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" in the court and validated the Fa. In the end, it was the police who tried very hard not to mention the topic of MacRitchie again.
Actually, when we gave up the notions formed in Singapore and understood the MacRitchie incident from the Fa, it was not hard for us to clearly see the real issue. It was true that we hadn't applied for a permit beforehand, but that was not the fundamental issue of this incident. The true nature of this incident was the persecution of Falun Gong. Suppose a candlelight vigil before July 20, 1999 or a vigil of local workers commemorating their relatives who died in the Tsunami last year took place without a permit as well; even in a tightly controlled society such as Singapore, the outcome would have been different. As this is persecution, we must negate it. Thus the conclusion was fairly simple when we studied the Fa without any human notions.
These two incidents of the police arresting our practitioners are worthy of our serious reflection. It's not an issue of whether or not we should take part in a Fa-rectification project. In dealing with these two cases, some fundamental attachments in the deepest parts of our minds were touched, those hard-to-remove human notions that were formed in our environment. As a result, we have fundamentally shaken the evil's power to control in our area. In the future, if we continue to claim our legal rights using all possible means and during the process thoroughly display the peaceful, rational, determination and perseverance of Dafa practitioners, our overall environment will surely improve quickly.
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Editor's note: 1) It's very important to clarify the truth of Falun Gong. 2) The government officials, including the police, have all been threatened and deceived by the CCP to various degrees; they have been influenced by evil factors in other dimensions as well. So we should treat them compassionately and help them position themselves well. 3) We should be familiar with local regulations and be cautious and rational in all of our events, so as not to give any chances to the evil in other dimensions and those people with ill intentions.
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