Speakers' Corner, Singapore to these free speech concerns, Speakers' Corner was created as local adaptation of the Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London, in 2000. In a 1999 interview with "New York Times" columnist William Safire, the Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said the idea had first been suggested by the Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, but Goh felt that it was not yet the right time to set it up. The following year, the Government decided to go ahead despite its fear of potential public disorder, as the idea enjoyed widespread support from the public and civil society groups. During a Parliamentary
Speakers' Corner, Singapore "foreigners [to come] here to organise and to lead Singaporeans to complain about our domestic issues". Crucially, events held at Speakers' Corner must not deal with any matter that relates directly or indirectly to any religious belief or to religion generally, or which may cause feelings of enmity, hatred, ill-will or hostility between different racial or religious groups in Singapore. On 19 September 2008, Thamiselvan Karuppaya, an Indian real estate agent who wished to speak at Speakers' Corner about the use of Tamil on public signs, had to change his plans after being informed by the police that he required