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 public interest in various social and political issues. This view is shared by Professor Bilveer Singh, a political science analyst at the National University of Singapore, who has pointed to large turnouts at events organized at Speakers' Corner as evidence that Singaporeans are "not fearful and not politically apathetic." The government has also shown itself to be sensitive to calls for greater liberalisation on the ground, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledging incremental changes to the rules and regulations at Speakers' Corner to be necessary for "more citizens to engage in debate" and to "progressively open up our system