Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza and Philippine Independence Day.

(photo from by Calvin Teo, Wikipedia.)

Organisers cancel Philippine Independence Day event: Police 

SINGAPORE — Organisers have decided to cancel an event to commemorate the Philippine independence day at Ngee Ann City, the Singapore Police said.
BY - MAY 27 

SINGAPORE — Organisers have decided to cancel an event to commemorate the Philippine independence day at Ngee Ann City, the Singapore Police said. 

In a statement sent to Channel NewsAsia today (May 27), the police said the organisers, the Pilipino Independence Day Council 2014 (PIDC), had withdrawn their application to hold the event at Ngee Ann City. 

“This follows Police’s advice that there are public order and safety concerns with the venue proposed by PIDC,” the police said. It said the organisers had been advised to hold the event at alternative locations, such as Hong Lim Park and Suntec City. 

The event, originally slated to be held on June 8 at the Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza in Orchard, drew a barrage of anti-foreigner comments online. The organisers reportedly also received abusive phone calls after they posted about the event on Facebook. 

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote on his Facebook page on April 19 that he was “appalled” to read about the online furore. Singaporeans “must treat people in Singapore the way we ourselves expect to be treated overseas,” he wrote. CHANNEL NEWSASIA

My thoughts:

1. Ngee Ann City civic plaza is a commercial space that is used for all sorts of events: Subaru challenge, fashion shows, lion dance competitions, temporary discount setup, cultural events, etc.  Some of these events private, while others open to the public.  
2. From what I know, this space has never been so politicised, since a commercial space is--as  the name suggests--pinned to money.  You pay, you run.  Money sees no race, color, nationality, etc, just like so much of the imported goods people buy in that area. 
3. Orchard Road keeps getting more and more unpleasantly exclusionary, by the people who frequent the place (but feel that some other people shouldn't be allowed in their presence), the cost of goods and services, and now by people who may not go there even but somehow relate the shopping stretch--full of tourists--as a national symbol.
4. I can't think of another country in this region whose people and government are so virulently and proudly discriminatory, judgemental and elitist.

ETA 20160821:

1. A commercial space will, of course, discriminate against people who don't have as strong a spending power.
2. There has been a systematic erasure and disdain of low-wage foreign workers in the shopping stretch.  Read some past accounts of the sort of action taken against workers occupying and using public spaces in Orchard: Justin Zhuang's "Home Maid Picnic" (Reclaim.sg), Cha-Ly's "Observation Studies at Lucky Plaza (and vicinity) Singapore" (The Use of Public Space by Foreign Female Domestic Workers in Globalizing Asian Cities, 7 Jan 2009), or the crystal clear account by Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (FAST) President Seah Seng Choon on the opening of FDW Befrienders Clubhouse, located off the main city grid, “You notice currently the foreign domestic workers congregate in various places of interest. Like Lucky Plaza, Gardens by the Bay, the Botanic Gardens, and sometimes even in the residential areas. We want them to go to a place where they can be among themselves, where they will not be disturbing the owners of the building or residents of the area.” (Olivia Siong, "Clubhouse for foreign domestic workers to open next month," Today, 10 Mar 2014.)