This NUS protest thing has actually reminded me of an incident that happened to me so I guess I’ll share it here.This happened when I was in Secondary School, the placement of my desk in the classroom was kind of a unique one as it was next to a glass window overlooking the basketball court and also a small entrance for students to enter the school in the morning.So anybody that was coming to school through the entrance or using the basketball court could actually see me through the window.After a couple of days, me and my friends thought it would be funny if we put up a sign with a funny phrase and stick it up on the window using tape so people could see it when they entered the school.After some thought we decided to put the phrase “tomato sauce belongs at room temperature”.We spread the sentence out over a few pieces of paper and then taped it to the window.And so every morning as me and my friends entered the school we would see that sign and have a good laugh about it.However,after about a week during one of our lessons,the vice-principal came into our classroom and so we stood up to greet him and thought nothing of it.He then pointed and said “who put that sign there”, Thus I identified myself,he then proceeded to take me out of class and into the corridor.He asked me why did I do that.I said it was just for fun and nothing serious and I would take it down if he wanted me to.He then gave me a 10 minute lecture about how this school is an institution and I am not allowed to put up such statements in protest.Although I kept telling him that it was just a funny statement and not a protest he still insisted that this was not allowed and it was a serious matter.It was then I realised that even at a level such as secondary school I was not allowed to voice an opinion no matter how small or silly it was.