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It seems that he secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Dr Chee Soon Juan has had no luck in finding a venue for the launch of his book. Earlier today, he wrote on Facebook about how his requests to book rooms at the National Library were sidestepped with no actual promise of allowing him to use their rooms.

Dr Chee had initially rented a room at The Lifelong Learning Institute to for the launch of his new book, ‘Never On Bended Knees’, on January 26. However, the government-linked campus cancelled his booking citing reasons that “that the event and the book “do not appear” to be “related to training, skills upgrading and lifelong learning for the workforce”.

https://www.facebook.com/cheesoonjuan/posts/10158617668743849

Earlier today, Dr Chee shared another difficulty he faced when he tried to book rooms at the National Library. Revealing his exchange with them, he wrote, “The Lifelong Learning Institute cancellation wasn’t the only incident in my effort to secure a venue for the launch of my latest book, Never On Bended Knees. When I approached the National Library (NL), this was what happened (edited for brevity)”.

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He asked them about the availability of the Imagination and Possibility rooms at the library on January 26. However, they replied that the rooms were not available on that day.

https://www.facebook.com/cheesoonjuan/photos/a.10150092386688849/10158617668383849/?type=3&theater

Dr Chee then asked, “How about the Saturday before or after?”

To this, he was told that no seminar rooms were available on all the Saturdays and Sundays in January.

Not giving up, upon enquiring about February, Dr Chee was told, “We do not have any Seminar Rooms available on all the Saturdays and Sundays in Feb & Mar 2019”.

He then pushed further, “From April 2019 onwards, is there any date available on weekends?”

The National Library staff then replied, “We do not have any Seminar Rooms available on all the Saturdays and Sundays from Jan – May”.

Exasperated, Dr Chee griped on his Facebook page, “Wouldn’t it have been easier to say from the start that they couldn’t rent me the rooms?”

The venue for Dr Chee’s book launch has since been changed to the SDP’s office at 3 Ang Mo Kio Street 62, #02-30, Link@AMK. The date and time remain unchanged: January 26, 2019, Saturday, 2-4 pm.

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obbana@theindependent.sg