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 a permit as the topic of his speech was racially sensitive. a subsequent application for a permit was turned down.