Vandals attacked a DBS branch in Hong Kong, scrawling vulgarities directed at Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, his family and the ruling People's Action Party (PAP).
Photos of the vandalised DBS branch were posted late yesterday morning on a Facebook group called the Concerned Citizens Band Together For A Better Singapore. The post was shared more than 850 times in four hours.
A DBS spokesman told The Straits Times the graffiti was cleaned off as soon as it was discovered yesterday.
Some Hong Kongers have been upset by comments PM Lee made on the protests at the Forbes Global CEO Conference last month.
Asked by Forbes Media chairman and editor-in-chief Steve Forbes about the implications of the Hong Kong protests for Singapore, PM Lee said, among other things: "We thrive best in Singapore when the region is stable, when other countries are prospering and we can do business with them."
He said there was no easy way forward for Hong Kong as the demonstrators' demands "are not demands which are meant to be a programme to solve Hong Kong's problems" but "intended to humiliate and bring down the government".
On Tuesday, groups of demonstrators attacked and damaged property at Festival Walk mall in Kowloon Tong. The mall is owned by Singapore-listed Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust. This was presumably a spillover of protests at City University of Hong Kong, which is adjacent to the mall.
The Hong Kong protests, which were sparked by a now-withdrawn Bill that would have allowed extradition of suspects to the mainland, have widened into calls for democracy.
