Streetwalkers, cops in Geylang play hide-and-seek

Streetwalkers, cops in Geylang play hide-and-seek

Lately there has been a lot of news about how Geylang is now a hotbed of vice, which was puzzling, because when was it ever not?

Did I miss something? Was it bulldozed, replaced by a duck pond, then re-invaded by homeless pimps?

Not really. The area came under the spotlight because while everyone was distracted by the riot in Little India last December, Geylang, like some forgotten evil stepsister, emerged as the real security worry.

At the official inquiry into the riot, Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee said there was a "hint of lawlessness" in that red-light district that covers six to eight lanes.

Those unfamiliar with Singapore might find the description a bit like stating the obvious. In most parts of the world, it's normal to expect a city's red-light district to be, well, like a red-light district. That is the point of their existence, right?

Kings Cross in Sydney, Kabukicho in Tokyo, the Reeperbahn in Hamburg - these are places where good citizens go so they don't have to be so good.

So what did "lawlessness" mean? In the Singapore context, we have a very low threshold, starting with the guy who fails to respect the tissue-packet table reservation system, then moving upwards.

In my mind's eye, because of the news reports, I had an image of this new, nastier Geylang: A chaotic free market of flesh going to the highest bidder, a sinister sci-fi nightmare in which cruelty and bloodshed lurk in every alleyway and where two-headed mutants with chainsaws fight death-matches in steel cages (disclaimer: I might have been watching Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome at the time).

It was time for a visit.

I went on Thursday around 11pm, starting at Lorong 24. Yup, there were streetwalkers all around. Not just in the lanes and alleys, but on the pavements edging the main road. There were men selling pills with names like Ultra Viagra, which I suppose is for special occasions when absolute top performance is a must.

I walked around the lorongs till 1am. The brothels were there and thriving and, in the Singapore style, had no signboards and were lit up in pink lights and decor patterns they shared with a couple of my favourite seafood restaurants.

I read that there were plans to light up the lanes. The alley I saw that looked the busiest already had streetlamps and it was bright enough for me to see that a few of the women had Adam's apples larger than mine, so I am not sure that high lighting levels will be a deterrent, unless the plan is to make them bright enough that people actually burst into flames.

One thing that struck me as I was walking was just how many migrant workers there are now. Every other man I saw was either from China or India. If they were there at this hour, it meant they were being housed in the area. It makes sense, given how rents must be depressed because of the area's seedy reputation.

But putting workers here increases foot traffic, adding to the crush caused by restaurants and late-night shops selling everything from sex toys to mobile phones to kitchen appliances. By the way, if you ever have an urgent need for a cooking pot at midnight, come here.

Over the years, I've read how upset residents of both Little India and Geylang are about foreign labourers or foreign sex workers encroaching on their neighbourhoods. But did they not know about the reputation of those neighbourhoods before they bought units?

It strikes me as being similar to the situation of a person who buys a house next to a highway and then gets upset at the noise.

Anyway, the hot spots of streetwalking action were several streets away from the new condo developments, so there seems to be an understanding about turf. Perhaps the riff-raff have been told to stay away from the posher, newly developed streets? As the yuppification closes in around the older core, I wonder how long it will be before the sex trade there is all gone, in the manner of Keong Saik Road in Chinatown.

I do know that when I was walking down the alleys and quieter lanes, I never felt unsafe. This is Singapore, after all, where the approved brothels are not just tolerated, they are regulated.

If this is Satan's playground, it's one with all the proper licences, clear street signs, coupon parking and easy access to the MRT.

I did not see anyone selling contraband cigarettes or gambling or any of the other aspects of lawlessness or defiance of the legal authority mentioned in the news, but that does not mean they do not exist, of course.

Police patrols came by a few times during my walk, causing the ladies on the pavement to dart behind pillars, where they were still plainly visible. You would think that people in the profession would be better at hide-and-seek.

One thing I came away with (other than sore feet from two hours of walking) is that Geylang's problems are Singapore's problems, but confined and magnified.

There is a migrant worker concentration in that tiny area that leads to overcrowding and littering. While the workers are here to make money for their private corporations, the cost, in their needs for space, transport, recreation and public sanitation, is shared with us, the public at large.

The only hair-raising moments during my two hours there came from local seniors zooming past on silent electric bicycles, on pavements and against the flow of traffic.

I was almost knocked down a couple of times. If you really want to keep Geylang safe, do something about those guys.

johnlui@sph.com.sg

This article was published on April 6 in The Straits Times.

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