Little India Riot COI: 'You don't know, you don't live here'

YOU don't live here and don't know what we have had to put up with.

That was one Little India resident's response on Tuesday to non-government organisations (NGO) that have been calling for people who live and work in Little India to be more tolerant of foreign workers who congregate in the area on Sundays.

"To put it very bluntly, I understand where the NGOs are coming from but it's very hard for me to sympathise with their cause because they don't stay here," said Mr Martin Pereira, a long-time resident of Klang Lane, just a stone's throw from the epicentre of the Dec 8 riot.

The 44-year-old air traffic controller was testifying at Tuesday's Committee of Inquiry (COI) as chairman of the Tekka Residents' Committee.

He told the inquiry that while he appreciates the efforts of NGOs in integrating foreign workers, they too need to recognise that residents just want to feel safe and not have their neighbourhood intruded by "hordes of men in a drunken stupor" every weekend.

There are "uncomfortable activities" happening right under residents' noses, Mr Pereira added.

"We do have ladies who come and accost them (and) Indian community members tell us that these Indian ladies are not normal ladies," he said, referring to transsexuals soliciting for sexual services.

Besides vice activities, Mr Pereira said he has also received feedback from residents of fortune-telling and illegal moneylending activities at the void decks on Sundays.

"When you don't face the problems on a weekly basis, I don't think you will understand the true feelings of residents who live there," he said.

Other NGOs have told the COI earlier that many foreign workers were unfairly chased away from void decks by auxiliary police officers even though they were "just sitting there... and not really doing anything", said COI member and West Coast Citizens' Consultative Committee chairman Andrew Chua.

But Mr Pereira, who has lived in the estate for more than a decade, said workers heavily utilised the HDB void decks on Sundays to have a picnic, consume alcohol and sleep.

"To a person who doesn't stay in this area, it will seem an inconvenience and a disamenity," said Mr Pereira, when asked by the committee if he had "anything more serious" than complaints of loitering and drunken workers.

"But if you were living here... it wouldn't be something that you would feel is a disamenity or an inconvenience - you would feel it's an invasion of privacy."

Mr Pereira said he hopes more enforcement powers would be given to the auxiliary police, who he felt were not strict enough in dealing with the workers because their "hands are tied".

For instance, current laws do not make it illegal for workers to crowd around in common areas under Housing Board flats, he noted.

But shouldn't Little India residents already know what they are in for when they moved into the ethnic enclave, asked Mr Chua?

Mr Pereira agreed, particularly for those who moved into the area since about 12 years ago, as the problem started some 15 years ago.

"But this is still Singapore, sir," he added. "My point is this... When in Rome, you should do as the Romans do, not expect the Romans to adjust to you."

yanliang@sph.com.sg

Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

[[nid:80830]]

[[nid:90246]]