I read with disgust after finding out that the Special Operations Command will be getting 300 more officers following the report by the COI on the Little India riot!
I have to admit there is currently not enough police officers in the SPF, but I believe it is the Traffic Police that needs these officers and not the SOC! As it is resources are already scarce, since it is not easy to recruit police officers with integrity. We can regularly see continued reports on widespread corruption and other crimes committed by officers of the Law. Since it is difficult to get police officers to join in the first place, they must then be added to departments that need them the most.
Till this point of time, I still find that the Little India riot was very badly handled! Yet, no one has been punished in this debacle! This is the usual PAP government style – they are not accountable hence not responsible too. Fine, this part I have lived with it for a long time and there is nothing I can do about it. Also, finding who to blame will not stop this from ever happening again. Going ahead I just want the authorities to do the right thing.
This may not be known to a lot of Singaporeans, but for those of us who have done National Service, it is not a secret. Every week, there are combat units on standby ready to move out in less than two hours’ time. I have done many stand-by duties in the past when I was with the 5th Singapore Infantry Regiment, but never once have I seen any action. I am not alone, many of my friends too have not seen any action. It is not as if we are dying to see some action, but sometimes the lack of action may lead to complacency. This is what exactly happened on that fateful night 8 Dec 2013.
Because we have never had a riot all this while, the police had no idea what to do at all! The correct thing to do here would have been to activate the combat unit that was on stand-by. Within half an hour, you can have more than 120 armed soldiers on the ground. The next two hours, you can see more than 500 soldiers coming in to reinforce them. This is what the commanders should have done on that day and I believe this should be the way going forward.
A lot of people are scared when they see soldiers. But for those who are served the army before, you will know that most of the time, our rifles are not loaded. Therefore, there is no need to fear the army if you are a civilian. For those Indian foreigners though, they will only assume that these soldiers are carrying rifles with live rounds, hence they will disperse and flee for their lives!
It is truly sad that this could have been such a great learning exercise for the SAF as it tries to integrate and assist our Home team. This co-operation is important because we do not know how big the next riot could be. This time round it involved 400+ Indians, and you want to add 300 more into the SOC. What if the next riot involved 4000+, where are you going to find 3000 more officers to add? SO, use the resources that are already available 24/7 – the Army!! Because look at it this way, this is probably the closest action that they will ever see, since we are living in peace time.
Now, why do I feel that the Traffic Police could do with an additional 300 officers? Every day when I travel on the expressways I see commercial vehicles with speed limit of 60km/h hoarding lane 1. Because of this, a lot of us have to change lane to overtake the vehicle. Changing lanes is definitely one of the activities that can cause accident easily. Now, because of the lack of policing, these vehicles have been left unpunished. Not only that, you also see some reckless drivers driving like Formula 1 racers, zig-zagging in and out of lanes. This is why more urgent policing is required here!
We are a small city-state. PAP has been sleeping since GRC was introduced and their political base was thus consolidated. Because of this auto-pilot mode, a lot of issues have been left unaddressed. The Little India riot was a good lesson for them to show us that they are not sleeping, yet they failed terribly. Even after they failed, no one has come forward and admit any wrongdoing! And last but not least, their corrective action has shown us that they have underestimated the problem and will therefore make the same mistake all over AGAIN!!
MC Hammer
TRS Contributor