Singapore bans alcohol in Little India on weekend after riot

Business & Markets 2013
Written by Bloomberg
Wednesday, 11 December 2013 13:03
A + A - Reset
11 Dec 2013 12:36
(Updates with comment from non-governmental organization in 14th
paragraph.)
(Dec. 11): Singapore will ban the sale and consumption of alcohol in the Little
India district this weekend as more arrests were made after the nation’s first riot
in more than four decades.
Eight more Indian nationals were detained, the police said on its Facebook
page today. Three will be charged in court today, one is out on bail and four
were released because they were not involved. Twenty-four Indian nationals
were charged with rioting in the Singapore Subordinate Courts yesterday.
“Alcohol consumption was a contributory factor” to the riot, Second Minister of
Home Affairs S. Iswaran said in a statement on his Facebook page yesterday. “All sale and consumption of liquor will be banned in the
affected area for this coming weekend,” he said, adding that “this will help stabilize the situation.”
The riot broke out on the night of Dec. 8 in the Little India district after a bus ran over and killed a 33-year-old Indian national, according to
the police. Police vehicles, an ambulance and private cars were set ablaze, toppled or damaged in the area, which attracts thousands of
foreign workers on their Sunday days off. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has ordered an inquiry into the riot that involved about 400
people.
“Making it an alcohol-free zone is going too far and will deprive workers of one of the few things they enjoy,” non-governmental
organization Transient Workers Count Too said in a statement. “Alcohol has been consumed for years in the area with no incidents on this
scale.”
Damaged Vehicles
About 300 officers responded to the riot with 22 police officers and five auxiliary officers hurt, according to the police. All officers were later
released from hospital. Vehicles damaged during the riot, including 16 police cars, were removed. The situation was brought under control
within an hour, authorities said.
The Little India district is about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the city state’s central business district.
The bus driver, a 55-year-old Singaporean, was arrested for causing death by negligent act and is assisting with investigations, the police
said.
“There is no excuse for such violent and criminal behavior,” Lee said in a statement Dec. 9.
The Committee of Inquiry will look into the reasons for the riot and how it was handled, and review how the government manages areas
where foreign workers congregate, Lee said.
‘Criminal Force’
About 3,700 foreign workers have been interviewed and 176 people were brought in for questioning, a police spokeswoman said by phone
today, asking not to be named citing policy.
The men who were charged yesterday were accused of “being members of an unlawful assembly whose common object was to overawe,
by a show of criminal force,” including throwing pieces of cement at police officers, according to court papers.The men will be held for a week for further investigation and the next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 17. If convicted, they may face a jail
term of as long as seven years and be caned.
Police have increased their presence in dormitories and places where foreign workers congregate, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean
said in a statement yesterday.
‘Right Lessons’
“It should not be just a case of find the culprit, mete out the sentences and then the punished would not dare do it again,” Russell Heng,
the president of Transient Workers Count Too, wrote in a commentary published in the Straits Times newspaper yesterday. “I am hoping,
and it is more important, that we learn the right lessons from this episode.”
Large-scale demonstrations have been almost unknown in Singapore since race riots in 1964 killed 36 people and contributed to the
island’s ouster from a federation with Malaysia. Singapore and Malaysia were united from 1963 to 1965. Clashes between the Chinese
and Malay communities culminated in race riots in 1969 in Malaysia, which spilled briefly into Singapore. After the violence of the 1960s
the Singapore government imposed curbs on public assembly.
Discontent in Singapore over foreign workers has risen after years of open immigration spurred complaints on social media about
congestion and infrastructure strains at a time of widening income inequality. A four-year government campaign to encourage companies
to employ fewer overseas workers has in turn led to a labor shortage, prompting some companies to seek cheaper locations.
The number of people in Singapore has jumped by more than 1.1 million to about 5.3 million since mid-2004 as the government used
immigration to make up for a low birth rate. Foreign workers make up about a third of the total workforce.
As part of its effort to reduce imported labor, the government said in February that companies must pay higher levies for lower-skilled
foreign employees over the next two years and cut the proportion of overseas workers in some industries. In 2012, the National Wages
Council recommended raising the pay of low-wage Singaporean workers as their income growth had lagged the rest of the workforce for
the past decade.