Raiding the homeless

we sacrifice SG

Update: (18 JAN 2010) The homeless in Sembawang Park have been given proper lodging. Some of them met with MCYS this morning. All of those who lived in the tents have moved – voluntarily – to flats. TOC will keep our readers updated.

Joshua Chiang and Andrew Loh

They have been camped out there for months, but no one from the government agencies seem to have known about them – perhaps until The Online Citizen’s report on 13 January. TOC had reported that some 15 homeless families were camped out in tents at Sembawang Park.

Three days after TOC’s revelation, on 16 January, Saturday, at around 10pm, officers from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), and NParks, together with some 10 policemen, swooped down on the park.

When TOC arrived at the scene at about 10.50pm, there were two police cars and a pick-up van. Some of the homeless were seen dismantling their tents. When queried about why they were being asked to do so, the NParks officers said the campers had broken “rules and regulations”, even though most of them still had valid camping permits.

The summons referred to Section 9(1)(a) of the Parks and Trees Regulation Act 2005 which makes it an offence to conduct a barbeque without a permit, among other things. The camping permit does not include permission to barbeque, apparently.

The officers insisted repeatedly that this writer identified those among the campers who were homeless and that their names and particulars be given to the officers. This writer declined to do so.

TOC then asked if there were any representatives from MCYS. A female officer stepped forward. On being questioned, she would only say that those who were homeless would be brought to an “institution”. When TOC probed further on what this “institution” is, she disclosed that she was referring to Angsana Home, located at Buangkok Green, next to the Institute of Mental Health. The home is part of Pelangi Village, a purpose-built Social Welfare Complex and houses the elderly destitute and ex-drug addicts.

TOC understands from the campers that Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, minister in charge of MCYS, had visited the camping site last Thursday afternoon. In the evening of the same day, two of the families were told to pack up and were then effectively carted off to Angsana Home.

When they arrived at the home, they had to pass through a security gate which could only be unlocked with a pass by one of the attending officers, who claimed to be from MCYS. Once they were brought to the room where they would stay, they were told that they could not leave the premises. To do so, they would have to make a request.

According to one of the families, when they requested for food, they were given two pieces of roti prata to be shared among the family of six persons. The mattresses they were provided were also in bad condition. Some of them had rashes the next morning after having slept on them.

Two of those locked in had to go to work in the morning and asked to be let out of the premises. Their request was denied. Eventually, one of them told TOC she lost her job because she was unable to show up for work. When TOC asked the officer about this, she said she “guarantees” that those who needed to go to work would be allowed to.

Still, TOC told her, it isn’t quite right for the authorities to forceably keep these people behind locked gates and to confine them. After all, they have not committed any offence, neither are they criminals who deserved to be locked up. Further, the homeless do not seem to have been given a choice of deciding whether they wanted to be housed at Angsana Home.

According to the lady from MCYS, the stay at Angsana would be a temporary one, until MCYS finds a place for them. She said it would be “for a day or two”. It is hard to persuade people you want to help with such complete lack of coordination and heavy-handedness, TOC told her. Not with police cars with lights flashing, officers from the government ordering tents to be dismantled and summons being issued.

We suggested that there were two choices – one, the campers would be allowed to stay for another day or two while MCYS looked for a proper housing option for them; or two, if they were to be housed temporarily at Angsana, they have to be assured of freedom of movement. By this time, a senior female officer had taken over the discussion.

She agreed to let the campers stay at Sembawang Park until Monday, 18 January, when six of the campers will meet with her at the MCYS office for further discussions to resolve the situation. She said she will push for the HDB to issue “interim flats” to the campers in the meantime, or to see if any Voluntary Welfare Organisation could take them in temporarily.

TOC spoke to some of the homeless about a week earlier and we understand that some of them had applied for rental flats with the HDB. However, their applications were rejected for various reasons. Some have also paid repeated visits to the HDB to apply for these flats.

When asked where these homeless people would go if they were chased away, a senior officer from NParks said, “We will help.” One of the campers retorted, “By putting us in Angsana?” The officer looked away and replied, “That is the help.”

TOC understands that a summon for overstaying could mean a $200 fine, something which the homeless can hardly afford. Campers are only allowed to camp for a maximum of eight days in a month, with consecutive-days camping fixed at a maximum of five days.

We asked if the authorities would consider waiving the fines from the summons issued to the homeless campers. The MCYS senior officer said she would speak to NParks as, she said, it was not in her power to decide.

It was almost midnight before the situation was finally resolved – at least for now. Only five out of the 20 or so tents were left standing – and none of the homeless was carted off to Angsana Home.

we sacrifice SG

Andrew Loh

While the minister for MCYS was promising the moon to poorer S’poreans, officers from his ministry and Nparks were raiding the homeless at Changi Beach, clearing them away before Al Jazeera came calling.

On Saturday, 27 March 2010, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, assured Singaporeans who may not be able to afford food:

“Even if you can’t afford it, we will have meals delivered to you.”

Dr Balakrishnan also said he was “confident that we have done our duty for the people who need our help.”

On Monday, 29 March, I went to Changi Beach in the morning. I had been there several times before in the past few months and have always been greeted by the sight of tents lined along the beach front. This time, however, the beach was completely empty of any tents, except for one put up by a young Chinese couple.

I wondered where the regulars were – those homeless people who had been camping out there the last few months. I had become friends with some of them and heard their stories of how officers from NParks and MCYS had threatened and fined them for “squatting” at the park.

Later I chanced upon one of the women who frequent Changi Beach. “They came and raided the place every day last week,” she told me. She was referring to officers from Nparks and MCYS. “Some of them were fined S$200,” she said. “So that is why there is nobody there now?” I asked her. “Yes, they have all disappeared. I do not even know where they have gone,” she replied.

Why did the authorities decide to conduct such raids and do so particularly during that week? One answer could be that the authorities got wind that Al-Jazeera, the news agency based in the Middle East and which has an office in Kuala Lumpur, was in Singapore to do a programme on the issue of homelessness here.

Al Jazeera had sent an email to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (i.e. MCYS) to find out if they were willing to have a representative for the news agency to interview, to get the government’s stance on the homeless issue.

After a few phone calls and emails the ministry turned down the interview request.

It was only later that it became clear that Changi Beach had been raided by the authorities – and apparently it was because MCYS had got wind of Al-Jazeera coming to Singapore to do the story and might be planning to speak with the homeless at Changi Beach.

This is, of course, not the first time that the authorities have raided a park where the homeless are. In January this year, Sembawang Park was raided late in the night – after The Online Citizen reported the presence of homeless people there. In that instance, the police were called in, together with Nparks and MCYS officers. The campers were eventually fined and chased away. Some were later given temporary shelters.

(Picture right: Sembawang Park condoned off after the homeless were removed.)

While Nparks officers do regularly conduct spot checks on campers at public parks, these were normal daily affairs. These inspections were mostly to make sure that campers had valid camping permits. In the two instances mentioned above, however, these checks were more thorough and the authorities were more forceful in insisting that the campers left the park.

In the incident at Sembawang Park in January this year, it was because news of the homeless campers had been brought to the attention of the public.

Last week’s raid at Changi Beach seems to have been triggered by the presence of the Al Jazeera news team in Singapore.

The behavior and action of the authorities, particularly the MCYS, makes one question the motivation behind such moves. Apparently, when alerted to the presence of the Al Jazeera news team’s presence in Singapore through the email request for an interview, the MCYS declined to reply or grant the interview – but chose to use the information to conduct raids on the homeless instead.

Understandably, Kirsten Han, who was helping Al Jazeera with its reports, feels disgusted with the actions and behaviour of the authorities.

“But mostly I just feel anger and a deep, deep disappointment in my country’s government,” she says on her Facebook note. She is particularly upset about the timing of the raid which came two days after the MCYS minister had boasted that the government will deliver free meals to the poor and that he feels his ministry has done its duty “for the people who need our help.”

“To hear him sit there and lie through his teeth just makes me feel so angry and so sad for my country,” Kirsten says. “Is this really how things operate here? Sweep everything under the carpet, hidden away from the public eye, while we paint pretty pictures of a Utopian lifestyle? Boast about how wonderful life is while we ignore those who need our help most? Because if this is how it is in Singapore, then I have to say that I am utterly ashamed of being a Singaporean. If this is who we are, I want no part in this.”

The Online Citizen has reported extensively on the plight of the homeless in Singapore. While we commend some officers at MCYS for being genuinely caring and who seek to find solutions to the problem, we cannot condone such utterly despicable behavior by the ministry.

Some of these homeless people have applied for rental flats but have had their applications rejected by the Housing and Development Board for various reasons. And so, having nowhere else to go, their only recourse is to camp out at the parks. But even here, they face being fined and have their belongings confiscated and are ordered to leave these parks because, as the authorities say, “squatting in public areas is illegal.”

One wonders then where the authorities would have these people go.

The Online Citizen is trying to find out where the regulars who used to camp at Changi Beach are presently, now that they have been chased out of the area.

I do feel, rather strongly, that the minister for MCYS is unfit to take charge of a ministry which is suppose to care for those in need if his ministry is more concerned about its public image than in genuinely helping those in need.

It is thoroughly shameful that a government ministry would apparently use information to hit back at helpless homeless Singaporeans in order to save its own “face” than to sincerely render its help to the needy.

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And: Al Jazeera English dropped from SingTel MioTV

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Vivian Balakrishnan’s remarks – 27 March 2010:

“If you were a poor person, anywhere on this planet, Singapore is the one place where you will have a roof over your head, where you will have food on the table. Even if you can’t afford it, we will have meals delivered to you. You will get healthcare.

“Do not lose sight of the fundamentals. And I am confident that we have done our duty for the people who need our help.”

As romanista2001 SG

good to see PAP being creative about how to make money..............deny people HDB flats when they say they want everyone to have a home.............and then fine these people..........

farking genius..................only pure mudder-farkers can think of these kind of shit.............