DINNER in the Duxton Road area
turned out to be an eye-opener for MP Christopher de
Souza.
He told Parliament he was
surprised to see prostitutes lining the streets.
As this was not a red-light
district, he felt something had to be done to protect our
heartlands from an invasion of street-walkers.
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Mr de Souza, who represents Ulu
Pandan, highlighted the problem in Parliament during the Budget
debate yesterday and asked if more financial resources would be
available to tackle it.
He noted that the number of
foreign prostitutes arrested in 2006 was 4,310. This was a 34 per
cent increase from 2005.
Then last year, the number of
foreign prostitutes arrested went up to 5,400, a further 25 per
cent rise.
He said: 'Bids to contain the
trade in Geylang have not been successful. An evening drive down
Duxton Road and Duxton Hill will prove that prostitutes operate
well beyond the artificial borders of Geylang.
'Prostitution is working itself
into our heartlands.'
To laughter, he assured the House
that he drove by the area with his wife.
He added that many of these sex
workers came on two-week social visit passes, and just before the
fortnight was up, they would leave for Johor Baru, only to return
to Singapore the same day.
The problem was so bad, he had
received feedback that sexual services were being offered at shops
claiming to offer massage.
He asked what concrete steps the
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) would take to curb this and
strengthen the anti-vice squad with additional manpower and
intelligence officers to hunt vice syndicates and clamp down on
their operations.
OLICE OPERATIONS
UP
Responding to his questions,
Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, Associate
Professor Ho Peng Kee, said it was impossible to completely
eliminate vice.
He said the majority of those
arrested for vice activities were social visit pass
holders.
Prof Ho said that last year, the
police conducted 950 vice-related operations, up from the 890 in
2006.
And they were focused on keeping
vice activities within the traditional red-light
district.
Speaking to The New Paper, Mrde
Souza said residents had voiced their concerns over prostitution in
their backyard.
He said: 'We should be careful
they don't encroach into the heartland areas.
'I don't think it makes for a
wholesome neighbourhood if your children have to grow up next to
women plying their trade.'
Turning to the problem of illegal
moneylenders, or ah longs, he told Parliament the words 'owe $ pay
$' have stained the walls of many common corridors at HDB
flats.
He was not the only one to voice
his concerns on the issue.
West Coast GRC's Mr Arthur Fong
and Mr Teo Ho Pin (Bukit Panjang) also shared his
sentiment.
In January last year, Prof Ho said
there were 10,221 reported cases of unlicensed moneylending in
2006.
That was a 19 per cent increase
over the 8,568 cases in 2005.
Mr de Souza said that despite the
enhancement of penalties under the Moneylenders Act and the
formation of the anti-unlicensed moneylending task force to
increase the number of ambush operations, these syndicates have not
been deterred.
He urged MHA to adopt a different
strategy - consider making it an offence for people to borrow from
an unlicensed moneylender.
He added that a borrower who gave
a false address to loan sharks, causing innocent residents to be
harassed, deserved to be prosecuted.
Prof Ho agreed that those who
borrow to feed their vices and then abet loan sharks should not be
treated as victims.
He said they were part of the
problem.
While MHA had previously rejected
the idea of punishing borrowers, ProfHo said they were now
seriously considering it.
Taken from the Straits Times ... perhaps this little bit of
tibit got overshadowed by the escaped terrorist thingy ...
linkie=>
Nice to see that not all MPs got their nose stuck in the air and
head in the clouds .... he happens to be one of the youngest (
"elected" ) MP in parliament and also works at Lee and Lee's ...
(the law firm that is, not the country) ...
but hey, at least he's bringing up what has been painfully
obvious to the peasants for a long time ... the kways have been
fanning out into the heartlands ... and so have the loan sharks
....
just the other day, a friend of mine, incidently also a lawyer,
told me how his parents' flat got vandalized by loan sharks,
together with all of the neighbours ... and not because anyone in
his family borrowed money mind you ! ... no ! ... his doors got
vandalized and the walls and gate got splashed with red paint cos
his neighbour DOWNSTAIRS borrowed money from the loansharks and
chabut'ed ... and so to pressurized and shame the chap into paying
up, the loan sharks turned on THE NEIGHBOURS ! ....
frankly ... I'm not sure if I should be surprise that the
terrorist fellow escaped ... cos if the SPF can't even clear the
streets of prossies, of ciggie sellers, and our heartlands of
loansharks, how can they be expected to hold onto a foreign trained
terrorist suspect ? .....
