January 18, 2010
Lianhe Wanbao, 18 January 2010
一对中国夫妇带着90岁高龄阿嬷，与女亲友及女佣，登上无轮椅设施的巴士遭拒载，被指硬把轮椅搬上车，坐在巴士上不肯下车，足足闹了6小时。
5人到万礼 (Mandai)
祭祖后，搭巴士回家时，携带着阿嬷的轮椅上车，巴士上没有残障设施，车长基于安全理由拒载，但他们却不肯下车。
巴士车长把巴士停在路边，依照总部指示，指示车上其余十多名乘客搭另一辆巴士。5人仍然留在巴士上，不肯下车，双方僵持不下，还惊动警方到场调解，整个风波耗上6个小时才得以平息。
这起闹剧发生在昨天中午时分，地点是靠近万礼火化厂及骨灰安置所外的万礼路。
来自中国的林女士（48岁，媒体工作者）投诉说，她和丈夫、女亲友、90岁阿嬷以及女佣5人，当天早上从勿洛转了一趟车之后，才来到万礼祭祖，去的时候带着轮椅上巴士没有遇到阻拦，不料回程却遭到拒载，愤愤不平。
林女士说：“巴士上没有标出来，说不能带轮椅上车，我们又没有犯法，为什么一直把巴士停在这里，不能送我们回家呢？”
巴士车长开不了车，惊动警方到场，5人一直留在巴士上。阿嬷长时间没得休息，没有吃东西，看起来很虚弱。最后，林女士一家要求巴士公司召德士送他们回家，这场风波大约傍晚5时许才总算平息。 -
Lianhe Wanbao
January 18, 2010
A PRC couple together with a 90 year old granny, a female friend
and a maid boarded a SBS bus without wheelchair accessibility at
Mandai and was told by the bus captain that they were not allowed
to bring the wheelchair up the bus due to safety reasons. However,
they insisted on doing so and sat on the bus for 6 hours,
refusing to leave!
The bus captain has no choice but to stop the bus along the road
and after informing the SBS’s headquarters, transferred the other
passengers alread aboard to another bus, but still the PRC family
did not alight from the bus.
The police were alerted to the scene to settle the dispute to no
avail. The five of them continued to cry, wail and scream on the
bus that they want to go home.
They kept complaining to the policemen:
“We want to go home! We haven’t had lunch yet or gone to the
loo! There are no buses now to go back, what should we
do?”
When
interviewed by Lianhe Wanbao, 48 year old Madam Lin who worked in
the media industry said angrily:
“The bus did not put out any sign that forbid wheelchairs to
be brought up and we did not commit any crime. So why was the bus
stopped by the road and refused to fetch us home?”
It is not revealed if Madam Lin is a new citizen, PR or
foreigner, but since the couple are together with a maid, it
is likely that they are PRs or new citizens living here in
Singapore.
Madam Lin eventually requested SBS to call a cab to send them
home which it did by arranging a Maxi Cab for them free of charge
which ended the 5 hour fiasco.
This is the second time within a week that PRCs found themselves
mired in controversy due to their public behavior which does not
quite fit into the usual social etiquette of Singaporeans.
Two days ago, Shin Min Daily published an article about an
unruly PRC lady customer who walked off without paying her fare
upon calling a cab and even lodged a police report against the
taxi-driver who tried to ask her to pay up. (read article here)
She subsequently made a formal complaint to the taxi company
which terminated the services of the driver a few days later.
On 16 January 2010, we reported the story of a PRC woman staging
a solo “protest” at the Ministry of Education Headquarters at Buona
Vista for the last two days to demand that MOE transfer her child
to a top primary school in Singapore.
Though MOE has already offered to place her child in
another school in the vicinity she lives in, but she continues to
insist that she be given a place in the school of her choice.
She was reported to be in the MOE building till 12 midnight last
night and only left after the police threatened her with arrest if
she continues to loiter in a government building. (read article
here)
According to the latest update from our source:
“The saga continues today too! Still hanging around with
child in tow!!”
Due to the ruling party’s liberal immigration policies,
foreigners now make up 36 per cent of Singapore’s population with
the significant proportion coming from mainland China.
Singapore’s strongman Lee Kuan Yew said in a recent
interview with The National Geographic magazine that it is a
“good thing” for Singapore to welcome so many Chinese immigrants as
they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving”.
For once, Lee’s “prediction” is accurate: they are indeed more
“hard-driving” than Singaporeans as the above examples have
shown.
News source: Lianhe
Wanbao
January 19, 2010
Written by Our
Correspondent
A
PRC family of 5 was allowed to create nuisance and disorder on a
SBS bus in public causing much inconvenience to other passengers
right under the watchful eyes of the Singapore police.
Both Chinese tabloids Shin Min Daily and Lianhe Wanbao carried a
report yesterday on a PRC family who insisted on boarding a SBS bus
with a wheelchair though they were told by the bus captain not
to do so due to safety reasons as the bus was not equipped with
wheelchair accessibility facilities. (read article here)
They made a din on the bus for six hours before leaving in a cab
paid for by SBS. The police was called to the scene, but they were
unable to stop the public disturbance and allowed the saga to
continue.
Under the new Public Order Act introduced specifically to deal
with such incidents, the police are vested with the power to “move”
the offenders away from the scene.
For some inexplicable reasons, the two police officers did not
evoke the Public Order Act to stop the public unrest and was
photographed to be reasoning with one of the PRC ladies and helping
the elderly among them alight from the bus subsequently.
[Above: Singapore police officers "escorting" the PRC
offenders]
When interviewed by Lianhe Wanbao, 48 year old Madam Lin who
worked in the media industry said angrily:
“The bus did not put out any sign that forbid wheelchairs to
be brought up and we did not commit any crime. So why was the bus
stopped by the road and refused to fetch us home?”
Madam Lin and her family had already committed a crime if not a
series of crimes – they can be charged for a variety of offences
under the Public Order and Nuisance Act (Chapter 184) such as
causing harassment, alarm or distress to others, making excessive
noise in public and of riotous, disorderly or indecent behaviour,
each amounting to a fine of no more than S$1,000.
If they were Singaporeans, they would probably be arrested on
the spot and taken away for “obstructing” the police from
discharging their duties, let alone allowed to continue their
nonsense on the bus for so long.
From this and previous cases, the Singapore police appears to
dish out preferential treatment to foreigners.
When over 200 PRC workers protested outside the Ministry of
Manpower last year for unpaid wages, the police was seen standing
around them and not taking any action.
However, when two Singaporeans – Seelan Palay and Chiong Kai
Xiong stood outside the same compound to protest against the
deportation of their Burmese friends by the ruling party, they were
arrested on the spot and taken away by the Singapore police within
thirty minutes.
Similarly a PRC woman was allowed to “protest” at the Ministry
of Education headquarters last week for the entire day till
midnight demanding its staff to transfer her daughter to a top
primary school. The police could have arrested her immediately to
stop the ugly fiasco, but again did not do so.
Yet five Singaporeans were arrested for “illegal procession”
when all they did was to walk in a group from one point to
another in public. The case is still ongoing after three years.
Though a District Judge had already acquitted them, the
Attorney-General Chambers found fit to lodge an appeal
against the decision.
The Singapore police is extremely efficient when dealing with
locals, especially if they happen to fall on the wrong end of the
political divide. But when it comes to foreigners, they seem pretty
lost on what to do like how they allowed a prime suspect in
the double hit and run accident at Bukit Panjang last month to
“slip” through its dragnet.
Such police inaction and impotence will only serve to
embolden foreigners in Singapore who may get the wrong impression
that as long they make “noise”, they will be able to get away with
almost anything in Singapore.
The Singapore police should remember that they are paid by
Singapore taxpayers to serve the interests of the public and not to
protect the foreigners.
In this example, more than 10 passengers, some of whom were
Singaporeans had to be transferred to another bus just because
of the silly antics of this PRC family which could be prevented in
the first had the police decided to take action against
them.
Not only did they get away with the crime, they were even
“compensated” with a free taxi trip home by SBS with the Singapore
police “serving” as “road usherers” to help them down the bus and
“escort” them to the taxi, making a mockery of the “rule of law” in
Singapore.
It is highly unlikely that this PRC household who caused
disruption to public transport and inconvenience to other commuters
will be charged by the Singapore police. In fact, it will not be
surprising at all if the Singapore Police were to send them a
letter of “apology” to soothe their frayed nerves.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/01/19/singapore-police-dared-not-take-action-against-prc-family-protesting-on-sbs-bus-for-6-hours/