SINGAPORE: International news agency, Al Jazeera, has been
taken to task for not checking its facts in its report on the
homeless in Singapore.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Community Development,
Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan stressed that
homelessness is a complex problem and that the government will
continue to enable people to be self-reliant.
A video titled "Government Policies Force Some Onto The Streets"
was produced by Al Jazeera.
It featured a couple camping on the beach, claiming that they had
been homeless for nearly two years as a result of divorce
proceedings.
The government then made some checks and found a different
story.
The man in the video had made a tidy sum of over S$220,000 from the
sale of three flats. Meanwhile, the woman still owns an HDB resale
flat with her ex-husband.
She was also getting financial help from the South West Community
Development Council.
Dr Balakrishnan said: "Despite these circumstances, the social
workers and the FSC then offered sheltered housing for this couple.
However, the couple rejected the offer and other services offered
by MCYS.
“This is a clear example where a foreign media has failed to
ascertain the facts. Some irresponsible websites have also caused
these falsehoods to circulate widely on the internet. Now that the
facts are out, let us see whether those who have been propagating
these falsehoods have the courage and the honesty to set the record
straight.
"Homelessness or potential homelessness is a universal threat all
over the world. The question is how best to fix this.
“In Singapore, we have given housing, cheap affordable rental
housing as well as heavily-subsidised first-time entry into home
ownership.
“The people we have who insist on staying in beaches and parks are
not first timers and not people who have bought their first flat or
first rental flat. These are people who have almost always sold
their second flat or a third flat, have unfortunately dissipated
the subsidies and cashed them and now have run into problems.
“Members would have faced this problem which almost become
emotional blackmail."
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera has ceased to operate its channel on mio
TV.
This prompted Nominated MP Viswa Sadasivan to ask about the talk
that this is linked to the report on the homeless.
Acting Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, Lui
Tuck Yew, said: “On the speculation that recent critical or
negative reports by Al Jazeera were the reason why the channel was
taken off mio TV service, this is unfounded. In a report by TODAY,
Al Jazeera itself was quoted as saying that "it was a 'mutual'
decision between Al Jazeera and SingTel for the broadcaster to drop
out of the latter's pay TV service."
Mr Lui noted that Al Jazeera's contract with SingTel was coming to
an end and was looking into other distribution avenues in view of
its low subscriber households.
- CNA/vm