Filipino maids were seen having a street-party at the
walkway outside Ion Orchard (Photo: Yahoo!).
There’s a new party hotspot at Orchard Road, but it’s not a
club.
Before Ion Orchard was built, Filipino maids gathered at this
busy junction on Orchard Road and held picnics on the grass patch
behind Orchard MRT station.
Now, the Filipino maids are back with a group bigger and
certainly merrier than ever, turning the walkway outside Ion
Orchard into a whole new party scene.
The spot, which they called “Gulong Park” (Gulong is Tagalog for
wheel), has been developed into the current premier shopping mall,
carrying some of the world’s top luxury brands.
Last Sunday, hundreds of maids were seen turning the former
Gulong Park into a rock ‘n’ roll party scene. The street party was
kicked off at 8 pm by husband-and-wife busking team — Leticia Habon
Caya and Qamaruddin Mohd Amin.
More than 500 maids had parked themselves outside Ion Orchard —
some were sitting on the steps, others were on their feet, grooving
to the “live” music.
“This is better than going to a disco. It’s more fun and it’s
free and I meet people from my hometown,” said Ms Lona, 25, as she
danced to the music.
She praised her employers, who are expatriates, for being
open-minded and for allowing her to party till late on Sunday
nights. She came here to work last year.
“The party will end at 10 pm and I will go home after this. Some
of my friends’ employers are very strict with them and don’t allow
them to come here.
Singaporean men among the crowd would invite Filipinas to
dance.
Creating a home away from home is exactly what busker Leticia,
57 and her husband, Qamaruddin, 61, try to do for these maids.
Madam Leticia came here to work as a singer 25 years ago. She
married Mr Qamaruddin and is now a permanent resident (PR). The
couple makes a living from playing at private parties and corporate
functions.
They applied for and received their licence three years ago to
busk at certain spots along Orchard Road. Madam Leticia sings while
her husband plays the keyboard.
She told The New Paper, “We would be busking on Orchard
Road from Tuesdays to Sundays, if we don’t have private gigs to
play in. We started busking outside Mandarin Hotel before moving to
Ngee Ann City.
“The crowd was getting bigger and we decided to move to outside
Ion Orchard on Sundays to accommodate the crowd. Sometimes we have
double of tonight’s crowd, like maybe 1,000 people. It’s
amazing.”
The couple entertain the crowd with songs by Santana, and
popular hits like the Wonder Girls’ Nobody and Gloria Gaynor’s I
Will Survive.
Not everyone is happy
Shopper Kelly Chen, 38, a communications director, said, “I feel
that they are downgrading the image of Ion Orchard. I’ll avoid
going there on Sundays now.”
The maids also sit on the steps leading to the mall's entrance.
(Photo: Yahoo!).
Lawyer Amolat Singh is more concerned with the potential law and
order problems. “When authorities organise parties on Orchard Road,
a lot of effort has to be put into crime prevention,” he said.
Mr Singh added that if the maids created a public nuisance, the
police could act.
“One could also argue that these women are providing public
entertainment by dancing in public. The authority (the Public
Entertainment Licensing Unit) can relook into issuing such busking
licences to not-so-hotspots instead.”
Previously, the maids had been chased out of Lucky Plaza as the
management said they had vandalised the building. Their mass
gatherings were also said to have caused overcrowding and posed a
threat to safety in the mall.
But the spokesman for Ion Orchard would not be drawn into a
debate over the maids’ presence.
“Ion Orchard’s prominent location and direct connection to
Orchard MRT makes it a popular and natural meeting point on Orchard
Road,” said the spokesman.
anyway Orchard Road is always choke full of foreigners, tourists
or otherwise.
