Slipshod police investigation

Prior to the complaint, I went to look for the foreman Nelson who was in charge of the workers and the construction company Link 2000 Construction Pte Ltd to find out about the foreign worker but they were not co-operative.

I wanted to know where was the worker then. Was he an illegal immigrant? My maid had been seeing him for more than a year. Why did he run? And he left the maid to face the consequences. What a 'great' man!

I gave the contact number of the foreman and construction company to the police. See, a simple task which officer Bala could do but he didn't. He was patronizing me when he told me he would look into the matter.

Policeman Bala finally got back to me after more than 2 weeks. He came with a colleague one night and tried to repair damages.

He called the foreman after receiving my fax. The foreman told him the worker had been transferred to another construction site. I asked officer Bala if he had checked that out. He didn't. He just took Nelson's word for it. He didn't even have the worker's name.

I was worried the foreign worker would come back to create trouble. Officer Bala said I could always call the police. Yeah, great! We would have been dead if he came with an axe.

This is the consequence the residents would have if they complain about foreign workers. The workers know who complain against them, the residents would only have themselves to blame if they get hurt. Those who are fearful would keep quiet while those who speak up would be labelled as 'racist', 'snobs', 'intolerant'.

I tolerated the foreign workers living around me for years. They bring their bad habits with them everywhere they go. They have the numbers. There are good ones and bad. As long as they don't bother my maid, I'm fine.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan is worried about this national debate on social tolerance and class, "Some of the debate has been framed as between one group against another. It will polarise the ground if we carry on and cause harm to social cohesion."

All this time, citizens have been tolerating and putting up with the inconvenience of having foreign workers live among us. It is futile to complain. Now that more citizens are speaking up, the Government realises that striking a balance between both Singaporeans and foreigners is not as rosy as they wanted it to be.

Power to the Singapore people! Speak up for your rights.

4 police cars and 8 policemen couldn't catch a foreign worker

The gate of the construction site was locked. I yelled for the workers to come out. I bashed the gate with my baseball bat. The commotion was so loud, many of the neighbours came out. Hubby had called the police and he brought the maid to the scene. She was nonchalant, even sneered when I was bashing the gate. I looked like a crazy woman.

4 police cars arrived, bringing 8 policemen from Marine Parade Neighbourhood Police Post. The officer in charge Bala questioned the maid.

Several branded clothes were missing from my house then and I didn't know what else was missing at that moment. Hubby saw the man carrying a plastic bag. Did the maid pass him something from my house? I never get to know. The maid refused to tell.

The police tried to get the workers to open the gate. When they refused, one of the officers climbed into the premise. They did a search of the construction site and rounded up the men. My maid's boyfriend had escaped. How? Don't know. Probably climbed over the fence and flee through another neighbour's compound.

Police officer Bala just asked the maid some question and suggested that I send her packing. That was it!? The police didn't see the need to bring her back to the station for interogation.

He shrugged his shoulders and said that was nothing the police could do. He had seen lots of such cases. He had even caught foreign workers trespassing houses when they went to spend the night with their maid girlfriends. These maids were sent home immediately by their employers.

I was concerned the escaped worker would return to harm my family since he knew where I stayed. Bala agreed to see the foreman of the construction site the next day. He would try to get the particulars of the worker. That was a load of crap.

I waited two weeks for him to get back to me. When he didn't, I faxed a complaint to the Marine Parade Police Post.

Trust the maid!? haha....

In the day, the neighbourhood looks quiet because the mams and the sirs are at work and the children are in school. The maids reserved mornings for their get together parties. I once came home to get a document and saw maids gathering in a condo unit nearby. They were having a potluck party. And according to my maid, there were such parties once a week and usually when it's some one's birthday.

An elderly neighbour warned me one day to lock my metal grill gate because one day, she and her maid were cooking in the kitchen when she heard noises in front of her house. She went out to take a look.

Just in time to see a Bangladeshi worker pushing her bicycle through the front gate. She shouted at him and he fled, leaving the bike. Such boldness! They were probably keeping a lookout on houses that have only elderly folks, young kids and maids.

My new maid was good when she first arrived. For 2 years, I have no major problems with her. And I renewed her contract. I trusted her too much which was a mistake.

One night, my husband noticed that she had been going to bed late for a few months. It's lights off in my house at 10pm. The maid had to wake up at 6am daily, so she would finish her work at 8pm and she could then go to bed.

She was going to bed around midnight, after taking out the trash. It went on for months, I didn't get suspicious, hubby did. One night he secretly followed her. The trash bin was 2 m from the house and she wasn't in sight. Hubby strolled along the road and found her holding hands with a Bangladeshi worker at a nearby bus-stop.

When she spotted my husband, she quickly let go her hand and ran home. Hubby followed the Bangladeshi worker who was holding a plastic bag. He was a worker residing in the construction site behind my backyard. Hubby rushed home to inform me.

Angered at the audacity of these people, I took my baseball bat and went charging to the construction site....

Serangoon Garden residents, you have my sympathy

When the maid and foreign workers give you problems, 4 police cars and 8 policemen cannot help you.
That's what happened to me.

*************************** ooOoo **************************

I have only sympathy for the residents of Serangoon Garden estate, most people are quick to condemn them. It's uncalled for to label them as "bigots", "xenophobic", "prejudiced" and "snobbish".

The government's plan to house around 1,500 foreign workers in the abandoned Serangoon Gardens Technical School has led to the residents protesting.


For 6 years I endured having construction sites behind my backyard, opposite and at the side of my two residences, both in East Coast. I'm so unlucky. I moved to my present house after enduring 3 years of noise and troubles from the construction site in my backyard, only to discover that I have to endure another 3 years of Hell when the old condominium behind my house was en bloc! *bang head on wall*

Let me share what happened when we have foreigner construction workers living within our neighbourhood. In case the Government decided not to cave in to the residents' demand, they can prepare for these problems. In my case, there were only scores. I cannot imagine 1,500 of them!!

At my first house, my open wet kitchen faced the construction site. The workers purposely built a bathroom right next to it. For the first few weeks, I have to endure the sights of bare-chested men dressed in shorts or wrapped in sarongs, bathing whenever my maid or I were cooking meals. When I couldn't take it anymore, I charged right up to the contractor to complain. They then covered up the fence dividing us.

Then the foreigner workers befriended the maids in the neighbourhood. The workers whistled and threw nails onto our balconies to attract our maids' attention. There is a small mini supermarket which residents and maids frequent. Every day, groups of foreigners workers would patronise it and make friends with maids. Come evening, there would be small groups of them drinking alcohol, some getting drunk and into fights.

I told my maid and kids to avoid the mini-mart. I didn't allow my maid to go out without anyone accompanying her.

Things had been fine until these workers came to stay. Then my kids started complaining that our home-cooked meals were not as tasty and portions were small. I used to buy in bulk at the wholesale centre, supermarket and the wet market .

For grocery and food every month, I bought 2 dozen bottles of peanut butter, a carton (2 dozen cans) of Spam, 1.5kg tin of Milo, a dozen tins of condensed milk...etc. In my freezer, there would be packets of frozen chicken nuggets, prawns, meats, fish, sausages....etc. Why were the kids complaining?

One of the kids decided to find out. He came back extra early one day and saw the maid preparing lunch, deep-frying chicken nuggets in the kitchen. He went upstairs to change and when he came down to have his lunch, there weren't any chicken nuggets on the table. He vividly remembered seeing the maid frying them.

He asked her and she denied, and waved a knife at him telling him to keep his mouth shut. Later she borrowed some money from him and went to the mini-mart to buy a packet of frozen chicken nuggets to replace the ones she took.

When I was alerted, I went through the grocery and frozen food in the house. Lots were missing. I just bought 2 dozen bottles of peanut butter a week ago, half were gone. When grilled, the maid confessed to cooking and distributing my food to feed the neighbourhood foreign workers!! Later, I found other maids were feeding them or holding parties with food stolen from their employers' homes.

My next door neighbours had similar problems. There were 6 terrace houses in my row, every employer was affected! One of my neighbours had to send his two maids home immediately. They were constantly borrowing his 8-year-old daughter's mobile phone, hiding in the toilets to call the foreign workers. I sent my maid home too.

Too much was at stack. Besides the S$5,000 bond I could lose if she gets pregnant, there are the security issues. I'm not home most of the time, it's just the kids and the maid. And her bedroom was on the ground floor facing the contruction site.....

Lame Excuse from Head of Gambling Suppression Branch

Is there anyone who cared? Illegal betting syndicates are infiltrating into our government schools. The students involved are as young as 15 years old. Some are runners who are raking in 'big money' for their age. There isn't any need for them to study anymore.

As the parent of a young boy who is studying in a neighbourhood secondary school, it is worrying for me. The students involved were gambling with real money. Each bet was from S$50 to S$300. A student can buy up to 10 bets a single weekend. This is no joke.

I was worried for the other younger children in my house. What if those boys lost heavily and got into debts or turned to loansharks? Wouldn't my family and wards be in trouble?

Some of the students were taking their 'O' levels exams that year. It seemed unimportant to them then. They don't need that certificate to be a successful bookie. I fear more students would take this route if action is not taken first. Why wasn't an investigation carried out to flush out the bookie?

The foreign students were sent back to their country. I knew then nothing was going to be done. I sent a letter to GSB, cc to PM Lee Hsien Loong.

On 30th November, Head of GSB, Chia Tang Heng called and apologized. He also said that by sending my letter to PM's office, it made them looked bad. Well, they deserve it for slacking in their jobs. He tried to cover his backside by telling me how tough their jobs were. I told him my husband was an ex-police officer. And we had discussed my case with several police officers who said that GSB’s handling of my case was not according to police procedure.

Chia Tang Heng rose through rank and file. He didn't know what his men were doing during office hours? And he didn't know what was going on? I guess they only want to go after 'big fish' so that they would be mentioned on local news. Small cases don't get them noticed and promoted. Haven't they heard of, 'A stitch in time saves nine?'

I gave GSB a copy of taped phone conversations of my ward placing bets with the bookie. I gave GSB a list of the bookies and the students who bet, their handphones and telephone numbers. I guess GSB threw them away.

One of the bookies on his Friendster openly declared that 'I f*** the police! hahaha' after the investigation.

Finally, Chia Tang Heng said the youths were just trying to make some pocket money, so GSB just gave them a warning. Pocket money amounting to thousands of dollars a week, lose or win? For secondary school children, that sort of amount for pocket money sounds incredible. But Chia Tang Heng was determined this is his conclusion.

Case closed for GSB. Not for eastcoastlife. 　

NAT by Gambling Suppression Branch

A government study on gambling released in May 2008 found more Singaporeans are picking it up in their teenage years.

1st June 2008, Vivian Balakrishnan was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Community Sports Festival: 'When people start earlier, their sense of judgement and restraint may not be well developed. And once young gamblers get hooked on their habit, they face the danger of it becoming a lifetime of addiction.'

Tell it to the Head of Gambling Suppression Branch, Chia Tang Heng!!

********************ooOoo********************

An email was cc to PM Lee Hsien Loong.

RE : NAT (No Action Taken) by Gambling Suppression Branch

27th September 2004, I called GSB to make a report about some students of MacPherson Secondary school who were collecting and making illegal football bets on the European Premier League. The duty officer that day was Joseph. I gave him my contact number and e-mail. NAT.

29th September 2004, I faxed a complaint to the Head of GSB. NAT.

From 4th October to 14th October 2004, I tried to contact Joseph regarding the complaint. I called 1800 435 0000, the Operator put me through. I called almost daily, in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening, for almost 10 days. Nobody picked up the phone. I faxed Joseph on 14th October 2004. NAT.

I then spoke to a couple of police officers who advised me to make a police report at a police station. I made a police report at Marine Parade NPC on 18th October 2004 with my husband. After taking down statements from my hubby and I, the police office asked if anyone besides us knew about the case. I turned round, there were 5 people sitting right behind us waiting for their turns to make police reports.

"er.... yah. Now got 5 more people know."

My report number was G/20041018/0194D. I was given the name of AIO Vince Yeo and telephone number 6244 0000 to contact. NAT.

A few days later, Koh Kian Tat from GSB finally called me to take my statement. I went down to the Police Headquarters in Cantonment. He asked me to wait in the corridor while he went to get the key for an empty investigation room.

I heard loud and clear, he said to his colleagues in the room, "The char bo (derogatory remark for a woman) is here." I knew then I wouldn't be taken seriously. I was viewed as a nuisance. I handed him a tape that had more than a month of the recordings of the boys' betting conversations. NAT.

On 12th November 2004, I faxed Koh to inform him, my foreign students involved in this case were returning to their country on 23rd November 2004. NAT.

19th November 2004, I left a message for Koh to call me back. He called to say he had handed the case to his supervisor Lim Meng Ann. The file was sitting on Lim's table then. The foreign students could go back to their country first.

I asked Koh if he wanted the students' addresses and contact numbers in their countries, he said no need. He must be very happy that they were leaving. It seemed very obvious that GSB never intend to investigate this case.

Can Explain Full Details on the phone but cannot in writing

Dear Mr Chan and all,

Attached is a photo of my attire that day. I have worn this same pair of
pants to Parliament House twice before this incident and wasn't stopped
even though the Chinese senior Parliament officer (I don't have his name...
yet) was present.

Just because my casual long pants has two white stripes on the sides, it is
called track pants. Whereas the Japanese visitor in his golf sports attire
(his pants has two red stripes down the sides) was called smart casual
wear. I should put on expensive branded sports wear the next time, it's
unthinkable a Singapore citizen is discriminated in her own country.

If I'm not allowed to choose my seat, why wasn't I told? The Malay police
officer lied to me.  He said there were no seats even when I asked, 'Are
you sure? What about the other side?' I saw that the box keeping the ICs of
the visitors was quite empty. And sure enough, when I changed into the new
pair of pants I bought and went in, more than half the gallery seats were
empty. Why pick on me?

A police officer lied to me. Don't skip this issue, address this. What
disciplinary action will you take against this police officer. On such a
small matter, he can lie, I cannot imagine what he is capable of.

Thank you for taking such a long time to reply my feedback.

Jayne Goh

*****************ooOoo*****************

Dear Ms Jayne,
 I give you my assurance that we are not trying to skip or hide this
issue. Would it be possible for me to contact you so that I can you to
explain to you  the full details.

**************** ooOoo *****************

Dear Mr Chan,
It is more appropriate for you to reply in writing. I was intimidated by
another civil servant from another ministry when he called 'to explain'.
In order to avoid misunderstanding, please reply by email.

Thanks.

Regards,
Jayne Goh

*******************ooOoo********************

Dear Ms Goh,
 We have noted your feedback and the appropriate remedial action will
be taken.

Warmest regards.

***************** ooOoo *******************

What!?

Chan Kim Hock can explain 'the full details' if I gave him my contact
number, but he won't in writing.

My questions weren't answered.  Chan Kim Hock didn't do his job.
It's civil servants like him who make the ordinary citizens pissed
off with our Government.

No mention of policeman who lied

Message Classification: Restricted

Dear Ms Goh,

I refer to your email dated Tuesday 22 April 2008 regarding your
visit to Parliament House on Monday, 21 April 2008.

2 Please let me explain some of the issues that you raised.

3 We do have strict attire protocol for visitors attending Parliament
sitting to ensure that the stature and dignity of Parliament are upheld.
Sports attire is generally discouraged though casual smart attire is
acceptable. Our officers would exercise his/her discretion in this
matter.

4 Similarly, we do have a seating protocol for visitors in the
Strangers’ Gallery where visitors are not allowed to choose their seats for
security reasons.

5 We apologise for the conveniences this has caused you.

6 We have reviewed our procedures to improve our service standards. We
thank you for your valuable feedback, which will really help us to improve
our service to the public, and hope you will continue to visit Parliament
House.

Chan Kim Hock
Director of Security
Parliament House
Tel : 63326689
Monday, May 05, 2008 11:56:05 AM

cc Kasim RAI; Ong Boon Chye; Jumiyah MOHAMED

***************** ooOoo *******************

Note :
1. Sports attire is generally discouraged but not banned. I was denied
entry for that but the Japanese man who was in sports attire was given access.
Double standard was applied.

There are CCTVs in Parliament House. It can view all the visitors that day
and see for themselves the Japanese man who was in sports attire.

2. officers would exercise his/her discretion in this
matter - here I take it to mean they do things according to if they
like your face or not, or whether my sports attire is branded. They are the
authority, whatever they say is the law. Ordinary citizens have to take it,
like it or not.

A Singapore citizen is denied entry for wearing what the officer called
'sports attire' whereas a Japanese visitor who was in golf attire
was welcomed.

The most important part of my email : Policeman who
lied was not mentioned at all.

Email sent - 22nd April 2008
23rd April 2008 - email from Parliament Secretariat that they are looking
into the matter.
5th May 2008 - Director of Security Chan Kim Hock replied.
Time taken - 2 weeks

When a policeman lies.......

I almost could not sit in the Parliament session on 21st May afternoon to listen to DPM and Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng's presentation of the Committee of Inquiry Findings on Mas Selamat's Escape. Because I requested to "sit in the public gallery facing PM Lee Hsien Loong".

A young Chinese policeman shook his hands at his Malay colleague when he heard my request. The Malay policeman then told me, "The public gallery is full."

I was stunned because I noticed that the the box holding Identity Cards was half empty. I asked him, "Are you sure? The whole gallery? What about the other side?"

He replied,"All full."

When I started to protest, a senior Malay Parliament staff stepped forward and said,"May I look at your attire, Mdm? ...... Sorry, you cannot go in because you are not properly dressed. You are wearing track pants."

I argued that I had entered Parliament twice in this same pair of track pants but he brushed that aside as "probably they overlooked". He curtly said, "You can go check it up". Then they ignored me. They just brushed me aside and served the next visitor.

Undaunted, I went to Peninsula Plaza to buy a pair of long pants, changed into them and went back to Parliament again. I was given a pass. When I entered the public gallery, I discovered that it was quite empty.

A Japanese visitor (seat K22) who was sitting on my left, wore a golf T-shirt and a pair of golf pants with red lines running down the sides. Isn't that sports attire?

I'm annoyed that the Malay policeman lied to me. If I wasn't allowed to pick and choose my seat, he could have told me so. If it is due to security reasons, he could have been frank with me. I made time to attend that particular Parliament session but was denied entry for no apparent reason. This again is civil servant mentality at work.

It suxs when a civil servant with a little authority behaved badly.

10) What is the acceptable dress code? Visitors are requested to dress modestly and not to come in shorts, jeans, round-neck T-shirts or slippers. (It didn't mention no sports attire.)

I sent an email to Parliament Secretariat on 22/4/08, the Chief Security Officer gave a ridiculous reply.

Another email was sent to Singapore Police Force.