Straits Times article (adapted from http://www.ngejay.com/?p=560)

 

By Goh Chin Lian

 

It is evening and starting to drizzle. But Chartwell Park is a hive of activity. Residents with children in tow hurry to a brightly lit marquee, which is filling up fast with residents.

 

What has galvanised 250 of them on a Wednesday evening, three days ago, is the news that about 1,000 foreign workers may be housed in an unused school in their neighbourhood. With them are the neighbourhood committee members who had been collecting signatures over the past few days for a petition to oppose the proposal. Also, there is former PAP MP Chay Wai Chuen, who says: ‘I’m an interested party.’ A Serangoon Gardens resident, he too had signed the petition, which has more than 1,600 signatures from the 4,000 households in the immediate vicinity of the proposed dormitory. At around 7.30pm, the area’s MP, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, arrives, followed 15 minutes later by the leader of the Aljunied GRC team, Foreign Minister George Yeo.

 

Sheets of rain start to blow in.

 

Though he was to deliver a speech on developments in Malaysia and Thailand, Mr Yeo cuts to the quick. He says the dormitory issue will be discussed first. 

 

All eyes turn on Mrs Lim, who assures her constituents no decision has been made yet. Everything is at the ‘preliminary technical assessment stage’. But she also spells out the national concern: Singapore is facing a chronic shortage of housing for foreign workers.

It fails to impress the residents, who let fly their objections during the two-hour session. Their relentless pursuit of the issue forced other grouses, such as uncovered drains and overzealous parking attendants, to take a back seat.

 

Madam Lim Chor Yeow, 71, is the first to speak. The retired teacher has been living for 41 years in the estate. ‘No problem of crime, theft and robbery,’ she says. Now, she fears for her safety and that of others her age. Their children have moved out, leaving them with just the maids. MP Lim, who is also Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, agrees that security is a ‘valid concern’. 

 

A man who has been living for almost 40 years in the estate emphasises that he has nothing against foreign workers who have contributed ‘so much’ to national development. But he is miffed that ‘any sensible officer’ would think of setting up quarters for foreign workers in a residential estate despite security and social concerns.

 

Minister Yeo thanks him for being frank before he highlights a posting on his online Facebook that morning: Please do not, in our desire to protect our own neighbourhood, cast aspersions on foreign workers as if they were all beasts, murderers, robbers and so on. He also defends the civil servants. They are just doing their job, and it is a tough job, because nobody likes having a dormitory, columbarium, power station or sanitation works near his home.

 

As the downpour gets worse, a white-haired woman declares: ‘I braved this heavy rain. I’m a septuagenarian.’ She describes herself as a former educationist who reads the Bible and knows that God loves migrants, ‘but we have to think of the safety of our family’. She calculates: The dormitory could house 1,000 foreign workers in an estate of 4,000 people. They will make up one-fifth of the area’s total population. Wouldn’t they rush for the same bus services? What about the safety of older people like her?

 

Mr Yeo praises her. ‘You are one feisty septuagenarian. I certainly hope when I reach that status, I will still have that same energy and passion.’ He adds: ‘What you expressed are reasonable concerns.’

 

Mrs Rose Koh, 52, an administrative manager, asks MP Lim if she would do something about the feedback instead of just passing it on.

Minister Yeo notes that while the URA and National Development Ministry have the final say, he and Mrs Lim, as MPs, are working on the issue: ‘We are not just postmen and women transmitting your views,’ he adds. Like several others, Mrs L.S. Lim, 70, starts by stressing that she appreciates the contributions of foreign workers. They are not to be blamed. She blames the system: Why is no one looking for suitable places to house the workers away from all these inconveniences and insecurity that people feel? What about industrial estates where there are no residents? she asks.

 

Minister Yeo says he believes the planners are thinking along these lines.

 

All heads turn when a girl begins to speak. Serene Cai, 16, a Secondary 4 student, says she takes the bus at about 6am and returns home as late as 9pm. She asks: ‘If we meet with danger, what happens to us as there are no police to protect us?’ MP Lim replies: There are police patrols.

 

Ms Chan Mei Yi, 29, a business development manager, recounts an incident involving a foreign worker clearing debris. The man covered his face with a piece of cloth, showing only his eyes. ‘Every time my family members left the home, he’d stop working and look at us. But I don’t think he had ill intentions.’ Her mother had a word with his supervisor, and the man removed the cloth. After that, every time her family members passed by, he would stop his work, move to a corner and turn his back to them to show that he was not looking at them. ‘I don’t think foreign workers have ill intentions, but it makes us uncomfortable and these are things we need to think about,’ she adds.

 

A young man, who identified himself as Benjamin, had a similar experience when he was in his car with his maid. As he drove past some foreign workers, they stared at his maid. ‘Foreign workers are also human beings. They have emotional needs. They may feel lonely. I’m concerned for the general female population in Serangoon Gardens and for the maids,’ he says.

 

A construction contractor who calls himself Kelvin says he struggles to find a place to house his foreign workers. Yet, he opposes having the dormitory, which will put it two houses away from his home. He says he knows all about dormitories: A lot of half-naked men walking around. And no contractor can have 100 per cent control over their workers. He suggests housing them in Kranji, where he reckons there is empty land.

 

Jonathan Maximilian Wong, 19, a music student, worries for the safety of the girls of CHIJ Our Lady Of Good Counsel primary school as they wait for their school bus, and the children at a nearby kindergarten, taken there by their maids.

 

MP Lim seems confident the residents’ distress will make an impression on National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, as it did on her. She told reporters after the session that the residents’ arguments have helped reinforce her initial view of the situation, like whether the transport infrastructure can cope should the dormitory get the nod. She hopes their feedback will help Minister Mah understand their opposition is not based on an irrational dislike, but on ‘very sound concerns’. She also felt the way the Government officers got feedback gave residents the impression ‘as if the Government was doing it rather quietly and hoping nobody finds out, which I am quite sure is not their intention’.

 

Minister Yeo wrote in his blog that a police officer had casually asked for views on the dormitory, word spread and the neighbourhood committee alerted him and MP Lim. 

 

As the dialogue comes to a close, the rain eases and the crowd heads home. Some, like student Serene Cai, are not persuaded by the answers. But ex-civil servant E.T. Mohan Dass is more circumspect. The 60-year-old told The Straits Times: ‘We’ll have to wait and see. I hope that as the message has been strongly put forward, the MPs will do the same thing for us.’

 

chinlian@sph.com.sg