https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andywong93_singapore-law-crime-activity-6821829934319837184-cDrd
Dr. Patrick Tan
I’m equally frustrated with Covid and with the vice situation in Singapore. But, may I kindly ask what would be your proposed solution to eradicate the problem? Yes. It is an open secret that karaoke lounges with freelance hostesses have been operating with the same business model and with organised crime backing. These lounges are registered as private limited businesses. You shut down one, another two pops up tomorrow under another name and new registered owners. Fines and jail-time is no deterrent to the operators. To bring them to court, you need solid evidence that can be proven in court. Gathering such evidences is not easy because the operators and the girls are never going to cooperate with the police. You need to catch them in the act. How much resources can we afford to commit to it? Maybe banning karaoke lounges might be a solution? Except it will push it underground making it more difficult to monitor and control. Our government is definitely NOT perfect. But, they are trying their best to do what is best for this little red dot. And, our men in blue are working their butts off to keep crime rates low. Let’s support them during these challenging times instead of being an arm-chair critic.
in response to
The true reason for Singapore's latest and largest domestic outbreak of Covid-19 to date (not counting the foreign worker outbreak in April 2020), is organised crime, and the institutional failure of Singapore's much-vaunted "law and order" society in dealing with it. It is an open secret in Singaporean society that karaoke lounges with freelance hostesses/prostitutes have been operating for decades with the same business model, and normalised to the point of being an integral part of many business dealings and contract closures in Singapore, particularly with Chinese clients both local and PRC in origin. For decades, such places existed with tacit approval and a deliberate blind eye turned to their operations. You'd get periodic raids on such premises, with nice media photos of hostess women being mass arrested and deported. But the lounges never closed for good. None of the real owners ever got prosecuted. Arrests always stopped at the freelance hostesses. Lounges got to claim ignorance by the fact that the girls are never registered as employees, but entered as "patrons", working illegally in Singapore on short-term visitor or student passes. It's massively hypocritical that Singapore closed down its only legal red light district at the beginning of the pandemic for public health reasons, did the same with these illegal brothels with lounge fronts, but then allowed them to reopen under the pretense of "pivoting" towards F&B "bistro" business models after August 2020. The legal red light district remains closed. No law enforcement ever went to check that the reopened lounges actually were bistros. Many lounges simply claimed to be one and served takeaway food from nearby food outlets to their patrons, who were there for the booze and the girls. Singaporean ministers are now feigning shock and surprise that such loopholes were discovered and abused. But there's nothing new about it. Institutional failure to deal with the true backing behind organised crime that can run such karaoke lounge fronts for sexual vice has been existing for decades in Singapore. Institutional failure is also displayed in how Singapore dealt with foreigners in very different manners. It must rankle expats in Singapore who can't get assurances of being allowed back into the country if they wished to return home now to visit family after more than a year apart, to know that as recently as March 2021, Singapore's ICA was still allowing in foreign girls claiming familial ties with "boyfriends" here in Singapore, with zero vetting of their actual relationship nature, nor of their actual intent in coming to Singapore. Singapore's image as a "law and order" city is a glittering mirage. A city where the plebs get policed, whilst rich, well-connected figures in the criminal underworld are allowed to continue their front operations with tacit government approval. And it took Covid-19 for real societal prices to be paid.
Dr. Patrick Tan
I’m equally frustrated with Covid and with the vice situation in Singapore. But, may I kindly ask what would be your proposed solution to eradicate the problem? Yes. It is an open secret that karaoke lounges with freelance hostesses have been operating with the same business model and with organised crime backing. These lounges are registered as private limited businesses. You shut down one, another two pops up tomorrow under another name and new registered owners. Fines and jail-time is no deterrent to the operators. To bring them to court, you need solid evidence that can be proven in court. Gathering such evidences is not easy because the operators and the girls are never going to cooperate with the police. You need to catch them in the act. How much resources can we afford to commit to it? Maybe banning karaoke lounges might be a solution? Except it will push it underground making it more difficult to monitor and control. Our government is definitely NOT perfect. But, they are trying their best to do what is best for this little red dot. And, our men in blue are working their butts off to keep crime rates low. Let’s support them during these challenging times instead of being an arm-chair critic.
in response to
Andy W.
Business/Political Intelligence Analyst, Naval Defense WriterThe true reason for Singapore's latest and largest domestic outbreak of Covid-19 to date (not counting the foreign worker outbreak in April 2020), is organised crime, and the institutional failure of Singapore's much-vaunted "law and order" society in dealing with it. It is an open secret in Singaporean society that karaoke lounges with freelance hostesses/prostitutes have been operating for decades with the same business model, and normalised to the point of being an integral part of many business dealings and contract closures in Singapore, particularly with Chinese clients both local and PRC in origin. For decades, such places existed with tacit approval and a deliberate blind eye turned to their operations. You'd get periodic raids on such premises, with nice media photos of hostess women being mass arrested and deported. But the lounges never closed for good. None of the real owners ever got prosecuted. Arrests always stopped at the freelance hostesses. Lounges got to claim ignorance by the fact that the girls are never registered as employees, but entered as "patrons", working illegally in Singapore on short-term visitor or student passes. It's massively hypocritical that Singapore closed down its only legal red light district at the beginning of the pandemic for public health reasons, did the same with these illegal brothels with lounge fronts, but then allowed them to reopen under the pretense of "pivoting" towards F&B "bistro" business models after August 2020. The legal red light district remains closed. No law enforcement ever went to check that the reopened lounges actually were bistros. Many lounges simply claimed to be one and served takeaway food from nearby food outlets to their patrons, who were there for the booze and the girls. Singaporean ministers are now feigning shock and surprise that such loopholes were discovered and abused. But there's nothing new about it. Institutional failure to deal with the true backing behind organised crime that can run such karaoke lounge fronts for sexual vice has been existing for decades in Singapore. Institutional failure is also displayed in how Singapore dealt with foreigners in very different manners. It must rankle expats in Singapore who can't get assurances of being allowed back into the country if they wished to return home now to visit family after more than a year apart, to know that as recently as March 2021, Singapore's ICA was still allowing in foreign girls claiming familial ties with "boyfriends" here in Singapore, with zero vetting of their actual relationship nature, nor of their actual intent in coming to Singapore. Singapore's image as a "law and order" city is a glittering mirage. A city where the plebs get policed, whilst rich, well-connected figures in the criminal underworld are allowed to continue their front operations with tacit government approval. And it took Covid-19 for real societal prices to be paid.
