Home > ST Forum > Story
Sep 19, 2009
PHYSICAL ABUSE IN PUBLIC
Turn a blind eye to violence?
I AM a 53-year-old Australian who has been here for nine months, on a 12-month assignment. Having witnessed the first act of violence in public in Singapore, I am appalled by the lack of feeling displayed by the public.
Between about 5.30pm and 6pm on Tuesday evening, I was leaving Ang Mo Kio MRT station to go to AMK Hub. As I was walking, I saw a young man grab the hair of a young girl as she was about to go down the stairs.
He pulled her quite sharply and, it seemed to me, quite painfully. He continued to pull her hair and to force her into a corner.
To me, it looked as though there would be more physical violence, so I intervened.
I got the man's attention by grabbing him by the shoulder and asked him what he was doing. He turned round and told me to mind my own business.
I am 1.72m tall and he was a few centimetres taller than me and physically bigger. The girl whose hair he had pulled was a petite 1.6m. I had my hands on his chest as I spoke to him and this angered him more.
He told me to take my hands off him, and I did so immediately. He continued to stand over me and asked what I was doing. I replied that no one deserved to be treated the way he was treating this girl. I felt as if he would strike out at me at any time.
There were other witnesses but they did nothing. In fact, rather than getting support for my defence of the girl, I was told to go away, that it was me who was out of line. Two people stopped to take action while quite a few looked on.
One man, who looked older than me, stood between the young man and myself to separate us. He told me to move on. A woman also stopped and basically said the same thing. Both stayed with me for several minutes, trying to defuse the situation.
What they said made me angry. Now, I know it is only a sample of two, but if this is the attitude here towards violence, I am deeply concerned.
The woman told me that if the young girl isn't calling out, you don't interfere. The man said the same thing - you turn a blind eye.
I am indeed sorry if this is the general attitude here. I feel the girl was intimidated by the man and so would not call out.
I was told that in Asia you do not interfere in other people's lives. Neither the man nor the woman would say that this was the right thing to do, but it is accepted as the way things are.
How can Singapore and Singaporeans accept this? Does it mean that, if no one complains about an act of violence, it did not happen?
Singapore recently celebrated Racial Harmony Day. This is a racially tolerant country and everyone should be proud of that. But how about taking a bit more care of each other on a more basic humanitarian level?
Ivan Batterham
Sep 19, 2009
PHYSICAL ABUSE IN PUBLIC
Turn a blind eye to violence?
I AM a 53-year-old Australian who has been here for nine months, on a 12-month assignment. Having witnessed the first act of violence in public in Singapore, I am appalled by the lack of feeling displayed by the public.
Between about 5.30pm and 6pm on Tuesday evening, I was leaving Ang Mo Kio MRT station to go to AMK Hub. As I was walking, I saw a young man grab the hair of a young girl as she was about to go down the stairs.
He pulled her quite sharply and, it seemed to me, quite painfully. He continued to pull her hair and to force her into a corner.
To me, it looked as though there would be more physical violence, so I intervened.
I got the man's attention by grabbing him by the shoulder and asked him what he was doing. He turned round and told me to mind my own business.
I am 1.72m tall and he was a few centimetres taller than me and physically bigger. The girl whose hair he had pulled was a petite 1.6m. I had my hands on his chest as I spoke to him and this angered him more.
He told me to take my hands off him, and I did so immediately. He continued to stand over me and asked what I was doing. I replied that no one deserved to be treated the way he was treating this girl. I felt as if he would strike out at me at any time.
There were other witnesses but they did nothing. In fact, rather than getting support for my defence of the girl, I was told to go away, that it was me who was out of line. Two people stopped to take action while quite a few looked on.
One man, who looked older than me, stood between the young man and myself to separate us. He told me to move on. A woman also stopped and basically said the same thing. Both stayed with me for several minutes, trying to defuse the situation.
What they said made me angry. Now, I know it is only a sample of two, but if this is the attitude here towards violence, I am deeply concerned.
The woman told me that if the young girl isn't calling out, you don't interfere. The man said the same thing - you turn a blind eye.
I am indeed sorry if this is the general attitude here. I feel the girl was intimidated by the man and so would not call out.
I was told that in Asia you do not interfere in other people's lives. Neither the man nor the woman would say that this was the right thing to do, but it is accepted as the way things are.
How can Singapore and Singaporeans accept this? Does it mean that, if no one complains about an act of violence, it did not happen?
Singapore recently celebrated Racial Harmony Day. This is a racially tolerant country and everyone should be proud of that. But how about taking a bit more care of each other on a more basic humanitarian level?
Ivan Batterham
