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| Sakthivel Kumaravelu, his employer Heng Hup Soon paid for his funeral expnses |
Official figures:
1 death, Sakthivel Kumaravelu
22 police officers injured
5 auxiliary police officers injured
12 SCDF officers injured
All have been discharged
16 police vehicles damaged/burnt
9 SCDF vehicles damaged/burnt
Official version of events:
Before 9:23pm - Private bus at Tekka Lane is to send workers back to their dorms. Bus is full but Sakthivel who was believed to be drunk boards the bus and cause trouble. He even took off his trousers. Bus driver Lim Ah Huat (Male, Singaporean) calls for assistance from Wong Geck Woon (Female, Singaporean) to help remove Sakthivel from the bus. After he is offloaded, Lim closes the door and move off but hears a loud bang, Sakthivel was crushed to his death at the left rear wheel.
9:23pm - Police receives call about traffic accident that requires ambulance. Crowd gathers.
9:40pm - Two policemen first to arrive, crowd is about 100, they are angry but not violent. In the next 20 mins, police and SCDF vehicles and crowd turns violent pelting them with objects such as stones and bottles.
10pm - Police and SCDF form a shield so that they can extricate Sakthivel's body before taking it to hospital.
10:01 to 10:29pm: Wong arrives to face a violent crowd and is assaulted. A group of workers bring her to the bus and Lim closes the bus door. The mob attack the bus with poles, stones and dustbins. Police take Lim and Wong to hospital while being attacked by crowd.
10:30pm - Crowd size is estimated to be about 400 and SOC units arrive to incident on foot.
11:30pm: Riot is brought under control
Questions:
Why did the police took more than 15 mins to arrive? What is their standard response time? Were they stuck in traffic? Same for the ambulance, why did it take half an hour for the ambulance to arrive? Situation could worsened because workers get emotional seeing fellow countryman die and no emergency help forthcoming.
How did the first policemen respond to the South Asian workers? Were police rude and overbearing causing tensions to rise? Did they do enough to calm the situation or aggravate it?
SOC troopers arrived on foot, so they were also stuck in the traffic jam?
There are also claims that the prior to this riot, over the years, auxiliary police have been chasing out the workers from the void deck or fine them for littering or smoking. Some were not found to be particularly polite and they could have worsen the situation because auxiliary of otherwise, they were all in uniform
Overall, Police and SCDF did a good job by dispersing the riot without excessive force. They were brave when confronted with a force much larger than themselves.
Credit should also be given to South Asian workers who were trying to stop others from damaging or hurting other persons. They even shielded the bus coordinator, Wong, to the bus when she was attacked.
http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/little-india-riot/story/little-india-riot-online-video-shows-workers-helping-police-an
Let's wait for the COI. It better give more answers than questions because many Singaporeans will be watching.
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| Wong Geck Woon, bus coordinator |
