Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Price of security

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Price of security

Singapore used to be a safe, peaceful and orderly place. People respect the law. There are sufficient law enforcement officers who are dedicated to their jobs and are respected.

This situation has changed. We hardly see a policman on the road today. Many people prefer comfortable jobs in offices, especially the banks, rather than be a policeman on the beat. There must be an increase in crime in recent years, although they are not reflected in the statistics. Are the statistics reliable?

We have seen an increse in cheating cases involving motor insurance claims and sales of unregulated financial products. Thre are insufficient manpower in the law enforcement agencies to investigate these cases.

On the other hand, we have many older people who remain unemployed for many years. The younger people have taken over their jobs in the offices. But, there are insufficient people who want to be policemen.

The home affairs ministry may celebrate their ability to meet the key performance indicator of reducing manpower cost (which may earn a performance bonus for the people in charge), but this is at the expense of security in our society.

The recent incident of grafitti on the MRT train is an example of how bad things have become. What if there was a bomb planted in the train?

Something is wrong with the priorities in our society.

Tan Kin Lian

18 comments:

Anonymous said...: I am not working in Home Affairs. Home Affairs continues to employ people to work in different sectors such as Intelligence Unit, White Collar Crime Unit, Forsenic Science Unit etc.
The resources are probably being pulled into these elite units that resulted policemen patrolling on the streets are simply not enough.
You travel on the expressway and how many times you have spotted a traffic police patrolling?; June 08, 2010 8:47 AM
Anonymous said...: to give some credit, i do see police occassionaly around my neighbourhood but in the comfort of the police car. I have never seen them stepped out

many months ago, i called the police to report vandalism and they acted on it quickly (however by the time the police reached, the vandals have disappeared)

Very often, i see people stationed at bus stop catching cars using the bus lane during the bus operation hours. These pple are very diligent, i see them around often. Now they are armed with videocam, no longer camera, so there can be no escape. Oh i forgot, these duties are now subcontracted to CISCO, no longer under the Police as it used to be

Jerome; June 08, 2010 9:13 AM
Anonymous said...: MRT vandalism
Ref: Straits Times, 5 June, page A10.
"Incident serves as a wake-up call"

- And I thought Mas Selamat was THE wake-up call.
- I guess when the alarm clock went off then, we must have pressed the snooze button and went back to sleep again

- I'm surprised nobody has yet to say that SMRT has miles upon miles of very difficult to police fences.

- Just like the world's smallest island state has miles and miles of very difficult to police coastline.

- And of course there is an equal chance that Mas Selamat would be stupid enough to swim south to Indonesia rather than north to nearby Johor.

Another Straits Times headlines brought to your attention by
Mr Obvious Man; June 08, 2010 9:16 AM
Anonymous said...: The government believed in small overnment and I think it has a policy of 3% cost reduction each year. So you have left fewer high paid people at the HQ and not enough people at the ground level.; June 08, 2010 9:17 AM
Anonymous said...: Singaporeans and their leaders have been boasting to the World that SIN is one of the safest country in the World. It was repeatedly cited that one can be anywhere and at anytime and will not be harassed or harmed.

It must also be noted that Singaporeans have the penchants of claiming how dangerous other countries are, especially our neighbours. Yet Singaporeans are the most keen and avid travellers and almost all returned in one piece with abundant purchases and looking forwards to more travellings.

Despite the steady rise in crimes, we can still gather from the comments in Cyberspace that Singaporeans are having full faiths in the safety and security of our live and properties.

Me notices something peculiar in SIN, most people do not like to see policemen around or near them. When these enforcers are around, it is sure signs of troubles. If not, they are deemed there to get the people around them into troubles such as issuing summons, catching the illegal vendors, illegal workers, gamblers and runners of illegal gamblings, loan sharks or simply make these people, which are plentiful of course; creepy.

However, when crimes happened, there will always be cries of lacks or shortages of Law Enforcers.

Well, as the many banners around put it; 'Low crime does not mean no crime'. Play safe and take care, be alert!

patriot; June 08, 2010 10:02 AM
Anonymous said...: The Lee Hisen Loong administration basically is a failure. Why else do you think the father die die refuse to retire?; June 08, 2010 10:35 AM
Anonymous said...: Increase Foreign workers to 1.25 million and use the same Police force to manage? Imagine the outcome?

Increase foreign workers is good as it increases GDP and inturn Govt salary. As for not enough resources to manage 1.25 million foreigners, look no further. The established solution is shown in MAS handling MB victimization strategy:

NOT MY PROBLEM. WITH TIME, EVERYONE WILL FORGET THE PROBLEM.

MAS: Must-Act-Slowly

Maybe MAS should change to WAS.

WAS: Wait-And-See or

SNMP: Surely-Not-My-Problem....; June 08, 2010 11:03 AM
Anonymous said...: NO need to change as MAS can also stand for Must Always Siam; June 08, 2010 1:30 PM
Anonymous said...: I thot MAS was Must-Act-Stupid.

- gotta say they are doing a good job; June 08, 2010 4:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Try employing the old as Vigilante Corps............watch over CCTV or guard duties at strategic locations'
Shorelines / MRT & Bus Depots and many many installations.
Create employment or Job Recreation based on Homeland Security.; June 08, 2010 5:27 PM
J said...: Agree with Anonymous 9:16 AM,

Mas Selamat was the wake-up call.; June 08, 2010 5:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Most of the police resources are seconded to the two casinos, so other sections of society have to cope with a much reduced police manpower.
Singapore has lost its safe and secure image, it is not safe anymore, as costs savings are priority now, SMRT pays very high dividend returns, but skimps on security in its train depots, an Indian foreign worker had been murdered in cold blood in relatively busy Sims Ave area, residents there are afraid to go out at night.
So Singapore is not safe anymore.
Our leaders are guarded with police 24 hours, so they could not visualized the security downgrade
by the ordinary folks.; June 08, 2010 6:08 PM
Cat said...: another thing to look out for.

Why are the authorities so hung up about littering, when it is an open secret that many of our young who attend the polytechnics are smoking in public places? Just visit Dover MRT especially ...; June 08, 2010 8:31 PM
SL said...: i used to be an ex-police officer for 6 yrs.

its hard work being a policeman. we work shit starting from 7am (reporting for briefing) and kick off to the street patrol/ attending to urgent messsage from 8am onwards till 8pm. if we are lucky and not engage in any complicated cases during the period of 7pm to 8pm, then we might be able to return back to base by 815pm.

there after we will have a debriefing till 9.30 to 10pm. Gosh.. its a hard day work.

i also remember very frequent, we have community crime prevention event and nite rc meeting which were mostly held during our off day.

for a job that pay 2.4k (after 6 yrs in the job) i think it hard for someone like me who was inspired to be a diligent officer in the 1st place to continue my role as a police officer and hence i decided to leave after 6 yrs to join Income as an exceutive under Mr Tan.; June 08, 2010 10:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Let's face the fact.

The more crime a country suffers from, the lesser its' citizen would want to be in its' Police Force.

Not only will there be tremendous work pressure, the works will get more dangerous too.

patriot; June 09, 2010 12:01 AM
Anonymous said...: Yes, this is one area where job re-design can accomodate mature, elderly workers.

Most cannot sleep at night and its just monitoring cctvs or patroling the compound.

The young will be distracted by PSP and sms.; June 09, 2010 11:22 AM
Anonymous said...: The more a country has to spend on security and safety for itself and its' people, the more it shows that the country is lousy.

It goes to show that the country has many enemies and the people lack loyalty, civic mindedness and discipline.

And when much money has to be spent on security, it goes to waste as it means the security is gotten by money and not from the patriotism of the people.

It is only when citizens voluntarily and naturally play their parts in ensuring the safeties and securities of the country, their compatriots and their possessions that a country can ensure its' and the peoples' wellbeings.

Security, safety and wellbeing of any country is priceless.; June 10, 2010 3:06 PM
Anonymous said...: I agreed with the article. Just a few months back, I was checking in Changi Airport. As I walked towards the immigration, I decided not to use the auto check in system which many times failed to capture my thunmb print. It was about 11 am in the morning so there was no queue at all and several counters were available. So I walked towards those manned counters. I saw an immigration officer looking down on the table quite motionless. I thought she was sleeping, so my curiosity prompted me to chose that counter. When I stand in front of her and the counter, I was shocked. She was playing word puzzle and ignored me. I refused to move to the next counter until she lifted her head to look at me, then she look to the next counter, as if to signal me that she is busy and I should go to the next counter. I refused to move and she gave me an annoying stare and reluctantly scanned my passport. BTW, she is a Sergent and the most senior immigration officer among the 5 counters avialable. What a shame ! No wonder Maslamat can escape. I did not managed to see her name tag or I would like to write to Mr Wong KS ! What kind of vigilant is this ? Where is the discipline from a uniform and security organization ? This is a true encounter and not a story.; June 12, 2010 12:19 AM