There are no “systemic” shortcomings in the way Indian migrant workers are treated in Singapore, and those who break the law will be treated in accordance with it, the visiting Singapore Foreign Minister, K. Shanmugam, has said.
In remarks on last December’s riots in Singapore’s Little India, in which Indian workers, mainly from Tamil Nadu, were arrested, charged and sentenced, Mr. Shanmugam told The Hindu in an interview that India would do the same if a Singaporean or any other foreign national did that here.
“Alcohol was the main reason they took it upon themselves to destroy public property, and they were dealt with in accordance with the law,” Mr. Shanmugam said.
The rioting began after an Indian worker was crushed to death by a bus. Nearly 400 workers, apparently angered by the accident, congregated at the scene. According to a committee inquiring into the incident, in the two-hour violence that followed, the worst in Singapore in four decades, 54 police officers were injured and 23 emergency vehicles damaged.
Singapore deported 52 Indians, and 25 others were charged with rioting; 13 have been imprisoned, most recently P. Dasmohan, a 28-year-old labourer, who was sent to jail for nine months on Thursday.
Mr. Shanmugam said the committee had established that the victim was responsible for his death.
After the incident, he said, the city-state had put in place new rules to prevent congregation of people in large numbers, and on timings for the sale of alcohol.
The incident and its aftermath, he said, had not put off Indian workers from seeking jobs in Singapore. “When I visited the workers’ dormitory to speak with them because I speak Tamil, uniformly they told me Singapore is number one on their list because it is a place where workers’ rights are protected. There is a framework of rule of law, and they are treated better in than many other places,” Mr. Shanmugam said.
“That doesn’t mean that there are no errant employers and doesn’t mean that there will be no errant employees, but there is no systematised abuse. That is the point. As a system, we seek to protect all sides and we allow the free market to operate,” he said.
Mr. Shanmugam said the issue did not come up at any of his official meetings during his visit, including the one with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Indian workers, he said, “are there by free choice. No one is asking them to come to Singapore. First of all, they could stay in India. If the conditions are superior to what is available in Singapore, they will stay here. So they have chosen to come to Singapore. Second, they could choose to go to the Middle East, they could choose to go to Malaysia, choose to go to other countries, they have chosen Singapore.”
