Geylang cleanup leads to vice in heartland

MPs worry that these activities are moving to residential areas

WHETHER in Marine Parade or Bedok, Kovan or online, prostitutes are making their presence felt.

No longer are they plying their trade in traditional red-light districts such as Geylang, going by police vice raids over the past few months.

Their forays into the HDB heartland are upsetting MPs, who think that, among other things, the 'cleanup' of Geylang has simply led to the pimps and prostitutes moving elsewhere.

MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC Baey Yam Keng said: 'They are spilling out because of the raids. People accept what they do in Geylang, but may not be used to it elsewhere.'

A bigger concern they have is whether more will enter Singapore with the establishment of the two integrated resorts and the influx of gamblers and high-rollers the IRs are expected to bring in.

Mr Baey said: 'Singapore has always been welcoming to tourists who may seek different sorts of pleasure activities. When demand goes up, so will supply.'

Already, the numbers are not good: A total of 7,614 foreign women were arrested for vice-related activities last year, up from 5,047 in 2008.

Yesterday, police said 60 Chinese women had been arrested for offences such as vice activities at 32 unlicensed massage parlours in Bedok, Tampines and Marine Parade. They were nabbed over a 15-day operation in March.

Anti-vice raids had been carried out in Geylang, Kovan and two budget hotels at Balestier Road, in which 12 foreigners were arrested.

Some of those arrested had also hawked their sexual services online: Customers made an online booking and turned up at an appointed time at a pre-arranged hotel room, mostly in budget hotels in Bugis, Lavender and Little India.

On April 21, budget hotel owner Siah Chen Long, 52, was convicted of allowing prostitutes to carry out vice activities in his hotel, Shing Hotel, at Kitchener Road.

A day after, police raided a budget hotel at Lavender Street and caught 38 women for vice activities.

Criminal Investigation Department director Ng Boon Gay had said then: 'Vice operators who think they can operate freely under the anonymity of the Internet are sadly mistaken. We will continue to clamp down on syndicates and hotel operators who knowingly facilitate such illicit activities.'

The authorities had long held the view that vice could not be eradicated completely, and the strategy was to contain these activities within traditional red-light areas.

But pimps and prostitutes, both licensed and illegal, who do their business in Geylang say the police are coming down hard on them. A pimp who runs a brothel with Thai women said: 'Anti-vice officers raid a few times a day. It has affected our business as everyone scatters. We don't see as many streetwalkers these days as we used to.'

He said many streetwalkers had moved out of Geylang over the past two years into areas such as Balestier to get out of the eye of the authorities.

Asked about their vigorous enforcement in Geylang, a police spokesman said they have always taken a tough stand against vice activities 'regardless of where they occur'.

Lawyers said the crackdown in Geylang can be attributed to the influx of foreign prostitutes who come here on social visit passes.

But why hit Geylang so hard only to send the prostitutes moving to the heartland to ply their trade?

Lawyer Chia Boon Teck said: 'Residents and prostitutes in Geylang have always adopted a live-and-let-live attitude. But when the number of prostitutes rises and they become so blatant about it, the police have to do something.'

Lawyer Shashi Nathan suggested another possibility: The amendment to the Penal Code in 2008, which makes it illegal for anyone to obtain sexual services from someone under 18. He said: 'What the police are doing could well be about keeping controls in place, that is, to clamp down on unlicensed pimps who bring in young girls and then live off their earnings.'

MPs, such as Ms Lee Bee Wah of Ang Mo Kio GRC, said police are taking action because of residents' complaints about vice activities in their neighbourhoods.

She said: 'Their numbers may have gone up, and so complaints have too. Obviously, they (pimps and prostitutes) will go wherever they think there is business. If we don't do anything about it, it will get worse.'

Mr Christopher De Souza, an MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, said the raids send the 'right signal' that vice in the heartland will not be tolerated.

Both he and Ms Cynthia Phua, an MP for Aljunied GRC, want some curbs on the establishment of budget or 'transit' hotels.

Mr De Souza suggested banning hotels from operating on an hourly rate in all residential areas. He said: 'Transit rates are a euphemism for hourly rates. Why would any traveller transiting here for an hour or so need to put up in a hotel about an hour away from the airport?'

Ms Phua is perturbed that two budget hotels have been allowed to operate between Upper Serangoon Road and Sireh Place.

She told The Straits Times: 'Residents have to come face-to-face with these activities, even if it may just appear to be a couple walking in and out (of the hotel).'

Source: Straits Times, 5 May 2010