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I am a Practitioner of 'The 7e Way of Leaders' where a Leader will Envision, Enable (ASK for TOP D), Empower, Execute, Energize, and Evolve grounded on ETHICS!

Monday, June 30, 2014

Daily Lessons from Life 30 June 2014 - Committee of Inquiry: What caused the Little India riot?

Wow! It is the end of the first half of 2014. How time fly!! Hopefully everyone are more or less on target with their 2014 Resolutions! For me, that is where I am: 'More or less.' :-)

"Committee of Inquiry: What caused the Little India riot? - CNA 30 June 2014

SINGAPORE: A Committee of Inquiry (COI) identified three factors contributing to the Little India riot of Dec 8 last year: Misunderstandings about the accident and response; the culture and psychology of the crowd; and alcohol and intoxication.

In preparing its report, released on Monday (June 30), the committee conducted interviews with convicted rioters and foreign workers who had been repatriated following the riot; visited the scene of the riot as well as worker dormitories and congregation areas; solicited submissions of evidence from the public; and conducted a public hearing in open court in February and March this year.

MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT THE ACCIDENT AND RESPONSE 
The COI said that video footage made it clear that the crowd held Mr Lee and Ms Wong responsible.

The sight of first responders shielding the bus employees - rather than in handcuffs - may have further aggravated the crowd, said the COI, who had "a very emotional reaction" to the accident.

Supporting this view, Tamil-speaking officers quoted some of the rioters shouting "Are our lives worthless?" and "You all only look after the local people!"

Untrue rumours circulating in the crowd - that Mr Kumaravelu had been crying for help from beneath the bus; that Ms Wong had pushed him off the vehicle; and that officers were kicking the body - may also have further distressed and provoked the rioters, the committee said.

CULTURE AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CROWD

The COI quoted a Home Team Behavioural Analysis Group as suggesting that the rioters may have felt that the responding authorities were acting against the foreign workers.

"The events of the night had violated their expectations that the responding agencies ought to be fair and respond to the deceased first, rather than to the locals," it said in the report. Elements of such "cultural psychology" could be evidenced by the fact that police and SCDF vehicles were targetted, but comparatively little damage had been done to private property.

The Behavioural Analysis Group's suggestion that the rioters were fuelled by a desire for "street justice" or "retributive justice" - taking the law into their own hands - was supported by witnesses from India, the COI said. One witness, an Indian citizen living in Singapore, suggested that clashing with the police was a sub-culture among some working class men in Tamil Nadu.

However, the COI stressed that the South Asian migrant worker population should not be unduly viewed as a threat to public order, noting that workers here are largely law-abiding individuals, and many in the crowd that night had attempted to help the responding officers.

ALCOHOL AND INTOXICATION

Alcohol was not a direct cause of the riot, the COI said. "However, it was a major contributory factor, among others, to the nature and escalation of the riot," it added, with many present at the scene admitting to having consumed alcohol that night. The four workers who have pleaded guilty and been convicted of rioting all admitted to having consumed alcohol, with one unable to remember his part in the riot until he was shown video footage.

The COI also cited the effects of intoxication, according to psychological and forensic experts: Impaired attention and cognitive processing; aggression when frustrated; and overreacting to perceived threats of injustice. "Some studies have shown that, in stressful situations, an intoxicated person may be primed to behave in a more confrontational manner when authority figures are present," it said.

"As long as it may be an aggravating factor in outbreaks of violence, alcohol is (a relevant consideration)," the committee said in its report."

The COI also specifically ruled out that 'foreign workers' dissatisfaction with their jobs and working conditions' is NOT an issue in this Little India Riot.

Lessons for me are:

1. WHY would the foreign workers have this idea that: 'ARE OUR LIVES NOT AS WORTHY AS THE LOCALS?' Could it be an EVEN DEEPER issue that 'the foreign workers' are happy with their jobs and living conditions BUT NOT the disrespect they get at work and at large?'

Also, is it a protocol to 'hand-cuffed' fatal accident (BUS) DRIVER and BUS ASSISTANT (PASSENGER) in Singapore? If not, how could this have prevented the 'uncontrolled rages' by the foreign workers' who felt their lives were not respected?

In this case, 'inappropriate responses by the law enforcement officials' would be blamed for the escalation then. Is this fair? Should the police officers have hand-cuffed the BUS DRIVER and BUS ASSISTANT without establishing the evidence? It has to be a very street smart and insightful officer with great courage to have done that.;

2. it is sometimes a culture for the foreign workers in their home country to confront and engage in physical combat with the police. This is alarming. Hopefully Singaporeans will NOT learn from this and acquire this 'confrontational' culture from the foreign workers. That would be disastrous. This also revealed that: 'maybe we DON'T know enough about who we are bringing in and WHAT COULD be their REACTIONs to certain policies and treatments that Singaporeans take for granted as par to be 'unfair and unjust'!

The psychology of the crowd bit is easier to understand as it is a herd instinct. Nobody really know what they are doing except to believe that they are just doing what everyone is doing - in a mob! Once you take down the 'leaders' or the 'heads', the mob will disperse as nobody wants to be the FIRST to be taken down!;

3. alcohol intoxication - for some, when they get intoxicated, they lost control of their bodily movement and just slump to the floor or ground and sleep. Like that foreign worker who was killed under the wheels of the bus. Maybe MORE of the foreign workers react in the other manner that the COI discovered - aggressive and strong!

Measures on curbing sales of alcohol was mentioned as 'how to control' and 'targeted at hotspots'. This also suggests INDIRECTLY that perhaps open over-consumption of alcohol IS ONE of the CONTRIBUTING factors to begin with. If you have no over-consumption of alcohol, even if the ACCIDENT happened, the foreign workers who not have been 'intoxicated with alcohol'!

The COI has spoken. Whether the PEOPLE accept the findings will be left to each of the them to make up their minds.

In my minds, OVERCROWDING of a small compact place; allowing and condoning open over-consumption of alcohols as it is good for the business despite complaints and minor incidents being reported throughout the few years before this tragic accident and riot broke out; complacency and underestimating the 'cultural interpretation' of enforcement measures; and 'hidden nagging feeling of the foreign workers that they are NOT being respected at work and at large' COULD jolly well be the root causes too.

Whatever it is, may we learned from the official and the unofficial version of the root causes of the Little India Riot. It is NOT pretty and we MUST stop it from recurring.

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