LITTLE INDIA ( GIVE MD DAS)

Dear Susie,


  Hello Susie! How are you? I hope you're doing well and coping good with your studies now in Australia! Well, i think you should have heard about The Little India Riot in Singapore, now i am writing to elaborate more on the incident and express my thoughts in words to you about Singapore after what had happened.

  I was not exactly at the scene but i guess i have a full idea of what happened in Little India. Just to briefly start off, i will tell you about the so called "cause" of the incident. Apparently, an Indian national Sakthivel Kumaravelu, 33, got ran over by a private bus and this triggered the first riot in Singapore in more than 40 years. The opposing forces' strength resulted in 25 emergency vehicles being damaged with 5 of them being set on fire. 39 police, 4 civil defence and auxiliary officers were injured in the riot too. Even though i am pretty sure that there were more losses, however will not name them as these alone could already show clearly how severe the riot was.

  Even though now The Little India riot is a past and the public order are all back to normal i still feel a little unease about my surroundings. Firstly, slashing cases has been happening not once in a blue moon yet its almost anytime out of nowhere. The one in Cineleisure, the one in Downtown, the one in Geylang, the one is Jurong and the one at Ang Mo Kio. With these cases happening so often, how could i even be sure that no one around me or me myself gets hurt out of nowhere? And i could guarantee these cases were not caused by something major. It ight be some nutcases who couldn't maintain their health hence leading in homicides in these or some punks trying to act all rowdy and so on. Some causes of these cases are beyond ridiculous, probably it all started with a, " Y u Stare stare " and ends up with at least one dying. So in the future i would not be so sure if would i die at my block void deck just because of a small staring contest.

  However, i still doubt that The Little India riot didn't start off with just a death of their comrade. It could be the hatred that has been accumulated in those Indian workers' hearts due to long term ill and unfair treatments. Well, at least i know they only earn $2.50 per hour, and they have literally no "time awareness". They work all day long, sometimes halfway through late night, i could still see them working and even when the sun has notrise, they are still at it. They have no Overtime Pay, no extra pay, a day off in one week and with curfews and restrictions everywhere.Just a $2.50/hr to help them pay back their debt for coming to Singapore, send back to their homes and also ensure they get just a little bit less than enough for them continue working their asses off. Sometimes people just do not see it, the HDBs around us, the condominiums around us, the every single property around us are mostly built by them, yet sometimes we complain their odour when they sits the same train as us, when they speaks a little louder, when they look in your direction just a little while, but do we know that what hardships they were going through and how much contributions had they made to our daily lives? And just when a day off from their usual routine, they gets to "enjoy" just a little however gets dissed everywhere they went. Even though i am not very comfortable with the riot thing, but i still do hope all Singapore could slowly accept their way of living and tries to understand what they are going true.

  Susie, I am going to end my letter here. I hope my thoughts and feelings got through you. After writing this letter i feel a little more relaxed! Well, all the best in your studies!

Yours sincerely,
Agnes Ng Hui Gek.