Foreign worker riot shocks Singapore

Singapore faced shocking scenes of burning cars and littered streets Monday following a riot by South Asian workers in the worst outbreak of violence in more than 40 years in the tightly controlled city-state.

The hour-long fracas on Sunday night, triggered when an Indian construction worker was struck and killed by a private bus in the Little India district, compelled Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to order the creation of a special committee to investigate the incident.

Police said about 400 people were involved in the riot, and that 27 South Asian workers had been arrested on charges punishable by up to seven years in prison as well as caning.

Lee said there could be “no excuse” for the rampage that left 39 police and civil defence staff injured, and 25 vehicles — including 16 police cars — damaged or torched.

“The riot was an isolated incident arising from the unlawful actions of an unruly mob reacting to a fatal traffic accident,” Lee said in a statement.

“We must not allow this bad incident to tarnish our views of the foreign worker community here.”

Lee added that the committee of inquiry to be convened by the interior ministry will review the factors that led to the riot, as well as existing measures to manage areas where foreign workers congregate.

Singapore is one of the wealthiest places in the world, but the island republic of 5.4 million people depends heavily on guest workers, with labourers from South Asia dominating sectors like construction.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s safest societies, the city-state prides itself on social order and racial harmony, and many citizens expressed dismay over the mayhem.

Police said the 27 men arrested were aged between 23 and 45, and included 24 Indian nationals, two Bangladeshis and one Singapore permanent resident.

Analysts played down suggestions that the riot, which was brought under control by elite police commandoes, could be an indication of wider discontent among poorly paid migrant workers.

Devadas Krishnadas, the founder and managing director of Future-Moves, a Singapore-based risk consultancy, said it was “an isolated incident where a variety of factors combined to blow matters out of hand”.

“The fact that it involved foreign workers is incidental, not central, to the events,” he wrote in a commentary for Singapore’s Today newspaper.

“There is no justification to generalise the blame across any group, any race or any gender,” he added.

The incident triggered online attacks on foreign workers, whose large presence has been a hot political topic in recent years. Others called for calm and warned against stoking racial hatred.