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©The
Star (Used by permission)
Insight Down South by Seah Chiang Nee
DESPITE recent relaxation of tight regulations, Singapore is still capable of
throwing a curve ball that tests common sense.
Take the case of Seow Hock Hin, 36, when he parked his car outside his own
house, a normal everyday affair of people everywhere. Motorists park where it is
not disallowed.
In Singapore there is a little known law that forbids parking outside a
designated lot (for a fee, of course) if it is gazetted as a parking place,
whether or not there are signboards or white or yellow lines.
The case has come as a shock to Seow and many Singaporeans, battle hardened as
they are by their country’s web of rules and regulations.
Quite a few of the traffic laws – it is suspected – are designed to raise
revenue.
The general understanding is that the space in front of someone’s gate is a
normal home for a car unless it is marked an offence or is blocking traffic.
The case may be a small matter in the eyes of the law, but for people who
treasure their personal freedom, it represents another unnecessary legal crimp
on their lives.
For a generation, Singaporeans have been used to being tightly regulated, and
frankly this has its benefits. Theirs has become a clean and orderly city where
crime and corruption remain low.
As a result, people are especially careful. Not flushing a public toilet after
use is an offence and the sale of chewing gum is still controlled.
They have plenty of training since young. In schools, hair cannot be too long or
skirts too short and coloured bras for girls are banned.
For boys who reach 18, the army takes over the disciplining during two years of
national service.
Once I was a guest speaker at a premium school and watched in admiration as 700
students, aged 15-16 marched with silent, military precision into the auditorium
and sat in neat rows.
You could hear a pin drop. That’s a typical well-behaved Singapore school.
But the perception of an overly regulated city doesn’t go well with its ambition
to become flourishing global city that is comparable to London, New York or
Tokyo.
Since Lee Kuan Yew’s departure as Prime Minister in 1990, his successors have
been trying to shed the city’s image of being a tightly controlled society.
Seow’s ordeal began last year when he received a S$50 (RM115) fine for parking
in front of his Katong home, something he and his neighbours had been doing for
years.
“There were no double yellow lines outside anywhere,” he explained.
Thinking it was a mistake, he wrote to the authorities asking for a waiver.
“My car was obstructing only the entrance to my house. It was obstructing only
me,” he said. It was turned down.
Meanwhile, he received a second summons for the same offence. He went to court
and lost, incurring a fine of S$1,400 (RM3,220) and S$8,000 (RM18,400) in legal
fees.
The reason surprised him and other motorists who have little knowledge about
legal gazettes concerning roads.
At the hearing he was told that his stretch of road had been designated as a
parking place although there were no signboards informing the public of this
rule. This meant, “that no parking is allowed outside of a parking lot.”
“The authorities would have done better to issue him with a warning and then
start a programme to publicise this little known rule,” suggested a businessman.
In the past decade, however, there has been a general loosening up of some
social controls.
A host of rules has quietly disappeared, such as banning kids to play football,
loud music, cycling in the void decks of public housing blocks.
One by one they were removed – unannounced. Jukeboxes (once banned) returned; so
did video game shops.
Censorship has been relaxed. Last week, the government announced it would
legalise oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults.
In movies, nude scenes are allowed under an X-rated classification for adults
over 21.
Conservative citizens generally agree that a set of laws strictly enforced will
always be needed to protect order and stability.
Singaporeans live in one of the densest cities in the world, so strict laws are
needed to prevent friction arising from the over-crowdedness.
In the Old Economy, Singapore had prospered under a legal-based system based on
compliant workers and obedient students. Today, this could be disastrous; the
need is for a thinking, creative population.
A local business leader said Singaporeans need to rid themselves of the mindset
that before doing something, they have to seek the approval of a higher
authority.
In the United States, for example, where U-Turn is not allowed, the authorities
would put up a sign on the road saying so, said Creative CEO and chairman Sim
Wong Hoo.
“In Singapore, it is the reverse. When there is no sign on the road, you are not
allowed to make U-turns.
“When the authority allows you to make U-turns, then they will put up signs to
give you that right,” Sim said.
The social repercussion of the difference is significant.
“When there is no rule, we cannot do anything. We become paralysed,” he added.
The republic has produced managers who were told to toe the line.
“(But) the world is changing faster and faster. Yesterday’s rules are no longer
valid and new ones need to be set.
“Things are no more black or white, things are in shades of grey. How do we deal
with them?” Sim added.
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