Police rebut LKYSPP professor’s comments on Little India riot
Police patrolling the district of Little India a week after the riots. TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — The Singapore Police have taken issue with economist Yeoh Lam Keong's allegation that inadequate community policing was to blame for the 2013 Little India riot.
He was commenting on the impact of the United Kingdom's police budget cuts on the nation's security in light of recent terror attacks.
This is the second time in two months that the authorities have flagged Facebook posts made by academics from the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP).
Responding through a Facebook post Tuesday (June 6), the police said: "It is regrettable that Mr Yeoh did not check his facts before commenting on areas he has little knowledge of. His distorted points on the Little India riot and community policing will mislead others who don't know the facts."
In his Facebook post on Monday, Mr Yeo, an adjunct professor at the LKYSPP, said there is "inadequate community policing in Singapore", and that "alienation from the police" was a "big reason" for the cause and "poor handling" of the Little India riot.
Mr Yeoh also said that alcohol was "just a convenient scapegoat" in the incident.
The police called his statements "sweeping" and "inaccurate", saying that they show "a clear lack of understanding of what happened during the Little India riot, and an ignorance of (Singapore's) community policing efforts".
The police also cited conclusions from a Committee of Inquiry on the riot, which found the consumption of alcohol to be a "major contributory factor".
In a reply on Facebook, Mr Yeoh apologised if he had "sounded unnecessarily strident" in his original post. He also said he appreciates the police's clarification and reassurance.
Adding that his view was based on "personal macro observation", he said: "I just worry as a concerned citizen and economist that it may be inadequately resourced to keep up this excellent work in the future."
In April, a Facebook post by LKYSPP's associate dean Donald Low a drew sharp rebuke from Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam. The minister said then that Mr Low's comments "seriously misconstrued" the statements that he had made in an interview with TODAY, in relation to considering public opinion when deciding on criminal sentences. Mr Low subsequently apologised.
