The Straits Times | Little India riot, 10 years on - video Dailymotion

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Certis officers Nathan Chandra Sekaran and Mahmood Masdar were on duty in Singapore's Little India on Dec 8, 2013 – the night of the riot.   They recount their experiences facing the rioters and protecting a bus driver and timekeeper from a violent mob.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00 On the night of December 8, 2013, the streets of Little India were in chaos. A riot had

00:13 broken out, the first in Singapore, in over 40 years. The spark that ignited the riot

00:19 was the tragic death of Mr. Sakthivel Kumaravelu. The 33-year-old construction worker from India

00:26 died when he fell into the path of a private bus at the junction of Teka Lane and Racecourse

00:30 Road. Sundays regularly saw crowds of foreign workers gather in Little India for their rest

00:37 day. The buses were provided to ferry them back to the dormitories. The accident attracted

00:42 a crowd that quickly grew angry at the bus driver. Some of the first personnel to respond

00:48 were CERTIS officers who had been on duty in the area.

00:51 When I first received the call from my subordinate, they told me that there was an accident involving

00:56 a bus coach and one foreign worker. That is the first message I received from my officer.

01:04 When I do my duty at the padang here, I can see the bus in the middle of the road, near

01:09 there. The bus is not moving and I can see the crowd surrounding the bus. We run over

01:14 there with my two POs. They warned me to not interrupt them and they are chanting the word

01:22 "Kill the lady and burn the bus".

01:24 That lady was Madam Grace Wong Gek Woon, a bus timekeeper with one of the operators providing

01:30 buses on the night. The Committee of Inquiry, convened to investigate what caused the riot,

01:38 heard that Madam Wong told Mr. Sakthivel to leave the bus he had boarded because he had

01:42 jumped the queue to get on and was drunk to the point where he could not walk steadily.

01:48 His trousers were undone and were around his knees. But as the bus moved off, Mr. Sakthivel

01:53 ran alongside trying to get back on board, an umbrella in one hand and holding up his

01:57 trousers in the other.

02:00 As the bus turned into Racecourse Road, Mr. Sakthivel lost his balance and fell face down

02:04 into the path of the bus' front left wheel. His head and torso were crushed. As words

02:10 spread of the accident, anger focused on Madam Wong and the driver Mr. Lee Kim Huat. Sensing

02:15 the danger, an unknown foreign worker ushered Madam Wong and Mr. Lee back on board the bus

02:20 for their protection.

02:23 But anger turned to rage and the mob pelted the bus with whatever they could throw. Both

02:28 Madam Wong and Mr. Lee had to find hiding spots within the bus. The rioters wanted to

02:33 get on board.

02:35 Me and my colleague, automatically we do a human chain to prevent the crowd from getting

02:41 inside the bus. We hold this human chain for almost 20 to 30 minutes before the SCDF and

02:47 SPF arrive to support us to save the lady from the bus. We are a bit scared the crowd

02:52 might turn violent and attack us. I control the crowd by using my pattern from that day,

02:58 which is I swing toward the crowd to let them move outward a bit. We are outnumbered and

03:06 they must stick to our human chain. Even whatever happens, we have a job to do that day, which

03:12 is to save the lady's life.

03:15 Further out from the accident site, Staff Sergeant Mahmood received instructions from

03:18 his superiors to take orders from police on the ground.

03:22 I met up with this officer, he's a civilian. He gave instructions and he advised us to

03:29 do some crowd control at this area.

03:32 Crowd is getting bigger and bigger on that day, from one layer and every minute it becomes

03:40 two layers, three layers, five layers. They are throwing everything, whatever they can

03:46 get from the road, they throw toward the bus. And we are just beside the bus, which holds

03:53 the human chain. So whatever they throw to the bus, all is hit our head. It's come down

04:00 to our head and body.

04:05 I feel very bad because I cannot help my guys. I and my team, my partner, also thought that

04:12 we should be there with them.

04:15 At around 10pm, under barrage of projectiles, SCDF officers were able to extricate Mr Saktivul's

04:21 body from under the bus. Minutes later, SCDF officers located Mr Lee and Madam Wong within

04:27 the bus and with the help of the police, escorted them to safety. But the sight of Madam Wong

04:32 and Mr Lee being protected, not arrested by officers, could enrage the rioters further.

04:39 The COI was told that the police response were hampered by communication issues, delaying

04:44 the activation of the Special Operations Command, the riot police. By the time the SOC teams

04:52 arrived at 10.50pm, rioters had flipped over six vehicles and burned four of them.

05:02 We have been training for all these years. Would the training be sufficient and effective?

05:08 There were lanes and alleys at Kerbau Road, so the intent was to filter the crowd through

05:14 the lanes and alleys and disperse them towards the direction of Serangoon Road.

05:28 Confronted by the SOC, rioters soon dispersed and by 11.25pm, the riot was over.

05:34 I followed the troops as they moved forward. When they moved forward, the rioters continued

05:41 to help them with projectiles, but they didn't come near to the troopers. The troopers continued

05:48 to move forward and they moved back. That was the way they pushed the rioters to the

05:54 lanes and alleys. By then, we knew that the tactics worked. The rioters, when they filtered

06:02 to the lanes and alleys, they became smaller groups and that's where they started to flee

06:07 the scene towards different directions. We regrouped the officers to patrol the streets,

06:15 pick up any struggling rioters. In the aftermath of the riot, 57 participants

06:23 were repatriated and prohibited from returning, while 25 were convicted and jailed over the

06:28 riot. A further 213 were given police advisories and were allowed to continue working here.

06:34 Little India was designated a liquor control zone. There are time limits on the sale of

06:38 alcohol and a strict ban on consuming it in public.

06:41 Last time it was quite busy, you can see foreign workers drinking.

06:46 We can see the bus lane here. It's a build after the riot happened.

06:52 Our operating environment is constantly evolving and persistent training will help us to maintain

06:59 our skill sets. I think this is one of the most important traits of SOC officers. I do

07:07 not hope that such an incident would happen again, ever. But if it should happen, I hope

07:14 that we are ready for it.

07:15 [Music]

07:32 [Silence]

The Straits Times | Little India riot, 10 years on

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