With the recent riot in Little India - and more tellingly the evidence that came out during the Commission of Inquiry (COI) hearing - the police's rhetoric has been sorely exposed.
The hearing found that there were insufficient number of officers available, they were not properly equipped, radio airwaves jammed at the crucial moment, the commanding officer did not have any idea how many men he had at his disposal, and officers on the scene admitted that they were not trained to handle a full-scale riot. And when the SOC finally arrived at the scene, it did not have the numbers to fully contain the mob.
By the time the situation was brought under control, there was more than half-a-million dollars of property damage, several emergency vehicles were wrecked, and scores of police officers were injured.
The COI remarked that "a lot of things were wrong" and the police response was "not acceptable".
This is the danger that Singaporeans live with. We have a Government happy to engage PR firms to come up with attractive commercials and slick advertising campaigns to paint a picture of an efficient and sound system in Singapore, only to find things fall apart when the real test comes.
