Man Angrily Accused Police in MRT Station of Racism; SPF Has Since Responded

If you’re not as rich as my boss who doesn’t even have an EZ-Link card, you’d have seen those TransCom Officers patrolling the MRT stations and even inside the train.

Those fierce-looking officers with guns that kids like to point at would also sometimes conduct checks random checks on passengers. If you look like you’ve just killed a cat and eaten a dog, you might be asked for a spot check.

Which, we all know, is understandable; it’s their job.

While I’ve not been checked by them, I’ve been checked by an MRT staff and it’s a rather fast and smooth process—pretty sure I didn’t miss my train just because the uncle wanted to have a chat with me.

And I am certain I was checked because my bag was bigger than usual, and not because I look like someone who lives in Yishun.

But someone disagrees, and claims that he was checked simply because he’s a Malay.

And someone else filmed everything down, uploaded to Facebook and needless to say, it’s going viral.

Video on Facebook Page COMPLAINT SINGAPORE

Yesterday, Facebook user Is M Nordin posted a video that shows a Malay scolding a group of Transcom officers loudly, claiming that he was being checked because he was “Malay”. Incidentally, the entire conversation was in Malay as the officers were Malay, too.

The video isn’t embeddable, so you can watch it here if you have a Facebook account.

While the man lost his cool, the officers maintained their cool.

Eventually, he screamed for the officers to hurry up and check, and the video ended there.

The video has been shared over 680 times, and the SPF has responded.

SPF’s Response on Facebook

While the video was posted yesterday, the incident happened in March this year at Bishan MRT Station. The Police have highlighted that allegations of racism are “untrue, baseless, irresponsible, and may stir up racial tensions.”

Here’s their post:

Lest you can’t read it:

[[[CLARIFICATIONS ON CHECKS CONDUCTED BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT SECURITY COMMAND OFFICERS]]]

The Police are aware of a video circulating online where Police officers were conducting checks on a man at Bishan MRT station. There have been several comments made by netizens, stating that such checks were targeted at Malays.

Such allegations are untrue, baseless, irresponsible, and may stir up racial tensions. The Police take a stern view of persons who post remarks online that could cause ill-will and hostility between the different races or communities in Singapore and they will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

The Police have verified that the incident in the video happened on 5 March 2019 at Bishan MRT station. The majority of persons checked by the same team on that same shift were non-Malays.

Officers from the Singapore Police Force Public Transport Security Command (TransCom) unit conduct patrols and random checks on persons at public transport nodes to prevent, deter and detect crime and potential security incidents. Such checks are necessary to ensure that our public transport system remains crime free, and to deter would-be-criminals from committing criminal offences and terrorist acts.

TransCom officers made more than 720 arrests last year as a result of spot checks conducted on Singapore’s transport network. The majority of those arrested were for serious offences such as possession of dangerous weapons and drugs, as well as having a warrant of arrest issued against them.

The Police would like to assure the public that our officers are impartial in their checks, and are trained to carry them out professionally. We hope that the public can understand and appreciate the need for such checks, which ensures the safety and security of commuters, and will cooperate with the officers as they carry out their responsibility.

And it’s encouraging to see that netizens understand the checks and are on the Police’s side:

So next time if you kena checked, just cooperate lah.