Each week, TODAY’s long-running Big Read series delves into the trends and issues that matter. This week, we look at how seniors in Singapore are struggling with a sense of displacement during the circuit breaker period. This is a shortened version of the full feature, which can be found here. 

SINGAPORE — The days used to pass quickly when she was working as a food court cleaner from 7am to 3pm.

But ever since she was told to stop work after patrons were not allowed to dine in anymore, the 67-year-old who is living alone and wanted to be known only as Madam Chia has had to face four walls in her Bedok flat — until she could not take it anymore.

Despite contravening circuit breaker rules, Mdm Chia regularly hangs out with a few neighbours on public benches near her flat even though they had been cordoned off with red-and-white tape.

Speaking to TODAY at 9.30pm on Monday (April 27), at her usual spot with a takeaway cup of coffee by her side, she said: “(I hope the officials) don’t come here and frustrate me more because we are already very frustrated. Give us a chance. Give us one to two hours to take a breather.”

Increasingly, senior citizens like Madam Chia are making their way back into the streets, bored and a little stir-crazy close to a month after the nation’s circuit breaker measures kicked in on April 7 to stem a rising tide of infections, which crossed the 17,000 mark on Friday.

They remained undeterred even as the authorities announced that no more warnings will be given to those caught flouting the rules from April 12, and first-time offenders will be fined S$300. The restrictions include a ban on any kinds of gathering at home or in public spaces, including void decks and parks. 

TODAY’s visits to three housing estates found that about three in four of those idling in the streets — both in the day and at night — are older folks, the very group that is considered to be most vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.

But conversations with several of them revealed that the problem goes beyond a wilful desire to ignore the rules. It has more to do with their sense of displacement in a pandemic-hit offline world and their inability to exploit the online world, which has helped to make the circuit breaker period more bearable for younger generations. 

While the rest of the population are turning to video conferencing tools, e-commerce and other forms of online entertainment, many senior citizens are finding their world suddenly hemmed in by the four walls of their homes, especially those who are living alone.

For this group, their leisure options at home are limited to television and radio, or chatting with their friends on the phone. 

HOW THOSE LIVING ALONE ARE COPING 

Madam Chia, for one, had tried in vain to learn how to use the internet many times before. “At home I any ‘net’ also don’t have,” she said. 

Even if they have learnt how to use certain internet functions, there is a limit to what they would do with them, said Madam Cheong Kit Moi, 78. She started to use chat application WhatsApp late last year but can’t do much with it since she does not know how to read.

“I am scared that if I press wrongly, then everything will be gone. I have a lot of songs inside my phone,” said the live-alone elderly who used to frequent the Lions Befrienders Senior Activity Centre at Blk 32 Bendeemer Road before the circuit breaker measures were implemented.

She still mainly relies on her landline to connect with a staff member from her senior activity centre and two to three friends. But she is increasingly on her mobile phone these days, sometimes checking out the YouTube app to see what content is available since she does not really know how to do a video search.

But there are others, like Yishun resident Wong Ya Long, who lost their one and only social network with the closure of the seating areas at coffee shops. 

The 77-year-old who lives alone was almost in tears when this reporter asked how the circuit breaker had been for him, as he was walking back to his flat with a takeaway packet of pig organ soup he got from Chong Pang Market and Food Centre. 

“I have nobody to talk to,” he said. He used to pass the time by hanging out with four to five other friends at a coffee shop. They did not have the foresight to exchange phone numbers before the circuit breaker, he lamented. 

‘DON’T MAKE SENIORS THE SCAPEGOATS’ 

Since the circuit breaker measures took effect, there have been viral video clips showing seniors not adhering to the rules, attracting criticism of this group as “stubborn”, “ignorant” and “socially irresponsible”. 

However, TODAY’s interviews with the older generation showed that there could be underlying issues which require some attention.  

One of the incidents which has gone viral took place on April 18, when an elderly woman was confronted for eating her kway chap at Teban Gardens Road Market and Food Centre. 

When told that she could be fined S$300 for not cooperating, she replied: “Orh gong then orh gong (fine then fine), what am I scared of?”

Social scientists whom TODAY interviewed felt that many senior citizens are not as savvy as others who make it a point to head out to a park connector or field for example, to get their dose of fresh air. Instead, they loiter around their neighbourhoods. 

They are also less able to evade enforcement efforts, compared with their younger and more mobile counterparts. Singapore Management University (SMU) sociology professor Paulin Straughan said: “Unfortunately the elderly is over-emphasised in the group of those who continue to be ignorant (of the new rules). Why? Because they are so slow. They get caught.”

After coming across the video of the elderly woman who insisted on eating her kway chap, Prof Straughan wrote to Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee to register her discomfort that “scapegoats” are being made out of vulnerable groups in the name of keeping the community safe.

Prof Straughan felt that the issue is rooted in how “it is harder for some to obey”.

Referring to the elderly woman, Prof Straughan said: “She is old, she has mobility issues, and she just wanted a simple meal. Is there something that we can do for older folks like them?”

CONFUSION OVER EVOLVING RULES

Dishwasher Narayanasamy Rajasheker, 59, had been fined S$300 for gathering with three others under a block of flats at Jalan Kukoh, after social gatherings of any size were banned. 

He told TODAY: “I am staying in a rental house with so many bedbugs. I’d rather run away from the bedbugs… than go back home.” 

He now spends his day at a stairway close to his flat, constantly on the lookout for enforcement officers.

Mr Narayanasamy added that the rules are changing too quickly for him to keep up. 

“I thought that time they say gatherings of no more than 10 people are allowed. We were four people only, but I still kena (suffer the consequences),” he said. 

Mr Quek Swee Ann, a 65-year-old Chin Swee Road resident who relies on social assistance payouts to get by, also has problems keeping up with the frequently updated rules.

“If we sit 1m away from one another, why cannot?” he said. “Chairs were built for the elderly to sit. Why do they have to (cordon everything off)?” 

Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan from SMU said that the non-compliant citizens may be trying to regain some semblance of normalcy and stability in their lives that have been disrupted, without the intent of breaking the law.

“Many of us may not fully understand the depth of their sense of displacement,” he said, pointing out that the changes had been swift and significant, requiring dramatic behavioural change in a short span of time.

HELPING SENIORS COPE WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT

Mental health practitioners noted that non-compliance by some seniors could be a result of various states of depression or anxiety, partly triggered by the one-month extension of the circuit breaker.

They noted that everyone’s resilience is being tested now but while more working adults have stepped forward to seek help, not many seniors have done so.

“This is an indication of how much our elderly need help. They don’t know where to go, and won’t step forward,” said Dr Lim Boon Leng, a psychiatrist in private practice.

Clinical psychologist Joel Yang, who runs Mind What Matters clinic, observed that some are feeling that there is “no point to living”, now that their freedom is stripped away. Some even think that “if you keep me at home, it is as good as ending my life as well”, he added.

Still, the experts suggest reducing a reliance on crude instruments of legal penalties such as fines, or complementing penalties with a more nuanced and humane monitoring of social activities in neighbourhoods.

In fact, Mr Praveen Nair, a psychologist at Raven Counselling and Consultancy, suggested incentivising positive behaviours.

“If you really want people to follow something, it is better to give a reward,” he said. “For instance, if we come up with a national lottery system that grants people who stay at home for a certain number of hours the chance to win a S$100 prize, people will stay home.”

Mr Kavin Seow, senior director of the elderly group at Touch Community Services, felt that the community should view seniors with “greater understanding, patience and empathy”.

“While some seniors understand the need for strong measures, others may struggle with the increasing sense of isolation as they are cooped up in their flat,” he said. This is especially so for seniors with underlying conditions such as depression or dementia, he noted.