SINGAPORE — Warring neighbours locked in difficult disputes may be compelled by a body to undergo compulsory mediation under a framework being studied by the Government, said Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) Lawrence Wong.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ministerial visit to Admiralty yesterday, Mr Wong said the body may also be empowered to prosecute people who do not comply with orders made after mediation.

These are two areas the Government is considering, as it seeks to strengthen the community dispute resolution process, which is currently voluntary.

“We are exploring these options, and we are looking at how to have a more robust community dispute resolution framework, one which would give recourse to residents, dealing with some very frustrating cases, but which would not undermine the community efforts to solve their own problems,” said Mr Wong.

The idea of a new framework to deal with social nuisances between neighbours, such as noise, was first mooted by Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in a Facebook post last August. He noted that there was currently no “satisfactory legal solution” to deal with such problems and as they are not criminal in nature, the authorities cannot do much and residents end up feeling frustrated.

During the Budget Debate in March, Mr Shanmugam said the Law Ministry is working with three other ministries to develop a framework to resolve such disputes.

Currently, those with unresolved issues can go to the Community Mediation Centre (CMC), which handles disputes that do not involve legal issues among neighbours, family members, friends and colleagues.

It sees about 600 to 700 cases each year, with about 70 per cent of these cases successfully mediated. The remaining cases take up “quite a bit” of time and are “very difficult” to resolve, said Mr Wong.

He felt that one of the drawbacks of the current process is that it is voluntary and “not much” can be done if a person issued with a letter by the CMC does not come forward.

Mr Wong noted that in the United Kingdom, for example, there are local municipal level rules which govern community disputes. Even though the Government is examining whether a body needs to be set up to mandate mediation for difficult cases, he cautioned against strengthening the legal framework that “may inadvertently result in people just resorting to legal recourse all the time without resolving problems on their own”.

No date has been set for when the new framework will be launched, but Mr Wong said the MCCY will be seeking feedback from grassroots leaders, residents and enforcement agencies over the next few months to better understand how disputes are handled.

While it looks at the community interface, the MCCY will also be working the Law Ministry, which has the expertise in legal and mediation process.

“Whatever the legal framework put in place, I think most cases ought to be solved by residents themselves with the grassroots leaders, developing their own social norms, because that’s the way I think community living ought to be,” said Mr Wong.