SINGAPORE – The powers that could be temporarily granted to police in Little India - under a Bill introduced in Parliament on Monday - would allow the cops to pre-empt actions that could create nuisance, Law Minister K Shanmugam said today (Jan 22). 

Mr Shanmugam, who was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a visit to a foreign workers’ dormitory, reiterated that the Public Order (Additional Temporary Measures) Bill will enable police to deal with issues in Little India without invoking the Public Order (Preservation) Act (POPA).

“Today, other than POPA, we don’t have those powers, and we didn’t really want to invoke the powers under POPA,” he said, in response to concerns that the powers granted under the Bill were excessive and discriminatory against a specific ethnic group. “Because the Government did not want to invoke such a strong measure, we put in place a temporary legislation for one year,” he said. “An automatic expiry, unless it is extended, but it requires us to go back to Parliament and explain it why you want it extended.”

Mr Shanmugam was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a tour of the Terusan Lodge, a foreign workers’ dormitory in Jurong. He was there to speak to the workers again after several visits to the dorm in December.