IS GEYLANG BOOM TOWN OR COWBOY TOWN?

IS GEYLANG BOOM TOWN OR COWBOY TOWN?

The area is fast becoming the migrant's Orchard Road. Will it bring good times or bad times?

GEYLANG is Geylang.

By Ng Tze Yong


21 April 2008

GEYLANG is Geylang.

Messy, seedy, prostitutes and beef hor fun at 1am.

Things are different there.

One look at the bronze-skinned uncle with the gold hair and gold chain, sitting at the kopitiam like an emperor, and you will know that.

You'll know why last year, some 5,400 foreign prostitutes were nabbed - a 25 per cent increase from 2006 - and why half of them were arrested there.

You'll know why Nominated Member of Parliament (MP) Kalyani Mehta mentioned 'rampant gambling and prostitution activities' in Geylang during a Parliament session in January, and why Geylang is a hotspot for illegal cigarette peddlers (a 153 per cent jump in arrests last year from the previous year's).

The Americans say of their sin city: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

We shrug and say the same.

Let Geylang be. Or risk seeing the vices sprout in the heartlands.

But now, Geylang's tentacles seem to be spreading.

One month after Mr Mehta's comments, MP Christopher de Souza told Parliament that 'prostitutes operate well beyond the artificial borders of Geylang'.

Vietnamese prostitutes appearing in the upper reaches of Lorongs 42 and 44 also caused a stir among grassroots leaders last month.

Is Geylang turning into a cowboy town?

There are some who think so.

Ex-cop Davy Chan said Geylang was better-controlled in his day.

The recipient of the coveted Police Gallantry Medal was part of the organised crimes unit of the CID in the 1970s.

Geylang was one of his main areas of responsibility as it was the scene of 'one of the worst cases of secret society activity'.

'At that time, there were brothels too,' he said. 'But you wouldn't find prostitutes standing on the main street.

'There were also gambling dens, but we would learn about them only from tip-offs, not like these days when they operate in the open.'

A police spokesman said the police 'will sustain our patrols', but MrChan said police have a harder time now.

'In the past, the lookouts have to run to a public phone when they see us,' he said. 'Now, they just whip out their handphones.'

Longtime residents of an HDB block at Lorong 3 told The New Paper on Sunday that the operators of illicit activities seem to be more brazen now.

They believe part of the reason could be the rising number of foreign workers in Singapore.

BUSINESS HAS IMPROVED

They need a place to work, a place to sleep - and also a place to play.

For many, Geylang is that place.

It's the migrant worker's Orchard Road.

Here, provision shops sell groceries in front, and fluorescent safety vests and yellow boots at the back.

The influx of new workers has turned Geylang into a boom town.

Most of the 10 shops The New Paper on Sunday spoke to said that business has improved in the past two years. Durian seller Wong X L, 40, who has a stall at Lorong 25A, said: 'The buzz used to stop at the lower-numbered lorongs.

'Now it has come here.'

Business at the 24-hour stall has increased by 20 per cent in the past two years, largely because of the 'zhong guo mei' or China girls.

Mr Wong said: 'The 'uncles' take their China girls here to pak tor (date), to eat durians at 3am.

'Singaporeans go home by 11pm. We cannot depend on them.'

Ms Jin Lo's handphone shop is one of about 15 such shops in the 750m stretch along Geylang Road between Sims Way and Aljunied Road. Despite the competition, it is thriving.

Her shop counts foreign workers as its main clientele. The nearby gambling dens help, she said.

'If they win money, they come and buy new handphones. If they lose money, they come and sell their handphones. Either way, we make money,' Ms Lo, 24, said.

It's this pragmatism that lubricates - and fuels - Geylang.

So let Geylang be, Mr John Gee said. The president of advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too compares foreign workers in Geylang to Singaporean communities abroad said: 'It's about finding a home away from home.

'You see foreign workers on their days off and the clean, ironed clothes they wear. Then you think of their living conditions and you realise the efforts they put into presenting themselves.'

RESENTMENT

Mr Gee added: 'Their day off is the highlight of their week and it is hard to underestimate the resentment they will feel if they are denied even that.'

Mr Jolovan Wham, the executive director of migrants' welfare group Humanitarian Organisation of Migration Economics, said Geylang is attractive because it is shunned by mainstream society.

'Singapore is small, so it's very hard for them to find a place to stake as their own,' he said.

A home away from home is fine.

But what then when it becomes sleazy?

'There must be limits,' Mr Gee said. 'But really, that happens anywhere when you have groups of men in a foreign land. It's the staple entertainment.'

Charitable attitudes. And it's not found only with the liberals.

Mr James Lai, 55, is the genial uncle with the floral shirt who runs a furnishing shop where workers buy plastic fans for their dorms.

Mr Lai said of his friends who date China girls: 'Even old men have their needs. China girls are actually helping the Government to take care of our senior citizens.'

Red-light district, budget hotel? He waved these aside.

Even a civilised country needs a place like Geylang, he argued.

It's about the food, nightlife, shopping and illicit activities, but it's more than that.

'It's a matter of yin and yang,' MrLai said. 'No other place in Singapore has such a balance, such harmony.

'The place that is truly lively is not Orchard Road. It's Geylang.'



IS GEYLANG BOOM TOWN OR COWBOY TOWN?
Shop away: Geylang is the migrant worker's Orchard Road.




IS GEYLANG BOOM TOWN OR COWBOY TOWN?
Cheap: Low rents in Geylang mean many employers put up foreign workers there.




IS GEYLANG BOOM TOWN OR COWBOY TOWN?
Heavy traffic: It is Monday, supposedly the quietest day of the week. But the traffic at Geylang is packed bumper to bumper.




IS GEYLANG BOOM TOWN OR COWBOY TOWN?
Hot spot: Geylang is a favourite haunt of foreigners, including China girls.

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