The Singapore Police Force's (SPF) Missing Persons' website, provides a very dark reality. At least 20 children under the age of 16, have been missing in Singapore since 2007. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that the primary motive for non-family abductions is sexual. Statistics also show that children taken by non-family members are either murdered, held for ransom, or taken with the intent to keep.
20 children missing in a toutedly 'safe and secure' city-state like Singapore is 20 children too much. Take the case of Nurul Aisyah Binte Mohammad Taufik for instance, I could not google any information or notices about her missing, besides the one in the SPF website. It is the same for Giesen Alexia S, who is a foreign citizen but a permanent resident of Singapore.
Why is the main stream media silent on the issue of missing children? Having the most muscle in reaching the public, should not they be partnering the SPF to highlight the plight of the most vulnerable in our society? 25 May is remembered in the USA as the Missing Children's Day. Perhaps, we should have such a campaign in Singapore to keep the spotlight on the missing children in Singapore.
As a parent I fiercely want to keep my children safe but don’t want to sacrifice my children’s independence to fear. However, with statistics showing that most of the missing children go missing from the heartlands of Singapore and even from the public schools where they are supposed to be safe, I am highly tempted to err towards the side of caution.
2 comments:
This is a very good issue for discussion. There must be a reason why this has been seemingly swept under the rug. Perhaps the authorities feel (due to assumptions based on experience) that the missing persons are runaways?
This typical reaction could be since 'Singapore is a safe country' and the people (authorities included) here are far-removed from potential realities - they only know what they can see.
Hi Ravi,
I see this entry is pretty ancient.. but anyway my belated $0.02..
The fact that Singapore is such a small country, where it's pretty common for someone you've just met at a party to know your cousin/aunt/secondary school friend etc etc, makes their missing status all the more sinister-- if they were runaways, it wouldn't be, IMHO, all that easy for them to roam about Singapore for over 2 years completely undetected, as long as people were looking.
I recall the case of the Houston Heights serial killings in the early 1970s-- over 20 boys went missing in the same neighbourhood and none of the authorities saw a larger pattern unfolding, because the immediate assumption was, despite parents' pleas, that the missing boys were runaways. At least they had a bit of an excuse (sort of); they were overwhelmed with thousands reports of missing persons reports annually at a time when runaways were becoming a nationwide problem. With 20 missing kids in comparison, there's no excuse for such a seemingly lackadaisical approach. I wonder how these cases are followed up and how long does it take for a case to go 'cold'.
It seems that in the case of the still missing Felicia Teo, friends and relatives had gone on an intense search for any clues themselves and fed the authorities as much information as they could, none of which was followed up on. The story hit the press due to the efforts of family and friends who were frustrated by the lack of action taken.
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