Khairulanwar Zaini
While the mass food poisoning may be the fault of an errant individual stall owner, the dirty state of the market reflects a worrying systemic failure on the part of the NEA and the Geylang Serai Temporary Market Management Committee.
As the nation tries to grapple with the physical cost of the tragic mass food poisoning incident, preliminary investigations by the Ministry of Health have revealed that the outbreak is “most likely due to cross-contamination of rojak and raw seafood ingredients harbouring the (Vibrio parahaemolyticus) bacteria”. There have also been questions raised about the hygiene regime of the Geylang Serai temporary market – not least underscored by the discovery of 122 rats during the spring-cleaning efforts recently.
While it is convenient to isolate and attribute this tragedy to Mr Sheik Allaudin Mohideen, the rojak stall owner, this perspective does not sufficiently answer broader concerns of hygiene and cleanliness standards.
An NEA official was reported by the Today newspaper to have berated the stall owners attending a hygiene course conducted last Thursday, while Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, condemned the events as “totally unacceptable” and that it was “outrageous that this has happened”. The minister promised to hold those responsible accountable.
Strong sentiments indeed, but his counterpart in the Health Ministry, Mr Khaw Boon Wan, has raised a more germane concern about the overall cleanliness standard having “dropped to maybe 5/10 or worse”.
This begs the question: doesn’t NEA have a major part to play in maintaining the “overall cleanliness standard?”
Responsibility – Yaacob and 122 rats
There are essentially two separate, albeit overlapping, issues that have been conveniently conflated by the authorities: the hygiene standard of individual stalls, and the cleanliness of the temporary market.
Stall owners who are diffident towards the hygiene standards of their own stalls face strong financial disincentives in fines that may be imposed, and the loss of potential customers; most stall owners interviewed recognize their “individual responsibility” in maintainng hygiene standards, given that their source of income and livelihood is on the line. Hence, the inevitable few errant stall owners should not tar the efforts of the majority, and NEA also has some responsibility in its checks to detect these instances of non-compliance.
However, the responsibility in ensuring that the overall cleanliness of the market should fall squarely on NEA. Despite Dr Yaacob assurance of a ‘sound regime’ to the Straits Times, the fiasco of 122 rats suggests a failure on the part of NEA to intervene and nip an incipient safety threat in the bud.
As much as stall owners should be held responsible for any hygiene lapses, surely NEA is also culpable in its failure to ensure a clean market environment at Geylang Serai.
The temporary market houses both the hawker and wet market stalls in close vicinity, a conducive environment to encourage the prevalence of pests.
These circumstances might be understandable considering the market was meant to be temporary; however there was an appalling lack of effort to mitigate this potential threat to cleanliness: in the entire 3 years since its establishment, there were no spring-cleaning effort held until last Wednesday and Thursday – after the food poisoning happened.
The notable absence of regular clean-up efforts raises questions for the Geylang Serai Temporary Market Management Committee to answer: why was there only one spring-cleaning held after three years of operation, and that taking place only two months before the planned move to the new Geylang Serai market?
Taking into consideration that such clean-up efforts take place once every two months at the old Geylang Serai market, according to a vegetable stall owner who have worked at both locations, it seems that the Management Committee has been astoundingly complacent towards the need to maintain the cleanliness condition of its market.
And more striking is how NEA reacted in the catastrophe’s wake– passing the buck to respective local management committees of each market. Without ensuring these cleanups happen, NEA’s tough stance in maintaining the hygiene and cleanliness standards are nothing but sanctimonious words.
The NEA is the only agency with the mandate to enforce these standards, and adopting a laissez-faire approach and devolving its authority to the discretion of individual management committees without any oversight makes a mockery of the ‘sound regime’ that Dr Yaacob has been talking about.
One stallholder told the ST that huge rats run around the market regularly, playing like “Tom and Jerry”. Is NEA playing a Tom and Jerry hide-and-seek game with its responsibility?
A tale of 122 rats
The 122 rats caught in the spring-cleaning effort constitute a significant failure in the hygiene management of the market, and it would be disproportionate to attribute the presence of the rats to the individual stall owners since it concerns the conditions of the entire temporary market. It would only be fair for either the management committee and NEA to answer for the prevalence of these pests, as with any stall owner who has committed hygiene lapses.
A blame game is never prudent, particularly in crises of confidence such as this. The NEA, in its strong reprobations to the stall owners, has pinned the blame of the entire affair on the stall owners – but the lack of oversight and its detachment from the management of the markets points to the agency’s culpability of this episode.
While the mass food poisoning may be the fault of an errant individual stall owner, the dirty state of the market reflects a worrying systemic failure in the part of NEA and the Geylang Serai Temporary Market Management Committee. This incident however should prompt for a soul-searching exercise at the NEA and the respective local management committees of the various markets and food establishments to review the execution and enforcement of safety standards, which has evidently failed at Geylang Serai.
Pinning the guilt alone on the individual lapses of a rojak seller, yet ignoring the systemic lapses that has allowed for 122 rats to fester (and this number are the ones caught – who can safely hazard that no rats have been left behind?) means that the 152 people who endured an uncomfortable week have suffered in vain. Leadership in matters like these are best provided by those in authority, and the public should expect a more stringent regime to ensure the cleanliness of our food establishments.
Editor’s note:
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Qualification accepted in the 3rd world howbeit with a Minister being paid beyond the 1st world ….
There have been numerous reports and sightings of rats falling from false ceilings in food courts, dead rats, stray cats, crows and other pests in hawker centres since the inception of STOMP.
How seriously are these taken and what precautions have been done to prevent such incidents from happening?
The reports in STOMP about these food courts and fast food restaurants would usually be followed up quickly by the relevant owners of these outlets, but we dont see such swift action when it comes to public facilities such as hawker centres and wet markets.
nothing less can be expected of yabob to say.
the pap govt will forever try to appear flawless.
this has always been their way to fool people into thinking they are really great and continue to vote for them. (& their million $ salary)
luckily in this age of internet, there are alternative source of news & discussion.
no…………
it’s the rats’ fault!!
122 rats caught and maybe more not caught?
How come no snakes found or caught? There is so much live food for them and the rat problem would have been solved if snakes go there.
Maybe hygiene so bad until snakes dare not go or even want to eat!
[ the overall cleanliness of the market should fall squarely on NEA. ]
It should but it doesn’t. NEA’s stand is that overall cleanliness of temporary markets and hawker centres fall under the joint ambit of:
i) the local town council on whose property the temporary market and hawker centre sit on, and
ii) the management committee.
It’s even more hands-off when it comes to private non-aircon food courts and HDB koptiams.
The same “not our agency’s problem” attitude is adopted for clogged open drains in private estates (NEA, LTA, PUB, NParks) and cyclist on pavements (Police, LTA, TP, Town Councils). Guess the PS21 (Public Service for 21st Century) ‘policy’ has become BS21.
My relative happens to work inside the market.
There are people who claimed that just 2 days before the food poisoning at the rojak stall, there was argument about cleaniness between the ‘temprorary market committee’ and another hawker in the same market.
Next day (1 day before food poisoning), someone witness there was a man ‘tossing’ rat poison all over the market in the NIGHT, claiming doing his duty to ‘kill rats.’ ‘Tossing’ literally means hurling the rat poison over the closed / locked hawker stalls.
Till now, no one could determine who that man was from, but suspected he was a representative from the ‘temprorary market committee’.
Wondering the Authority has looked into whether the victims sufferred food poisoning from eating ‘rat poison’ that could have got into the food or water from the rat-killing exercise by, possibly, the temprorary market committee people.
Hope the Indian Rojak stall owner will get a fair investigation and treatment.
NEA officers must have been eating too many snakes….that’s why got so many rats allowed to run around freely for so long.
Don’t you people ever forget that PAP is a group of saints waiting to become Gods. How dare you accuse them of being less than perfect!!!
The expert said food poisoning has nothing to do with the rats caught in geylang otherwise other hawkers within the same vicinity would have face similar food contamination too.
It could be that the foods were already contaminated before it passed down through chain of suppliers before reaching the rojak stall who eventually served them to his customers. I hope the rojak stall can lead NEA to the main source of food poisoning instead of taking the full blame unfairly. I wonder if the same suppliers who supplied food to the rojak stall also supply contaminated food to other part of the island.
After this food poisoning incident which has nothing to do with rats, it indirectly brought up another critical issue here. The over population of rats have also digged out more serious problems in Singapore which I believe NEA has overlooked or the respective Town Council are sleeping on the job like an oblivious cat waiting to be fed and doing nothing.
As usual, blaming Singaporean for being ungracious is always seen as the best solution for ministries to shun responsibility but many establishments, controlled by the govt, who were supposed to co-ordinate the cleanliness of this country have not been seen working hard or good enough beside getting highly paid to do the job.
Take for instance If you blame Singaporean for being ungracious because of the increase of dengue fever in Singapore. Have you also looked into the fact of Singapore weather condition, the never ending muddy construction site going on in the housing estate, the forever growing bushy trees in the housing estates that NPB has never send people to trim for ages, HDB building blocks so closed to each other that we can literally throw ping pong ball into our neighbour’s home from the opposite block and not the least the influx of foreigners all adds up to become a winning combination of a very unhygienic living environment conducive for Aedese mosquito to breed.
Do we still blame Singaporean as the main cause for all the problems Singaporeans have already been screaming about? Stop blaming us ministers and take a good look of your own establishment in charge for the lack of efficiency in services.
Re what notalone posted:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2259718.st :
The authorities in China say rat poison is the most likely cause of a mass outbreak of food poisoning that killed dozens of people in the east of the country ….
Like bad food, rat poison causes diarrhoea.
To notalone…that is one heavy allegation over the tossing of rat poison over the stall.. If it is true then it is no longer an accident or lack of hygiene but criminal case…since 2 deaths has occurred.
3dr world rats in the 1st world drains. This is an oxymoron.
can dipped into reserve for national budget, splurge money on building casinos, organizing F1, acting as white knights to save debt-ridden foreign banks, making risky investments. when it comes to environment hygiene issue, solution is minister in-charge will hold those accountable responsible. that’s an easy way to shift the blame to another party. why ? because it’s easy to find a scapegoat and fool the people so as to let the matter come to rest without spending too much. wonder much it cost ministry of environment for the clean-up operation last week ? Is it 0.1% or 1 % of recently announced budget 2009. most stingy govt in the whole world.
Our Dear gahmen sector pay has been ever increasing in the past, yet their efficiencies is sliding down the drain..wasn’t that one of the justification for their ridiculous paycheck? with all these fiasco, it has been proven time and again they are now what they proclaim to be…
and Lego, regarding “them as group of saints waiting to become Gods” if that’s the case, i will be willing to become a demon/devil rather then be in the same class as them…maybe I will call myself Dante or Sparda or Lucifer from now on.
Try staking out at a bus stop along Orchard Road, along the steps of SIngapore River, or any HDB rubbish bins…. rats are aplenty…. sometimes in broad daylight…
Its whether they want to eradicate it or not … and dun give the crap that rats are smart …
Of our public service…its getting from Grade A to Grade F…. try calling most of them… instead of dealing with the issue, they deflect you to another department of another agency …. (In office political terms, its called Tai-ji)
yes, we Pay And Pay, and we STILL get the blame. We are top notch in paying our ministries and ministers, but we also are top notch to be blamed for whatever fiasco our “saints” commit.
Again, the media – being controlled by the government – blames the rojak man for the hygiene – he allegedly changed the cleanliness of his stall from a C grade to a B grade. And HE alone is responsible for the lack of hygiene of the ENTIRE PLACE. Why – maybe one day, hawkers must do area cleaning of the ENTIRE MARKET so that when food poisoning happens, they won’t be blamed?
And yes, Singaporeans must penetrate into the construction sites and clear the stagnant waters and the muddy puddles so that they won’t be blamed for the Aedes mosquitoes. (and maybe fish out one or two illegal workers in the process). Whether it is through news reporting or advertising or otherwise, we Singaporeans will be blamed and labelled as selfish by the state-owned media.
Yes yes, continue to play the blame game. We the ordinary people always get the blame in the end. The government and its agencies are NEVER at fault. We the ordinary Singaporeans are the selfish ones.
Remember the PAP MP whom SM Goh Chok Tong tried to defend after ST wrote an article that suggest her inability to hand inability to handle the Chinese race? Yes, she is Dr Fatimah Lateef, MP for Geylang Serai which falls under SM Goh Chok Tong’s Marine Parade GRC. How can any lowly NEA officials make any suggestion that Goh Chok Tong’s ward is not clean without his approval? Do you think he would approve it himself?
#8,
ya man. this ‘snakes’ are all sleeping and bo chap but gets fat pay!
If the rat poison thing is a fact, NEA needs to investigate further. Were there dead rats found that were poisoned and where were they found. Were there consentrations of rat poison and where were they found. Before dying, rats could have carried traces of poison all over the area; over plates, utencils, etc, and caused subsequent poisoning to humans. NEA, be thorough and objective in your investigation and leave no stones unturn.
Whose fault was it that the Indian rojak stall displayed the Grade B cert when it should instead be a Grade C cert & issued 4 months ago ?
Shouldn’t NEA be held responsible for their blunder ?
to be one
you must act as one
122 rats to me
the pipe piper is not a problemo
as for food poisioning and fatality rates
the food ministery must bear full reponsibilty
blaming on the indian rojakman is not a good idea
did he get paid over $100,000/month
the health ministry loved to go rounds issusin summons
on whatever grounds it deemed to the extend of tellin a swimmer
he do not looked good wearin a green tight trunk……
i am also wearin green
have you ever seen any pipepiper that wear nothin but green
includin a hat that is green?
lucky for me
i am not MARRIED……………….
Remember, algorithms people, algorithms!
[if] Non-elite target (private sector) available
[then] Place blame squarely
[else]
[if] Bottom-feeder civil servant scapegoat can be whitewashed
[then] Place blame squarely
[else]
[if] Issue can be restated vaguely
[then] Place blame squarely on populance (ie. complacent)
[else]
[if] Matter can be crowded out with other news
[then] Spin propaganda on ST/CNA/TODAY/TNP et al.
[else] ‘What to do, it has happened”, “let’s move on”….
Which Perm Sec. attended a 5 week Gorden Bleu cooking course and proclaimed that with proper mangement, a 5 week absence would not make a difference.
Obviously it did make a difference. While the cat (Perm Sec) was away, the mice- (all 122 ) decided to play.
The Perm Sec must be reprimanded, punished and demoted for neglecting official duties while indulging in his hobby.
Netizens blame game in earnest here. Same tiring boring routine. The government blames superinfector Rojak man. Netizens blame the government.
The blame should be shared – Rojak man, NEA, the cleaners, the Geylang Serai Temporary Market Management Committee, the stall holders who might not have kept their stalls clean, Singaporeans who like to patronise “C” graded stalls and did not complain enough, anyone is culpable. The real victims – customers who fell violently sick, customers who now have to patonise a market further away, the hawkers who kept their stalls clean and had B and A grading but are now victimised because other stalls in the area were filthy and the cleaners didn’t do a thorough job.
ok ok, if all else fails… the superb statement of the era …
“Lets move on !!”
aiyoyo
1st world got this type news,
if go out to neighbours, not sure what’s the reactions???
think better keep quiet when go out travel…
aiyoyo
the pipe piper of Hamelin can do a better job than a bunch of highly paid craps!
#5) Rats but no snakes?
‘How come no snakes found or caught? There is so much live food for them and the rat problem would have been solved if snakes go there. ‘
……………………………………………………………
Some years ago, a python was trapped in a drain beside the now demolished hawker centre next to the old bus interchange at Toa Payoh. I believe rats are smarter than snakes as they are able to adapt to changes in their environment. While rats proliferate around hawker centres, snakes dwindle as they lose their natural habitat. Snakes have been helpful in controlling the rat population.
The minister-in-charge and all the top civil servants involved have to be sacked to make it clear to others that the Singapore system don’t tolerate shirkers. Anything less will help to perpetual this downward spiral in the level of competence in the Singapore administrative service. This is just one of a series of disastrous events in recent times and is a clear indication that something is very wrong with the administration of the state. Standard of assessment and performance have declined. Only some really tough and drastic actions from the very top will stem this downward spiral.
Singapore is not the UK where there is a need for devolved administration to the locals as the UK is a huge country consisting of 3 distincts geopolitical groups – the English, the Welsh, the Scottish and the Northern Irish. Singapore is so small that direct governance of issues from the central government is pretty much local government already.
aiyoyo
just a thought – if this issue happen & the person in charge belong to non-elite
group, not sure what will be the impact/discussions/investigations by the elites??
not sure the other areas ‘look after’ by elites, could there be same rats scenario??
aiyoyo
Still remember Tan Yong Soon? The Perm Sec that went for 5 weeks for a French cooking class holiday. Isn’t he from the same Ministry? So, this is what he called built up a good team to take care of things? How can the Ministry be taking so long to re-issue the grading certificate to the stall owners and turn a blind eye on the hygiene at Geylang Temp Market? He is appearently blind by his good team that he built. It is all the Wayang Wayang Effect in Civil Service! Perhaps he should open a stall at the market to sell his french dishes and start feeling the ground.
Ya, we should point the fingers at the rats.
And hang them and that will solve the problem.
ya, sure.
If it looks like a rat,
smells like a rat,
it probably is a rat.
that aside,
I personally do not feel that Geylang is a clean place AS A WHOLE ,
in more ways than 1 ;)
I mean look at the drains, the alleys, the stench, the smell.
I once ate prawn noodles that tasted so great.
After eating, I lao sai the whole day and felt like dying.
But was I in the statistics.
I hope all youths understand something from what I said.
So, no one is responsible for the stench of Geylang?
Stench comes from drains.
Drains are public drains.
Public drains flow to other drains.
drains carry diseases and bacteria and viruses.
many foreigners also frequent there, not just locals.
communicable.
1 Rat Too Many. Act pronto. Who is Responsible? Can anyone tell me?
Which is the bigger problem?
Rats in hawker centres or rats in PAP and the Civil Service?
It is shocking to know that the oversight of hygiene standards of a temporary market was never NEA’s responsibility. It is even more shocking to find that out only after an unfortunate incident like this was brought to public attention.
Since NEA was aware that temporary markets was not their responsibility, surely it is their responsibility to highlight this gap to the Government. Moreover, the definition of a ‘temporary market’ is rather misleading. Anything less than 6 months can be considered as temporary. However, a market which had been around for 3 years should amount to a certain degree of permanency and should fall under NEA’s oversight.
The bigger question now is what about those ‘temporary markets’ elsewhere in Singapore? Does it fall under the oversight of NEA now or the same reasoning applies (i.e. not NEA’s responsibility)?
It seems that accepting responsibility for something gone wrong is and never will be a practice in Singapore. Then again, maybe this is not a practice for the elites.
That’s why we pay them more than Obama and the other 9 big leaders. The others have not mastered the art of total credit and zero responsibility. They have not reached the elite state yet. I am surprised at the thick skin these jokers have to justify their pay. LSL and Obama Oh my god its so funny
minister please review your pay.
reduce your pay a bit.
then can hire more nea officers.
then can enforce a much better job.
then chances of this thing happen again may be close to zero.
ST April 9 2009: Second woman dies from rojak meal
http://www.straitstimes.com/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=67e8db386c680210VgnVCM100000430a0a0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=4e60758920e39010VgnVCM1000000a35010aRCRD
“The NEA said yesterday that it was not directly responsible for hygiene at temporary markets, but only at permanent ones owned by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.”
when things go well, be the first to claim all the credit exclusively.
when things go wrong, be the first to push the blame to other people.
[i]if go out to neighbours, not sure what’s the reactions???
think better keep quiet when go out travel…
aiyoyo[/i]
the neighbours will asked
is it a grey rat
or it is a french rat
if its french
its a ok
because
its a foreign talented rat
This is becoming very Classic…
Government in charge of everything, BUT also wants to be FREE of any liabilities and with such high salaries…
Excuse me but, the Government should look at the bigger picture, and stop denying they are just as responsible for the Food Poisoning incidents that are STILL ongoing today.
Govt., I ask the following:
>> whose Temp Market is it?
>> who is in charge of the General Cleanliness of the district’s Food Centers & Markets?
>> Who pays the Conservancy Charges and for WHAT?
>> what are your responsibilities in the first place if none of the 122 rats caught are not?
aiyoyo
guess commoners got to take this as example & look out at other elites department,
if got same/similar scenario or not, getting worry on the tax that we paid,
not sure if it’s been proper utilised or not???
thought we got the elites, then should get elite results ma, hor???
aiyoyo
The GRC MPs and the Minister leading them should resign!
Get Real! This will never happen. They will never resign. Just see so many incidents – Mas Selamat, Temasek Holdings, NEA, etc etc.
“Govt., I ask the following:
>> whose Temp Market is it?
>> who is in charge of the General Cleanliness of the district’s Food Centers & Markets?
>> Who pays the Conservancy Charges and for WHAT?
>> what are your responsibilities in the first place if none of the 122 rats caught are not?”
My question to you, CJ. These are excellent questions, but seriously, WHY do you even bother to ask such questions when you know probably that you will never get an answer? Or for that matter, these are just rhetorical questions that will answer themselves. Just punish the ka-gias, and sacrifice some small ranking officials to save the Ivory Tower.
On our part, we have to be contented to continue to fill up their coffers with GST, ERP, increased food prices, etc etc. Whatever they can suck from us, they do. All these years. These will always be so and will never change.
#23 Ganga
Haha. Very good – well said which I agree 101%
I pity many poor poor Singaporeans and yet also wonder why why why they vote for these kind of irresponsible dictators and emperors ! ! ! !
Why Singaporeans trusted these self-enriched public servants for what, and who are only good for talking and talking and talking unitl the cows come home, until tragedies happened (How many remember 2 innocent lives died in HOUGANG FIRE ???) with no effective proactive Good governance???
NEA’s likely answers:
>> whose Temp Market is it?
Not ours. Built by govt but it doesn’t come under NEA. We don’t build temporary structures.
>> who is in charge of the General Cleanliness of the district’s Food Centers & Markets?
Not us. We don’t look after non-MEWR-owned facilities. Town Council may be able to answer your question.
>> Who pays the Conservancy Charges and for WHAT?
That’s paid to Town Council , nt NEA. We don’t mind a percentage, though.
>> what are your responsibilities in the first place if none of the 122 rats caught are not?”
We are in charge of hygiene for INDIVIDUAL STALLS only. That’s why we grade stalls, not the entire hawker centre. Common areas for disposal of leftover food, washing, etc do not come under NEA. BTW, rats do not nest in individual stalls so we are not responsible for them.
12) pen is mightier on April 13th, 2009 3.22 pm
Well, if the investigation officers are hardworking enough, they should go down to interview the people in the market, not just relying on HSA/NEA/autopsy report for the findings.
If rat poison is the real cause, from my personnal view, it will be a case of negligence, not tantamount to criminal.
To my knowledge, the market committe already carried out ‘Spring Cleaning’ 2 days after the incident. Believe important evidences are gone by now. It is up to how our efficient elites do their investigation.
Ultimately, hope the old hawker will get a fair trial from the court.
Its always been the style with this Govt.
When the going is good,its to their credit, the Minister’s satellite vision
But when shit hit the fan, the people, the rats and
the cockroaches get the blame.
When did we ever hear any Minister say “The buck
stops with me cause I am in charge” ?