Tag Archives: Tee Tua Ba

So thanks to the COI, we now know that the Little India riot wasn't the first of its kind, post independence. Commissioner Ng Joo Hee mentioned a little known riot that broke out back in 1985 while he was on the stand. Apparently that riot broke out due to a conflict between Korean and Thai workers at a construction site. It's also a coincidence that Mr. Tee. was the top cop on site back then when the police intervened to quell that incident. This little tidbit alone should explain to the uninitiated why Mr. Tee was selected by the G to be a part of the Little India COI. In case you're wondering why this is probably the first time you are hearing about the riot of 1985, CP Ng said it was because there wasn't an internet and social media to proliferate news about it back then. And it was thankfully confined to a construction site.

Mr Selvam added on Tuesday that there was "no evidence" of rioters wanting to kill somebody the night of the riot. COI member Andrew Chua also supported the chairman's argument, adding that since life was not an issue, the argument was whether more action should have been taken to prevent damage to property - which bore the brunt of violence that night.

In the end, despite the inappropriate comment made by Tee Tua Ba, “You made the problem worse!”, would you not agree that it was not a bad outcome. Zero lives lost. Sure, he may have improved on some things. He could have made himself more prominently as the chief commander on the ground. Or as the COI might have preferred, gone on a walkabout, fired some warning shots, charged at the “active” rioters – basically do everything differently.

Finally, we have a police officer who threw caution to the wind and decided to “engage’’ the rioters. Sergeant Fadli, just 27, a traffic cop, charged the crowd three times until he was told by his supervisor to stop. Or he would have continued charging. He said he would actually have made the crowd move towards Buffalo Road instead of driving them into the Little India MRT station which his earlier efforts resulted in. So he was also thinking furiously at the time….