RC volunteers working closely with govt agencies to assist accused housewife and other residents
Grassroots leaders are coordinating efforts with agencies to extend help to residents in a Punggol block where a 51-year-old housewife was accused of harassing her neighbours to the point of driving six households out.
Meanwhile, the police have contacted the woman in question.
The constituency’s MP, labour chief Ng Chee Meng, told The Sunday Times that its residents’ committee (RC) volunteers are working closely with “relevant agencies, including community partners” to assist the housewife and the other residents.
Mr Ng said: “This is a complicated case with some history and we hope that an amicable outcome can be achieved.”
An RC spokesman said agencies involved include the police, the HDB, the town council and representatives from the social services office.
A police spokesman said that, for longstanding dispute cases such as the Punggol matter, the police will work with various agencies “to engage the involved parties, with the aim of reaching an amicable outcome among all parties”.
The police had previously said that reports filed by the housewife’s neighbours were for non-arrestable offences such as intentional harassment, noise pollution and mischief. They were thus advised to lodge a magistrate’s complaint.
When contacted, the HDB said that neighbour disputes do not fall under its purview.
The Sunday Times reported last week that six households living on the same floor as the housewife had moved out over the past two years. They complained that, since 2013, she had splashed oil at their doors, played loud music throughout the night and stomped on the floor. One said she left a pig’s ear on a shoe rack. Another said she had thrown a chair at him.
The neighbours said they felt helpless despite multiple reports made to the police, grassroots organisations and the HDB.
Police told them what the housewife did were non-arrestable offences, and attempts at court-directed mediation in 2017 failed when the housewife refused to agree to stop her actions.
The case highlights the challenges of resolving neighbour disputes, especially in a dense city like Singapore where residents live cheek by jowl.
Matters are complicated when one or more parties could be suffering from mental illnesses.
It has emerged that the divorcee, who lives with her adult son, has moved several times and has a history of disputes with neighbours at her previous home in Toa Payoh.
The Sunday Times learnt that she is estranged from her family who believe she could be mentally unwell. She had rejected their advances to help her. No one could say if she has been diagnosed.
The housewife lived in a three-room HDB flat in Bedok after her marriage. She and her husband later moved into an HDB flat in Sengkang.
When the marriage broke down, the housewife and their son moved into a two-room HDB flat in Toa Payoh around 1999.
During her first week there, the housewife was friendly towards her neighbours and even invited some of them to her home, said her former neighbours there, who asked not to be named.
One 61-year-old neighbour recalled: “She was very nice and asked me to go ‘jalan jalan’ (Malay for stroll) with her in Chinatown. She brought her son and I brought my daughter along.
“But her attitude changed very quickly. She did not disturb one neighbour. She disturbed many neighbours. She threw chicken bones outside my home and sugared biscuits into my flower pots so the ants came.”
Multiple police reports were made and the elderly neighbour said she also took her complaint to court. A mediation session was held and the housewife subsequently stopped harassing the elderly neighbour .
“But still every night we heard the sounds ‘bong bong bong bong’ – all of us couldn’t sleep. She used a pole to hit the ceiling and the floor. The old man who lived in a unit above hers moved out. He said he couldn’t take it,” the neighbour said.
Neighbours both in Toa Payoh and Punggol felt that nothing could be done short of going to court.
Agencies and grassroots organisations they contacted told them to be more tolerant, install CCTV cameras and to avoid contact with her.
The police told The Sunday Times that “if the arrested perpetrator is assessed to be of unsound mind, the police can commit the person to the Institute of Mental Health for mental health assessment and treatment”.
A 24-year-old neighbour said he was once locked inside his flat because someone had stuck something into his padlock and he couldn’t open it with his key. His mother had to use a saw to break the lock. They believe the housewife was behind the mischief.
Asked if the matter was reported to the police, he replied: “No. She did so many things to my neighbours, they called the police but there was no use. It’s always the same officer who came down and he would tell us to just sweep and pick up the rubbish ourselves.”
The neighbours said that the housewife did not have any visitors, even during festive seasons like Chinese New Year, and that she also believed that she was being spied on.
In Toa Payoh, she had six to seven cameras installed outside her flat, as well as a big mirror that reflects the opposite lift lobby. Said the elderly neighbour: “We complained to the RC about her cameras but she refused to remove them.”
A neighbour who wanted to be known only as Mr Ng, 68, said: “Everyday she would be fighting with someone. I don’t think that’s normal. I think she could be mentally stressed by some personal problems. I hope someone will help her before something violent happens and someone gets injured physically. Then it will be too late.”
“Source:[Punggol’s problem neighbour also had disputes in previous Toa Payoh home] © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction”
