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  The Straits Times 27 Aug 06
What's their problem?

OBSERVATIONS both intriguing and astute were reported in our article last week on the worsening litter problem outside of the city centre.

An executive of the Singapore Environment Council put the habit down to laziness, which suggests an auto reflex action. This type of offender can be reformed only by punitive action.

But Singapore appears to be moving away from this, preferring to emphasise civic responsibility. We say, bring back the toughness.

A sociologist thought it was a serious condition of people having no sense of ownership in their living spaces. For them, you'll just have to plug away at educating them.

'Civilising' may be the more appropriate word. Mr Charles Chong, an MP whose brief as chair of a government parliamentary committee includes the environment, offered the most disturbing impression.

It could be, he surmised, that people dropped litter feeling it was a 'right' as they were paying service and conservancy charges. As the archetypal area MP, Mr Chong is all eyes and ears. His view may be uncomfortably close to the truth.

It is impossible to ascertain how prevalent the attitude is, but one hears about the strange pathology all the time. It can be summed up thus: 'I pay, so I can.'

A variation is the asinine comeback when a litterer is reprimanded, typically at an HDB hawker centre: 'There are cleaners, what.'

Even if Mr Chong is only partly correct in his diagnosis, it shows that education and campaigns are a long way from accomplishing their aims of bringing about a cultural change.

Meantime, a return to strict law enforcement is recommended.

One waits for the day when young and old alike will as a matter of habit take the litter with them when there are no bins around, and hawker-centre patrons clear their tables after a meal as a courtesy to waiting customers, even as cleaners are at hand.
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