While it is usual to see teenagers in Singapore gathering in chalets for barbecues or birthday celebrations, some of their peers get together only to engage in sex and drug parties. Once intoxicated after a cocktail of alcohol and illegal drugs, some of these teens, which include girls as young as 14, engage in sexual intimacy -- from heavy petting to intercourse.
It is understood that such chalets stays are organised by some members of gangs in Singapore, and that they are getting more common. An 18-year-old former gangster who wanted to be known as John told The New Paper, "We would tell our parents that we were going for a barbecue, but we didn't even take any charcoal or chicken wings with us." While he had attended such sex-and-drug orgies twice, John — who left the gang last year after he was arrested for theft — claimed that he has not taken part in such vices.
"I don't do drugs, so I would go home when the rest got too 'high' and became violent or started taking their clothes off," said John, adding that most of the gang members at these parties were in their teens. Speaking in a mixture of Mandarin and Hokkien, John described the girls who take part in the parties as either "lor kway" (Hokkien for streetwalker) or some of them "ah dai" (fools). The former are girls considered to have loose morals, while "ah dai" refers to newbies who attend the chalet parties without knowing that drugs and sex are involved.
As they were under the influence of drugs such as ketamine and "ice", some of the teens have no recollection of their experiences the night before. The parties would usually have more males than females, said former gangsters. Such situations occasionally lead to several men sharing one woman and can even result in gang rape. When morning comes, they pack their bags and check out of their unit. The guys may go through the same routine a few months later with new girls, or "fresh meat" as they are called. A 28-year-old former gang member turned social worker, who wanted to be known as Peter, said he has not seen such a gang rape before, but he has heard of four or five such incidents among his former circle of friends.
"It is not just happening in chalets...such activities can also take place in pub shophouses or in the homes of the gang members," he added. However, John pointed out that not all chalet outings organised by his gangster friends involved sex and drugs.
Parents to be blamed?
Meanwhile, social workers said they have counseled those who have engaged in such vices as part of their gang activities. Those involved may not necessarily come from broken or low-income families, a common stereotype in the past, they said. But they noted that such teens usually suffer from an emotional emptiness at home. "Some parents give too little affection and neglect their children because they are busy, while others give too much attention because they are authoritative," said Faith Png, 39, a social worker with YouthReach. "Both will drive their children to seek freedom and love outside of the family and sometimes, the children befriend gangsters."
Executive director of Singapore Children's Society Alfred Tan, 50, blamed the media's portrayal of casual sex and easy access to pornography as resulting in the country's youth to become more promiscuous than in the past. "This is a worrying trend as there may be peer pressure to have sex. Instead of being harsh to their children, parents should get to know their friends," he told TNP. On the other hand, chalet operators said that they have not come across sex-and-drug-parties on their premises. Manager of Goldkist Beach Resort at East Coast Park Vikas Gupta, 22, said that the management has not encountered any such incidents thus far.
Steven Tang, director of Costa Sands Resort — which has two outlets in Pasir Ris and one in Sentosa — echoed the same thing, adding that it has always been its practice to increase security presence during peak hours. "It has always been our practice to step up our security presence during our peak periods, such as the June school holidays, to deal with the additional visitors," he said. The frequency of security patrols in GoldKist Beach Resort will also increase by 50 percent during peak periods, said Vikas. It is illegal to have sex with children under the age of 16. If the victims are between 12 and 14 years old, it is considered statutory rape and offenders can be jailed up to 20 years and fined or caned.
If the victim is above 14 but below 16, offenders can be jailed up to five years and fined $10,000 for carnal connection. The maximum penalty for rape is 20 years' jail with possible caning.
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