'Break the Silence' Campaign to Encourage Intervention in Family Violence Situations

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) whether he can provide details on the three-year "Break the Silence" public education campaign to encourage witnesses to safely intervene in family violence situations; (b) whether the Ministry will set up a dedicated hotline for victims and witnesses of family violence to report abuses; and (c) whether the Ministry will provide urgent advice to victims and witnesses and coordinate interventions by specialist centres and the police.

Mdm Speaker, my Ministry launched the three-year "Break the Silence | Against Family Violence" campaign last November, essentially, to renew and to continue to raise awareness of family violence, with a focus on the role of bystanders. The key message is that family violence is not a private matter. Victims need help. They need to receive help early. The community, including neighbours, family members, friends and even strangers, can play a very important part to tackle family violence.

As part of the campaign, a "First Steps" video, depicting how a neighbour intervenes when violence occurs nearby, is available online. I do encourage each of us in the House to share the video and other collaterals on social media to start conversations around family violence and how we as bystanders can step in to help victims. The #breakthesilenceSG effort was started to also gather stories on social media of how everyday Singaporeans stepped in to prevent, interrupt and report suspected family violence. It can be done. There are people who have done so and who have made a difference and it is really to encourage all of us to realise that that is something that all of us can and should do.

Over the next three years, my Ministry will work with our community and corporate partners, including through ground-up efforts relating to music, through the sports community and the arts community, to further raise awareness of family violence. We also have roving community roadshows, training sessions and collaterals being produced to help raise awareness and to equip bystanders with resources and also to update them on skills that are required to safely step in to help victims.

Anyone who encounters family violence can call or approach the nearest Family Service Centre, Family Violence Specialist Centre or community-based Child Protection Specialist Centre. Alternatively, they can call the ComCare Hotline at 1800-222-0000, a number which many of us are familiar with and from there they can redirect the individuals to the specialist centres concerned. These agencies will assess each case and render the appropriate assistance required.

When emergencies occur, call the Police. Agencies are connected through the National Family Violence Networking System and will respond to cases regardless of where the first incident report is made. Where there are serious concerns, my Ministry will work closely with the Family Violence Specialist Centres and the Police to address the safety of the victim and any other vulnerable members in the family.

Madam, I thank the Minister. I think it is a great initiative but I am wondering about the risk that is now opened up for the bystanders because they are asked to safely intervene, and also for the alleged perpetrators because their privacy might be compromised through social media postings, for example, and of course the safety of bystanders themselves could be threatened by violent reactions from the perpetrators. So, how would MSF counter these issues?

I would like to thank the Member for his clarifications and these are very real concerns. In fact, that is the reason sometimes people are worried about stepping in: one, they are concerned about their own personal safety; another, of course, sometimes they feel that these are personal issues, family issues and really not for us to intervene.

I am not sure whether the Member has watched the video that we have shared. There are many quite good videos. For example, just knock on the door and just say, "Hello, how are you? Is everything OK?" In the video that we just produced, this old auntie, you look at her and you can tell she is really fed up about the situation. She got up and we thought she was going to get into a ruckus with the neighbours. But she actually cooked the cake or she brought out something and gave it to them, just for them to realise that, as neighbours we heard something, we noticed.

There are lots of ways where we can step in without necessarily making it confrontational. It allows a break in that event so that the individuals perpetrating violence would take a step back and realise that people are noticing it and that may start that whole process for them to self-reflect.

If at all, perhaps, it is just to raise concerns, call the hotline or call the Police, if necessary, if you think it is excessively violent and you are concerned about the well-being of those who are affected. Or just call the hotline and we will then assess accordingly and see whether the grassroots could step in.

These are ways where we want to encourage people to, perhaps, begin to see how we can play a part. The other roles that can be played are not just by strangers and neighbours. It is actually family members. You will realise that in many of these cases, family members were aware of some of these instances that were happening. In fact, in one very tragic case of a young boy, two years old, who died unfortunately, actually the grandmother was aware but we do not know why she did not raise it.

These are all steps. What we want to do is to encourage people to do something. Let us know. At least let us intervene and at least something can be done. If it turns out to be a false alarm, so be it. There are safe ways to do it and I think the whole idea of some of these collaterals being produced is to help raise awareness that there are ways to do it without putting ourselves at risk.