SingaporeSurf

In response to my earlier letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs on whether MRT passengers have a right to refuse random searches, Mr Jarrod Pereira, Assistant Director, Operations (Security & Counter Terrorism) gave a simple reply: passengers never had that right.

"It is inaccurate to state that passengers have a right to refuse the [security] check by leaving the station," Mr Pereira said. "Rather, the MRT staff have a right to refuse entry to passengers that refuse to be checked." If you want to take the MRT, you'll have to agree to be searched.

In fact, with the introduction of the "special armed police unit" that will patrol the MRT system, passengers who refuse to be searched will be detained by "MRT staff and security guards... till the arrival of the police." You will probably not have a pleasant time.

Even if you do not carry any illegal items with you, refusal of searches alone may not be legal. (I didn't pose any legal questions in my earlier e-mail, nor am I a lawyer, so this is only my layman interpretation of the Rapid Transit Systems Act (Chapter 263A).) After all, "[25.] Any person who wilfully does or omits to do anything in relation to any railway as a result of which the safety of any person travelling or being upon the railway is endangered, or is likely to be so endangered, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both."

In New York City, the location of the 9-11 attack, passengers need not subject themselves to random searches. "Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said that you are free to 'turn around and leave' any subway system where police are conducting random searches." In London, those who refuse will simply "be banned from travelling."

In Singapore, you will be detained.

So, beware. Don't carry any illegal (not that you should in the first place) or any embarassing things with you when you travel in the MRT trains. If you are chosen to be searched, you cannot refuse.