As a 21-year-old student living with HIV for over a year, Joel has not led an easy life. Now, just as he is about to enter National Service (NS), a series of unexpected and humiliating events came to light. Joel’s story prior to this event has already been written- “It Could Never Happen to Me Too” was penned just a week prior to his predicament now.

As a Permanent Resident, Joel understood and embraced his requirement to complete 2 years of NS. The enlistment and medical check-up letters, however, were not yet received in his mailbox; nor has a call been made to his residence to inform him of any enlistment information. The only thing he received was an “NS Open House” letter- clearly indicating that his address has been updated by the respective government agency after his relocation 4 years ago.

Late one Saturday night, however, Joel was out with his friends at Zouk- a popular club in central Singapore. He had gone out of the club for a few moments- wanting to get away from the crowd when the police approached him and his friends. They asked everyone for their details and pulled Joel aside after a moment of checking through his records. He was thereafter arrested with handcuffs, escorted by police officers to be detained at the Police Cantonment Centre for “AWOL”- “Absence Without Official Leave.”

The policemen proceeded to inform Joel that he had apparently failed to enlist and was wanted by the government under the charge of AWOL. Before entering the lock-up facility, Joel was given a pat down by a police officer and was asked if he had anything to declare. Joel said “No,” due to his HIV status being unnecessary at this point of time and also as it was completely within his rights to withhold the sensitive information.

“My counsellor had told me what to do during these situations before. Never disclose unless completely necessary, until further advice is given to me by a counsellor or unless it is by law for the case that I am being charged with.” This is to protect the detained from any sort of discrimination that they may face from officers or to avoid any possible uncomfortable situations that the detainee may be put in.

While in his cell, Joel asked several police officers on whether he would be allowed to make a call- they all denied his request. Moments later, though, Joel realised that he had not brought out his medication that night and needed them if he was going to be detained any longer, as he was not told of how long he would be detained for. Upon mentioning his dilemma to another officer, which required him to disclose his HIV status, he was allowed his phone call. Joel managed to get his mother to bring his medication down to the Police Cantonment Complex’s lock-up facility.

Once the call had ended, however, Joel realised he was then placed in a different cell from before- a single-cell. A few minutes after a police officer went to his cell- the very officer who patted him down a while ago.

“You think this is a funfair? I asked you to declare you didn’t declare!” The officer continued to verbally abuse Joel, curse at him in the Malay Language and reprimanded him for his HIV status. Another police officer only came in to mediate the situation after a few minutes. “I kept apologising for not declaring to him, but he kept screaming at me, almost insinuating that he could’ve been infected and I put him at risk. He kept cursing at me. I started crying. I’ve never felt so ashamed and humiliated of myself and my HIV status in my life.”

Alas, the officer who came in to mediate had a few words of his own, “Why didn’t you declare? What if I had had a cut on my finger and I gave you a pat down?”
Joel was completely caught off guard and responded- “You’re saying that if you had a cut on your finger and you touched me, you’d be infected?”
“It’s a possibility,” he replied.

Unwilling to pursue the matter any longer, Joel kept quiet.

They wore gloves whenever handling Joel after finding out. “They actually wore gloves whenever escorting me anywhere and giving me pat downs. I felt so filthy.”

This just shows that discrimination can haunt you anywhere, shares Joel, “even government officials are so misinformed that they can place their own stigma against my disease and treat me like that.”

Currently Joel’s charges are being dropped and he is enlisting into NS within the year. The discrimination, however, is something that will stick by Joel for a while to come.

“I don’t see the point of lodging a complaint. My mum wanted to write a letter to the newspaper forums, but I dissuaded her. I don’t really want their apologies. What I want is for them to be better educated.”




Editor’s Note: 
Though Singapore isn’t the most accepting community to those with STDs, we have come to expect more from government officials. Joel’s incident just proves that somehow there isn’t enough awareness regarding the issue made accessible to them. The discrimination he faced- to the point of the police officers donning gloves just to handle him after receiving knowledge of his HIV status; just proves that the stigma they harbour to those with HIV. It is this stigma that needs to be addressed and that needs to be eliminated.