A few started running in all directions. Cameramen chased after them like paparazzi outside London’s royal lodges. Those who stood their ground saw themselves on prime time TV news and next morning’s newspapers' front pages. The 11 men were unlucky for being caught spitting in public at the wrong time.

Spitting is more than a filthy habit in these SARS-threatened days. In the worst-case scenario, it can cost lives. After a quarter of a century of no-spitting campaigns and strict fines, the habit is far from being eradicated.

When SARS struck, killing 31 people in three months, enforcement was stepped up because human spit can help spread the virus.

Public shaming has since become an added punishment. They had already been fined S$300 (RM660) each. Most of them were middle-aged, but surprisingly they included two teenagers. SARS and spitting are not the only targets.

Two weeks later, there was another batch of two spitters – and seven litterbugs. Apart from fines, the litterbugs were also sentenced to four hours of public work cleaning up public places of litter.

The authorities were evidently widening the net to include any act that dirties public places.

The battleground includes eating places – and public toilets.

The government believes that some 3% to 5% of the population of four million people are “dirty” – those who do not observe personal or public hygiene. To clean up after this group, Singapore employs a battalion of about 10,000 cleaners, both in the public and private sectors every day, said Environment Minister Lim Swee Say.

This means that some 120,000-200,000 Singaporeans have a habit of throwing things from their flat windows, littering the streets, spitting or urinating in lifts or stairways.

Few societies have tougher laws than Singapore when it comes to public health. Anyone caught throwing “killer” litter from their windows that endanger life can lose their public flat. It is perhaps the only country that fines people for not flushing a public toilet after using it. As a result of SARS, Singapore plans to rate 40,000 public toilets using a five-star system similar to that used to grade hotels as part of a new campaign called “Happy Toilet.”

Auditors will rate toilets on cleanliness, layout and ergonomics, said Jack Sim, president of the Singapore Restroom Association, which developed the rating system alongside the Health Ministry.

“We came up with this programme because today when you go to a public toilet you do not know what to expect inside,” Sim said. “Sometimes you are very happy, but sometimes you are very shocked – disgusted.”

“When toilets are clean, people are happy and healthy,” he added.

Five-star will be the highest rating, with toilets graded on a list of criteria that includes proper toilet seats and urinals for children.

“It has to have a very good ambience, probably with plants and pictures,” Sim said. “You will know it’s a five-star even without someone endorsing it.”

A three-star rating will mean a toilet is regularly cleaned and re-stocked with toilet paper, soap and paper towels. Restrooms that fail to meet the minimum three-star standard will receive no rating.

Plaques bearing star ratings will soon appear outside these toilets, which are found in food courts, shopping centres, industrial buildings and army barracks, Sim said. The war against SARS has pushed public health and personal hygiene to the forefront and a change of mindset is due.

An area of rising concern is the poor hygiene of some hawker centres, despite strict enforcement by the Environment Ministry. Unhealthy preparation of food, using dirty utensils or having cockroaches or other insects in the premises will earn demerit points.

A stallholder who accumulates 12 points within a 12-month period will have his licence suspended for two or four weeks – or even revoked depending on past records.

In 2001, the government announced a S$420mil (RM924mil) plan to upgrade all hawker centres within 10 years. In addition to the demerit points, the authorities also have a grading system, ranging from “A” (the best) to “D”. Of these, two-thirds are graded “C” - a passing grade. Some of Singapore’s cleanliness laws were derided as being too draconian not only by Westerners, but also by some of Singapore’s younger set.

To catch high-rise litterbugs, government enforcers occasionally mount cameras with high-powered lenses from top floors of housing blocks. These were criticised as violating the privacy of residents. But SARS has swung sentiment around to the authorities’ point of view. Recently, a tabloid highlighted a report of how two families on the 10th and 11th floors of a Housing and Development (HDB) block had suffered from a serial litterbug of the worse kind. In her 30s, the woman was said to have thrown leftovers of her meals out of her kitchen window, which often landed on the ledges just below her neighbours’ flats. It had gone on for three years – noodles, tomato sauce and other foods.

Police reports, visits by community leaders did nothing to stop it. The New Paper took a picture of some foodstuff caught on a window ledge. Stories like this stir up public anger.

Singapore is a small, overcrowded city where people live in close proximity, packed on top of one another. So the standard of living depends on good social habits.

From benches in Orchard Road to the beautiful sandy beaches of Sentosa, all have suffered from inconsiderate visitors. Some litterbugs are families; others are teenagers.

“This is not a cleaning problem. It is a social problem,” said an Environment Ministry official.

o Seah Chiang Nee is a veteran journalist and editor of the information website littlespeck.com (e-mail: cnseah2000@ littlespeck.com )

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