Prostitution is legal in Singapore. But male prostitution is a trickier proposition. There is no regulated industry, no legal sanction, for male prostitution. It is an open secret that gay men go to Little India in the hopes of meeting other willing men, particularly young South Asian foreign workers looking for extra cash. As the documentary made clear, foreign workers are not supposed to be moonlighting under the terms of their time-limited work permits.
Presenter Diana Ser and her news crew did night filming in Little India, with a hidden camera monitoring the area in front of the Mustafa shopping center along Serangoon Road over seven nights. They noticed nothing on the first night. One the second night, they send a wired up decoy named Sam among the thousands of men socializing in the area. But to the viewer it remained unclear what services were being offered for the price.
The two repaired to a hotel room, where a waiting TV crew scared the man off. To its credit, the documentary took care to pixelate the faces of all non-crew individuals and interviewees. Only if you stand there and watch. But the results were inconclusive. The documentary had a hard time pinning down the scene, which blends into the hustle and bustle of Little India, and is far more nuanced than television viewers could know.
Was the story still true? Were the dollar men driven away? Meet John not his real name. He is a Singaporean by birth whose family came from South India, and a longtime patron of the so-called dollar men. John agreed to show us around Little India and explain the gay male pickup scene on a recent Sunday, the day of the week when South Asians typically crowd into Little India by the tens of thousands on their one day off from work, to relax and socialize among friends.
He can pick out the regulars, not all of whom are South Asian, who come on a regular basis to meet other men. First, you make friends. You go out for a drink or a bite to eat, you talk and get to know each other. Many of them are coming to meet men. If something is mentioned, they might go for it. Some of the men are migrant workers in their 20s, while others may be students who need extra cash, John says. Now meet Naren also not his real name.
