K Shuanmugam: "Malay President, Chinese Prime Minister and Indian Chief Justice. Representation of Singapore."
Xiaxue's FB response:
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Xiaxue
Yesterday at 7:56pm ·
(Reposting because previous article cannot be shared - this one should be fine)
Don't play identity politics because it's a slippery slope that never ends. You will end up dividing the nation as collectivism takes over, separating people by into divisive groups competing with each other for so called equality - when people are supposed to be treated as individuals.
"The smallest minority on Earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." - Ayn Rand
Mr LKY has said Singapore is a meritocratic nation and its citizens should be judged by meritocracy - which is the fairest system there is - not given slack or victimhood status just because of race/religion/sexuality etc.
You want to start by saying there is a Malay President, a Chinese PM and an Indian Chief Justice?
Ok, where is the Eurasian? Let's split it further - women are 50% of the population, shouldn't our political leaders consist half of women? Judging by that, our cabinet is extremely sexist. And when you have half of them as women, make sure that you also put a good dose of intersectional feminism in there - make sure among the women minority races/groups are represented equally too.
Let's go on - a good portion of the population are either agnostic or atheist. Which politician is representing them in this group? What about all the other religions too including minor ones?
How about the LGBT community? We have no openly gay leaders, what an audacity! No trans people? Not diverse enough.
HEY. There are NO FAT PEOPLE in this picture. Why not? WEIGHTIST!
Wait a min. We have no reps for the disabled! Ableist. Oh my god I just realized all these leaders are middle aged! Nobody is representing the youth or the elderly! I demand a 16 year old Chief Justice.
Everyone is average to tall in this photo! Where my short people at? A midget! I demand a midget in cabinet to fairly represent me!
Our political leaders are all so clever and fancy with their law degrees and medicine degrees... A good part of Singaporeans don't have degrees, right? Our politicians must reflect that percentage too, for equality and diversity. More stupid people in cabinet, until the average IQ in there is the national average.
The dividing NEVER ENDS. And when you force only a small subset of the population to be able to run for presidency, that is pretty much giving a slap to meritocracy in the face.
You'd think we would have learnt from stupid America, who decided to open Pandora's box by playing with identity politics - and now the nation is more divided than ever.
But who are we kidding, people never learn. Thus the phrase "History repeats itself".
In fact, the division already started. I saw a popular tweet by a Malay Singaporean saying that only the Chinese are angry by the election results, followed by a sarcastic "I wonder why". So upsetting to read stuff like this. We are all Singaporeans that didn't get to vote, it's natural we are upset. Please don't make this a race thing. But hey this is an example of what identity politics do; divide people. You are Chinese? You are not part of my group.
It's a shame that Mdm Halimah isn't recognized by her own merits, but just crudely described as "Malay" and "female" in most articles.
Those two things she was simply born with, it requires no talent of her own and therefore shouldn't be anything to be proud of. She has been a public servant for 16 years, with a good record and is well liked by her constituency. Her experience and achievements should precede her title, not "Malay".
All the debate about whether she's Malay enough or not is disgusting. Argue that for what?! She's not just Malay, she is an individual person beyond her skin colour, so what race she is shouldn't be the issue! The issue should be that as a nation, we should be given the power to vote for whoever we wanted as our president, regardless of his/her race! I think that as a taxpayer who is contributing to the president's millions in salary, I should have some (however minuscule) say in who gets the post and therefore my money!
At least if Singaporeans elected her we can say that as a nation we believed that a woman can do what is traditionally a man's job and perhaps there is a little something to be proud of there, condescending as it is. But we weren't even given that chance.
So continue to call her "Malay President" I suppose - by all means emphasize the fact that her race is why she got elected (is that the right word since there is no election), not by democratic choice for all her merits.
All of you know I'm a staunch PAP supporter. But I'm feeling pretty disillusioned tbh.
Xiaxue's FB response:
---
Xiaxue
Yesterday at 7:56pm ·
(Reposting because previous article cannot be shared - this one should be fine)
Don't play identity politics because it's a slippery slope that never ends. You will end up dividing the nation as collectivism takes over, separating people by into divisive groups competing with each other for so called equality - when people are supposed to be treated as individuals.
"The smallest minority on Earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." - Ayn Rand
Mr LKY has said Singapore is a meritocratic nation and its citizens should be judged by meritocracy - which is the fairest system there is - not given slack or victimhood status just because of race/religion/sexuality etc.
You want to start by saying there is a Malay President, a Chinese PM and an Indian Chief Justice?
Ok, where is the Eurasian? Let's split it further - women are 50% of the population, shouldn't our political leaders consist half of women? Judging by that, our cabinet is extremely sexist. And when you have half of them as women, make sure that you also put a good dose of intersectional feminism in there - make sure among the women minority races/groups are represented equally too.
Let's go on - a good portion of the population are either agnostic or atheist. Which politician is representing them in this group? What about all the other religions too including minor ones?
How about the LGBT community? We have no openly gay leaders, what an audacity! No trans people? Not diverse enough.
HEY. There are NO FAT PEOPLE in this picture. Why not? WEIGHTIST!
Wait a min. We have no reps for the disabled! Ableist. Oh my god I just realized all these leaders are middle aged! Nobody is representing the youth or the elderly! I demand a 16 year old Chief Justice.
Everyone is average to tall in this photo! Where my short people at? A midget! I demand a midget in cabinet to fairly represent me!
Our political leaders are all so clever and fancy with their law degrees and medicine degrees... A good part of Singaporeans don't have degrees, right? Our politicians must reflect that percentage too, for equality and diversity. More stupid people in cabinet, until the average IQ in there is the national average.
The dividing NEVER ENDS. And when you force only a small subset of the population to be able to run for presidency, that is pretty much giving a slap to meritocracy in the face.
You'd think we would have learnt from stupid America, who decided to open Pandora's box by playing with identity politics - and now the nation is more divided than ever.
But who are we kidding, people never learn. Thus the phrase "History repeats itself".
In fact, the division already started. I saw a popular tweet by a Malay Singaporean saying that only the Chinese are angry by the election results, followed by a sarcastic "I wonder why". So upsetting to read stuff like this. We are all Singaporeans that didn't get to vote, it's natural we are upset. Please don't make this a race thing. But hey this is an example of what identity politics do; divide people. You are Chinese? You are not part of my group.
It's a shame that Mdm Halimah isn't recognized by her own merits, but just crudely described as "Malay" and "female" in most articles.
Those two things she was simply born with, it requires no talent of her own and therefore shouldn't be anything to be proud of. She has been a public servant for 16 years, with a good record and is well liked by her constituency. Her experience and achievements should precede her title, not "Malay".
All the debate about whether she's Malay enough or not is disgusting. Argue that for what?! She's not just Malay, she is an individual person beyond her skin colour, so what race she is shouldn't be the issue! The issue should be that as a nation, we should be given the power to vote for whoever we wanted as our president, regardless of his/her race! I think that as a taxpayer who is contributing to the president's millions in salary, I should have some (however minuscule) say in who gets the post and therefore my money!
At least if Singaporeans elected her we can say that as a nation we believed that a woman can do what is traditionally a man's job and perhaps there is a little something to be proud of there, condescending as it is. But we weren't even given that chance.
So continue to call her "Malay President" I suppose - by all means emphasize the fact that her race is why she got elected (is that the right word since there is no election), not by democratic choice for all her merits.
All of you know I'm a staunch PAP supporter. But I'm feeling pretty disillusioned tbh.