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Xenophobia forum deadlock
Panellists unable to reach consensus on opposing anti-immigrant sentiments
by Amir Hussain
04:45 AM Jun 30, 2012
SINGAPORE - Panellists, including several prominent bloggers, at a recent forum on xenophobia here were unable to reach a consensus on whether they should take a collective stand against such behaviour online.
The gridlock led one of the participants, Mr Alex Au, who runs the Yawning Bread blog, to remark: "I find it very strange that we're going to even leave open the door that we can be pro-xenophobia.
"It's almost like saying we can talk about racism but never establish a stand that racism is bad."
The two-hour forum, titled Online|Offline: Digital Citizens on Xenophobia, was held last Sunday.
A recording of it will be uploaded on YouTube today as the first of a series of chat shows on national issues - an initiative by four bloggers, Mr Andrew Loh, Mr Au, Mr Martyn See and Mr Ravi Philemon. The bloggers said they were concerned about the increasing amount of anti-immigrant sentiments in recent years.
At the inaugural forum, Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency Member of Parliament Zaqy Mohamad was also a panellist.
From the start, the panellists could not agree on the definition of xenophobia. The definitions offered by the panellists included "irrational dislike of foreigners" and "unreasonable hatred of foreigners".
Prior to Mr Au's comments during the forum, Mr See said it was meant "to start an honest discussion about anti-foreigner sentiments", while Mr Loh felt that it is "just a discussion on the issues" and "not an anti-xenophobia movement".
Speaking to TODAY, National University of Singapore sociologist Tan Ern Ser said that xenophobia "boils down to being fearful of or being anti-foreigner".
Associate Professor Tan said the bloggers could, for instance, have used a 10-point scale to assess xenophobia, which can be seen as "a matter of different degrees of being fearful", rather than just between being "anti-foreigner and not being anti-foreigner".
He added: "I reckon a minority of Singaporeans (at least many of those who use the social media frequently) come across as quite high - maybe an eight, while a large majority of Singaporeans would probably score a three or a four," said Assoc Prof Tan.
During the forum, the panellists also discussed reasons for anti-foreigner sentiments. They ranged from the lack of avenues to speak out - resulting in irrational venting online - to the readiness to classify people in a "race-conscious society". [Huh? Now add racism in the pot?]
While Mr Zaqy agreed that there is some fear over the influx of foreigners, he reiterated that there have been policy changes, particularly with regards to the tightening of foreign workers.
He pointed out, however, that going by his experience, older Singaporeans are still very race-conscious.
To curb rising xenophobia, the panellists suggested conducting a national dialogue on population and labour force.
Among other things, they also called for the "delegitimisation" of identifying people by their ethnicity and national origin and a re-examination of the economic growth model to achieve growth without having to constantly increase the population.
Panellists unable to reach consensus on opposing anti-immigrant sentiments
by Amir Hussain
04:45 AM Jun 30, 2012
SINGAPORE - Panellists, including several prominent bloggers, at a recent forum on xenophobia here were unable to reach a consensus on whether they should take a collective stand against such behaviour online.
The gridlock led one of the participants, Mr Alex Au, who runs the Yawning Bread blog, to remark: "I find it very strange that we're going to even leave open the door that we can be pro-xenophobia.
"It's almost like saying we can talk about racism but never establish a stand that racism is bad."
The two-hour forum, titled Online|Offline: Digital Citizens on Xenophobia, was held last Sunday.
A recording of it will be uploaded on YouTube today as the first of a series of chat shows on national issues - an initiative by four bloggers, Mr Andrew Loh, Mr Au, Mr Martyn See and Mr Ravi Philemon. The bloggers said they were concerned about the increasing amount of anti-immigrant sentiments in recent years.
At the inaugural forum, Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency Member of Parliament Zaqy Mohamad was also a panellist.
From the start, the panellists could not agree on the definition of xenophobia. The definitions offered by the panellists included "irrational dislike of foreigners" and "unreasonable hatred of foreigners".
Prior to Mr Au's comments during the forum, Mr See said it was meant "to start an honest discussion about anti-foreigner sentiments", while Mr Loh felt that it is "just a discussion on the issues" and "not an anti-xenophobia movement".
Speaking to TODAY, National University of Singapore sociologist Tan Ern Ser said that xenophobia "boils down to being fearful of or being anti-foreigner".
Associate Professor Tan said the bloggers could, for instance, have used a 10-point scale to assess xenophobia, which can be seen as "a matter of different degrees of being fearful", rather than just between being "anti-foreigner and not being anti-foreigner".
He added: "I reckon a minority of Singaporeans (at least many of those who use the social media frequently) come across as quite high - maybe an eight, while a large majority of Singaporeans would probably score a three or a four," said Assoc Prof Tan.
During the forum, the panellists also discussed reasons for anti-foreigner sentiments. They ranged from the lack of avenues to speak out - resulting in irrational venting online - to the readiness to classify people in a "race-conscious society". [Huh? Now add racism in the pot?]
While Mr Zaqy agreed that there is some fear over the influx of foreigners, he reiterated that there have been policy changes, particularly with regards to the tightening of foreign workers.
He pointed out, however, that going by his experience, older Singaporeans are still very race-conscious.
To curb rising xenophobia, the panellists suggested conducting a national dialogue on population and labour force.
Among other things, they also called for the "delegitimisation" of identifying people by their ethnicity and national origin and a re-examination of the economic growth model to achieve growth without having to constantly increase the population.
