Being xenophobic or racial – what exactly does that mean? I think the use of such words is a very lazy and unjustified way to dismiss Singaporeans’ legitimate concern that they are being treated as second-class citizens in their own country.
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fuspoke about social faultlines and increased tensions between foreigners and locals at a dialogue on race on Saturday (May 30) morning, according to The Straits Times. She cited certain locals’ “visceral reaction” to recent reports of foreigners gathering at Robertson Quay, drinking and flouting social distancing rules.
“When that video came out friends told me that yes, (there were also) expatriates in Singapore Botanic Gardens (gathering) and so on. It is not just restricted to one place, but somehow when we see a group of people that look different from us, there is a visceral reaction,” said Ms Fu, noting that before police investigations had been completed, there were already calls for foreigners to be deported.
This visceral reaction was apparently spurred by (unsaid but alleged: parenthesis supplied by writer) anti-Westerner sentiments.
She then gave another example, this time the self-proclaimed “sovereign” woman. Locals’ instinctive reaction, she said, was to label her as a foreigner even though she was Singaporean. The lady, who is being charged for refusing to wear a mask during the Circuit Breaker period to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, was a physiotherapist who was in Australia for 20 yearsbefore returning to Singapore. The implication here was that she was targeted because she looked like an expatriate and, for the measure, perhaps, she was Indian.
At least one social media commentator has also suggested that somehow, somewhere in many Singaporeans’ unhappiness about migrant workers in the dormitories in the Covid-19 crisis and the government’s lapse of focus and over-reaction in trying to correct its error was possibly a backlash against CECA. The India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement has been blamed for the over-presence of people from India. Didn’t really matter whether they were the Bangladeshi workers nor even the Indian workers (not the professionals) who are not here because of CECA.
But Fu may be missing, or chooses to miss, the point altogether. Who should be truly blamed for this state of affairs?
The foundation for inter-racial tolerance – and continuing harmony – was already there in the years leading up to independence. Who started making the other races nervous with an over-zealous almost unchecked sinicisation of Singapore, killing a number of familiar local street and district names? Only a strong community lashback forced a restoration of the original organic Tekka to the inexcusably alien “Zhujiao” Centre.
Also, unhappiness with CECA as well as the presence of foreigners has little to do with xenophobia and so-called short-sighted nativist emotions.
It springs from the government’s long-time inability or refusal to commit itself to a simple and unequivocal declaration that Singaporeans’ interests are paramount and non-negotiable. That they, especially those who have done NS, must never be put at any disadvantage – whether it is about jobs, education (including their children’s education all the way to university) and right to be treated equal.
If they say they do not like double standards in the way they are treated, listen carefully and do not summarily dismiss their reaction as racial or xenophobic. Singaporeans deserve to be heard and not sidelined or lectured at – by anyone, particularly those whom they have put into power.
http://theindependent.sg/grace-fus-imagined-visceral-reaction-singaporeans-deserve-better-really/
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fuspoke about social faultlines and increased tensions between foreigners and locals at a dialogue on race on Saturday (May 30) morning, according to The Straits Times. She cited certain locals’ “visceral reaction” to recent reports of foreigners gathering at Robertson Quay, drinking and flouting social distancing rules.
“When that video came out friends told me that yes, (there were also) expatriates in Singapore Botanic Gardens (gathering) and so on. It is not just restricted to one place, but somehow when we see a group of people that look different from us, there is a visceral reaction,” said Ms Fu, noting that before police investigations had been completed, there were already calls for foreigners to be deported.
This visceral reaction was apparently spurred by (unsaid but alleged: parenthesis supplied by writer) anti-Westerner sentiments.
She then gave another example, this time the self-proclaimed “sovereign” woman. Locals’ instinctive reaction, she said, was to label her as a foreigner even though she was Singaporean. The lady, who is being charged for refusing to wear a mask during the Circuit Breaker period to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, was a physiotherapist who was in Australia for 20 yearsbefore returning to Singapore. The implication here was that she was targeted because she looked like an expatriate and, for the measure, perhaps, she was Indian.
At least one social media commentator has also suggested that somehow, somewhere in many Singaporeans’ unhappiness about migrant workers in the dormitories in the Covid-19 crisis and the government’s lapse of focus and over-reaction in trying to correct its error was possibly a backlash against CECA. The India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement has been blamed for the over-presence of people from India. Didn’t really matter whether they were the Bangladeshi workers nor even the Indian workers (not the professionals) who are not here because of CECA.
But Fu may be missing, or chooses to miss, the point altogether. Who should be truly blamed for this state of affairs?
The foundation for inter-racial tolerance – and continuing harmony – was already there in the years leading up to independence. Who started making the other races nervous with an over-zealous almost unchecked sinicisation of Singapore, killing a number of familiar local street and district names? Only a strong community lashback forced a restoration of the original organic Tekka to the inexcusably alien “Zhujiao” Centre.
Also, unhappiness with CECA as well as the presence of foreigners has little to do with xenophobia and so-called short-sighted nativist emotions.
It springs from the government’s long-time inability or refusal to commit itself to a simple and unequivocal declaration that Singaporeans’ interests are paramount and non-negotiable. That they, especially those who have done NS, must never be put at any disadvantage – whether it is about jobs, education (including their children’s education all the way to university) and right to be treated equal.
If they say they do not like double standards in the way they are treated, listen carefully and do not summarily dismiss their reaction as racial or xenophobic. Singaporeans deserve to be heard and not sidelined or lectured at – by anyone, particularly those whom they have put into power.
http://theindependent.sg/grace-fus-imagined-visceral-reaction-singaporeans-deserve-better-really/
