Are Singaporeans Getting Racist

Most of you will be startled by the title of this topic. Immediately I can foresee defenses being made in the brains of those who deny that Singaporeans are racists. I also foresee knives being thrown at me. I might become a hated person. However, I will not be affected by all these thoughts and threats if ever there were. The main concern that I would like to drive at is how prejudice we have become because of the rise of the standard of living and status. The government has a hand to play in it. I would want to ensure that there is no way I am blaming the government for the rise of status Singaporeans have acquired.

Singaporeans have recently adopted a sense of xenophobia towards foreign workers. The foreign workers that Singaporean's fear are the "dark man" and not "the white man". The government recently announced that they would convert an abandoned school building into a dormitory for foreign workers. The area chosen is Serangoon Gardens. It is allocated in the Northern – Eastern part of Singapore. It is populated by a few thousand Singaporeans and a considerable number of expatriates. It also houses the ever congested and famous food centre, Chomp Chomp. ( They do serve pretty good food!!!) Within a few days, there have been a barrage of fiery and ludicrous protest written in the newspapers to prevent the development. The reasons were based on the "dark man" committing Crime, Noise and causing Congestion.
Some of the suggestions given to keep them away from the Serangoon Neighbourhood were :

• "Jailing them like criminals or caging them like animals "
• "Creating a town in the outskirts of Singapore where they can roam and live happily"
• Restricting their freedom to roam around

Jailing them like criminals or caging them like animals

There were suggestions to confine the foreigners to the dormitory so that they would not be able to roam beyond it. Just consider this outrageous idea. These foreigners come to Singapore to take up jobs that Singaporeans do not want to do. They are not criminals yet we suggest that they be treated as one. Singaporeans should put themselves in the foreigner's shoes. What if we went to a foreign country to work in jobs that those citizens in that country do not want to do and we are confronted by calls to treat us as criminals. Well, I guess we would feel isolated, "complain" and fight for our rights because most Singaporeans are educated. Please do not forget that these foreigners are not educated and their position will be more precarious than ours. They may not be well informed of their rights and may not know how to go about fighting for it. There is a saying, if we cannot get rid of them, cage them. Do we want to stoop to such a low level?
How would these foreigners feel? Most of them would be living in poverty back in their home land. They may be suffering from racial discrimination back in their mother land. For example, African Black Americans. Workers from Bangladesh suffer poverty because there is a great income gap in India. They flock here to find jobs, find better pay and purchase electrical products and sell it back in their mother land. They also contribute to our economy. I think we are the 1st country in the world to suggest "jailing" non – criminals who contribute to our economy and flock here to find jobs. I guess we want to be 1st in everything we partake.
Naturally these workers would feel isolated and deprived. Being unable to live happily in Singapore and being treated like a criminal may cause these foreigners to feel resentment towards Singaporeans. They may begin to revolt and breakout of their "jail" ( Prison Break 3 – made in Singapore ). They may start riots in Serangoon to demand that they be treated equally and fairly. Please do not forget that in countries like India, violence is part of their lives. We have not had any riots for a long time so please do not rock the boat.

Creating a town in the outskirts of Singapore where they can roam and live happily

There were suggestions to develop the dormitory in the outskirts of Singapore. To create shopping and other leisure facilities in that particular "island" for the foreigners to enjoy. There is a great irony to this suggestion. As Singaporeans, we are thought to live happily among other races, religions and ethnicity. Yet when, it comes to these kind of foreigners which are of a different nationality, race and ethnicity, we are against living with them harmoniously . I think the government should re - look into their campaign in encouraging us to live among people with different races, religion and ethnicity. On second thoughts, I think that would not be necessary, we should be re-looking at ourselves. It is not that we cannot live with people with different backgrounds, nationality, race and ethnicity, it is that we choose who we should get along with. If it was a white race, we would welcome them with open arms. There are a lot of foreigners working in Singapore. The white foreigners are not prejudiced but the dark ones are. We have become racist in our own way. We are becoming like the Americans who discriminated against the blacks. Talk of Singapore advancing as a developed nation, I think we are retreating.

Restricting their freedom to roam around

There were suggestions of restricting their freedom as well. There were suggestions to set limits on where these foreigners could patronize. These limits were necessary in order to protect the elderly. I was appalled that such suggestions could be made. It also labels these foreigners as trouble makers and pose a danger to the elderly. In turn the elderly would be afraid of them. This fear can be contagious as it would spread to the young when their elders tell them to be vary of the foreigners. As Asians we are cultivated to obey our elders.

Singapore started off as a trading port. Foreigners have always flock to our land to do business. People from China, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, you name it have all come here to trade in our country. They have created jobs and businesses. Some of the businesses still exist to this very dying day. So why is it that there is now a big "hoo ha" about foreigners coming to Singapore and staying in the heart lands of Singapore. As mentioned before, it is a particular kind of foreigners that are being prejudiced and they are known as the dark ones. They are viewed as trouble makers, low class, living in dirty squalors, sexual predators and being uncivilized. The media is partly to be blame. There have been reports of foreigners having sexual relations with domestic maids, fights among them ( as if Singaporeans do not fight, more prevalent among Indians – sorry do not mean to be prejudice here.) and causing trouble around Singapore. Seldom are there any good reports about them.

Another reason is that we are adopting the white men's attitude. We regard the white race as superior and more civilized. If the dormitory was populated by white folks and they moved around shirtless, talking loudly, drinking beer and indulging in other entertainment ( maybe sexual promiscuous behaviour), I bet my money's worth that the people living around the dormitory would close an eye. The white folks are able to work among us, eat with us and partake his/her leisure with us. They are looked upon as an authority figure. It has been through historically. For example, when Australia was colonized by the British, Australians adopted the British behaviour of drinking tea in the afternoon. Aborigines were looked down upon and prejudiced as they were "dark sinned" and inferior to the "white skin". Australia only allowed citizens from Europe to migrate to its land. When the Australian government opened its door to Asians as well because it felt that it's population was depleting due to Australians migrating to European countries, there was a great protest. There is still racist sentiments in Australia. One politician that was against Asians was Pauline Hanson. Singaporeans aspire to be like the white folks. They are our bench mark to achieve a high standard of living in Singapore. Even the government is trying very hard to obtain a "Swiss" standard of living and they are not far away from achieving that goal.

I am not saying that this is bad. In fact, it is good for every country to prosper. However, in our relentless persuade of achieving a high standard of living, we have lost track of what being a Singaporean is. We have forgotten the Yellow Man in the street, the rickshaw puller, the street hawker, the construction worker. Therefore, I think we need to re-educate ourselves again. If we are prejudiced now against the dark man, how would our children feel towards them. This prejudice could become contagious. It would be good for Singapore as a whole. I hope in the future there would be improvements in the attitudes towards the foreigners but for now the future looks bleak

As Singapore prospers, there is a class divide that is starting to emerge. Income gap is widening. The rich will only get richer despite how much the government helps the poor. The reason is that the government has always adopted a Confucius thinking whereby, people must work in order to prosper. Poor people may not have the resources and capability to work. Living on handouts is not helpful. The amount is not as big as those given out in welfare states. Eventhough, there have been exploitation of welfare benefits by the citizens of welfare states, I still feel it can be implemented here if there were proper controls. Welfare states are even legislating proper controls to curb the abuses of welfare benefits. Maybe Singapore can look into this matter. After all Lee Kuan Yew is not the PM anymore. It was Lee Kuan Yew's idea in the first place to adopt the welfare system. It was due to something he witnessed in his first few years of his reign as PM. He visited a Shipyard and he saw the workers fooling around because eventhough the shipyard was on strike, it was giving out welfare benefits. From that instance, he decided that Singapore will never be a welfare state. I do hope the state would change it's mind on this matter. In a meantime, I really urge that Singaporeans re look at ourselves and have compassionate to the foreign workers.