Good points made! :)

Yes, let’s not just be ‘tolerant’. Let’s actually be accepting of others. Otherwise, we’re just being PC.

This Ken LIm fella’s arrogance is astounding. His comments are not only racist, but IMHO seditious. His refusal to apologise shows his incredible stupidity.

He doesn’t realise that he has taken a direct hit at not only the Indian community, but also at the the fledgeling, only Indian TV channel, Vashantam.

Vashantam channel got every right to sue this most ignorant specimen of a human, who openly and defiantly wants to display his racial superiority complex

If no action is taken against him, just like what the bunch of mocking teenagers did, it will be open season all over the island for inter-racial abuse and if left unchecked, warfare

Media-corp for a start should kick-out this Ken Lim fella from the Idol show.

The ultimate goal should be harmony. Tolerance is indeed just a PC solution. We need to – in this coming age – find a path to True Harmony and Appreciation of Each Other.

Even acceptance is not good enough if it is but passive.

We are in urgent need of a new paradigm for social relations.

The way tolerance is being sold in Singapore is actually more of “intolerant of intolerance.” And what does TOLERANCE mean? It means that my culture is better than yours, but i will TOLERATE your lesser culture.

Acceptance is way better. But acceptance comes at appearing intolerant at times – it means, for example, laughing at racist jokes made against your own race. So are you willing to accept or to tolerate? Acceptance is really nice. But tolerance is maybe more practicable to save your own feelings.

We must not sound too idealistic. In a multi-racial and multi-cultural country, it is not easy to have total acceptance. For enlightened people, it will be easier to accept cultural differences. But, are all the people equally enlightened? Are all the people sufficiently intellectual now to accept fundamental differences?

Not all the citizens in a country are highly conscientious and responsible. There are bound to have some who are abhorrent to things different from their own. It will take a long time to accept divergent cultural and religious practices. 40 years of nationhood is comparatively short. Look at countries with much longer history, such as China and India. After thousands of years, there are still cultural and religious conflicts.

Tolerance should be the basic requirement for people in a multi-cultural and multi-religious country. We can start working towards acceptance, but it will require a lot of self-discipline and enlightenment. Let’s all be realistic and practical. It is dangerous to be over complacent. We should be happy at this stage that we can enjoy racial harmony. It is already quite an achievement.

The PAP has used racial quotas in HDB as a way of maintaining racial harmony, this segregates the people and does not help to increase acceptance of other races but stymies growth and creates suspicion.

LKY is racist, if the people can accept a minority race president, why not a minority race PM. He plays on peoples fear of past riots and keeps people in subjection.

Mediacorp should look into having more minority race actors/actress, hosts etc on channel 5 and 8. It can also dub some Malay/Indian language TV programs/films into English or even Chinese language for viewers and vice versa. This will help people to understand and appreciate the different races better.

MOE can also look into 3rd language conversation classes or cultural classes.

Totally agree with #3) New Renaissance on October 2nd, 2009 12.16 am.

[...] Discourse – TOC: Spillovers of tolerance – The Kent Ridge Common: Yellow Ribbon campaign within the civil service – The Temasek Review: MM [...]

Maybe Ken Lim has got the directive to appear like a Simon Cowell of American Idol fame. Sarcastic, down-to-earth and at times, plain rude. But Cowell is able to pull it off. Sure, he makes contestants cry. But his comments are generally honest and over time, viewers appreciate and respect his ability to spot a winner.
Was Ken Lim being racist? Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Some people like him just only know how to crack jokes that laugh at people’s racial characteristics. It’s not really funny, such jokes, when you think about it. But then there will always be people like Ken Lim around. Hopefully, in time, they will go the way of the dodo. But I doubt.

The ad for Vasantham Star is well done with a catchy tune. The spoof that the girls did was just out of fun while in the beach. Don’t think it is racist. One of the best compliments is when someone does a copy cat (even if it is a poor one). CHILL OUT!!

Why isn’t there anything that is said about acceptance for others from different religions, disabled people, foreign laborers, hermaphrodites, the elderly, the mentally ill, ex-criminals and transvestites. These various groups of people are often sidelined in national policies, passed over for jobs, ridiculed and condemned by self-righteous elites and religious groups. When we are a society that harps on equal rights, just lip service alone smacks of abject hypocrisy.

Everybody is a more or less ‘ racist’. I’m sure all of us laugh and crack jokes, IN PRIVATE, about the idiosyncracies and pecularities of any other race, whether they are Europeans or from Somoa or if they are from the tundra region

But to do it openly on national TV, and do it in front of millions like the idol show is not only foolhardy, but shows the stupidity of that Ken Lim fella and those who employed him

The fact is that this fool says he is 1000% right and he has done nothing wrong.

If that’s the case, in the next idol show lets see him make some more of his racial wisecracks if a malay, arab, punjabi, eurasian, mongolian, nigerian etc comes to sing.

Lets see what humorous insults he has got up his sleeve

#2

even if u think it is seditious, are the great Singapore Police going to act on it and charge him? I think not. In Singapore, money talks and lesser mortals walk….

I agree with you Ravi. The tension surrounding race relations can probably be attributed to ‘tolerance’. So instead of confronting the racial tensions, people start becoming passive-aggressive and it leaks out to..stupid videos on the internet.

I personally feel that all races should have a right to make fun of each other. It’s really time for Vasantham or Suria to have a program making fun of Chinese gongfu or some other stereotype. When people are tolerant, it shuts out the potential for compromise. People will just be content being different and maybe even disliking each other but never talking about it.

Re: “But what does tolerance really mean?”

Tolerance (defn.): “You smell bad, but I can hold my nose.”

No one preaching “tolerance” ever gets a hearing from me; I’d rather we talk about “respect”, and especially “mutual respect” instead.

[...] “..we have to move beyond tolerance to acceptance.” Ravi Philemon [...]

Another example of not understanding and intolerance. Story from The Christian Post Singapore. Note the 2nd para

Singer Releases New Song, Album in Singapore

Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009 Posted: 3:37:43AM HKT

Well-known Australian Christian singer Roma Waterman has released a new song and album in Singapore. The former worship pastor at Christian City Church performed Heaven’s Roar at The City Church Thursday evening.
Noting that Singapore comes from a Malay word which means ‘lion city’, Waterman encouraged Christians at the meeting not just to love the Lord but to “have the heart of a lion”.

An area in which she urged Christians to step out more is that of evangelism.

It is important that believers live with the perspective of eternity and share the Good News at the risk of offending some people rather than being polite to everyone and letting them go to hell, she said yesterday in an interview with The Christian Post.

She has also released a new album, Where Love is King, under recording label Integrity Media. The album is a compilation of Waterman’s songs, selected to suit the local context, according to Andy Skarda, who heads Integrity Media Asia.

Known for leading spontaneous worship, where Christians sing out of their own inspiration about the character and work of God, in an attempt to avoid ritualism, Waterman nonetheless believes that songs written by other people should be sung. Churches, however, should be careful to choose pieces that suit their individual settings, she said to The Christian Post.

I am an Indian Singaporean (2nd gen PR, who did NS and became a citizen). I find Singaporeans to be one of the least overtly ‘racist’ people around. Yes, I am tired of the running round trees spoof and I will normally tear anyone a new anal orifice if he/she makes fun of Indian culture (but Bollywood is fair game.. go right ahead, and allow me to make fun of Hong Kong movies). But really, compared to the rest of the world, Singaporeans are far more pragmatic and open minded about race than many of the so-called “Western” countries.

Are there racial issues still unsorted in Singapore? Certainly, and with the ongoing economic woes, it will only get worse. Does that therefore mean that Singaporeans are not accepting of other races? Depends who you ask. Older generation, yes. A lot of anger exists in the older generation regarding members of other races but present generation? Less so. However what is disturbing is a rising trend of “foreigner-haters”, and usually directed covertly against caucasians and much more overtly against Indians, PRC’s and Thais. That is a bigger worry, given the number of people from these places coming into Singapore.

Sloo (#17),

You infer that much from a single sentence?

18) Hades on October 5th, 2009 9.33 am
…and allow me to make fun of Hong Kong movies).

Go right ahead. =)
I am not sure the Chinese race in Singapore feels that much attachment to chinese in other countries though.

p.s I think there are already some documentary or such which tells of the usual story lines that the old HK martial arts films follow. There was at least 1 period where the main hero ALWAYS dies. lol.

“However what is disturbing is a rising trend of “foreigner-haters”, and usually directed covertly against caucasians and much more overtly against Indians, PRC’s and Thais.”

Not sure if this is really a ‘tolerance’ issue… more like an anti-govt policy thingy.

————

19) New Renaissance on October 5th, 2009 10.02 pm

haha.. I also can’t find anything that seems to imply intolerance from the article.

KEN MUST PUBLICLY APOLOGISE TO VASANTHAM VIEWERS FOR HIS PARIAH COMMENT, BEFORE HE BECOMES A ROLE MODEL FOR SIMILAR REMARKS FOR FUTURE PROGRAMME ,