Ms Chow Pei Sze was outraged when she saw an episode of the Mediacorp Channel 8 drama serial, “Daddy At Home”. She wrote to the Straits Times’ forum page on 8 November. Her original letter was 424-words long. After a week, on 14 November, the Straits Times published her letter – which was edited to 155 words.
We publish the two versions of Ms Chow’s letter here.
Ms Chow’s original letter to the Straits Times forum page:
I refer to the 6th November screening of the MediaCorp Channel 8 prime-time drama series, Daddy At Home. I am thoroughly appalled by the instance in which the colleagues of the title character (played by Li Nanxing) joked that they should begin calling him “Aminah” since his character now works as a cleaner.
The nonchalance with which the name of a Malay woman is used interchangeably with the role of a cleaner shocks me for it reeks of a subtle, yet severe, insensitivity on the part of the Mediacorp scriptwriters, actors, and on-site crew. What this instance has encouraged in the popular imagination is the equation of Malays to occupations of low income and menial labour. How is it that such a glaring comment could have passed the stages of re-writes and checks, if any? Would the actors and crew members on location not have realised this during the filmin g as well?
As a teacher, I am doubly outraged that “Singapore’s leading media company” (according to MediaCorp’s corporate website) could let such racist undertones seep through popular, mainstream ‘entertainment’ with a view to profit and gain from what might seem to the company and its scriptwriters as dialogue that reflects the quotidian Singapore experience. If so, then generations of children and young adults who watch these shows regularly have certainly been exposed to potentially racist sentiments that they could easily replicate in the classroom and in their interactions with children of different races.
I remind the Channel 8 directors and writers also, that their viewership extends well beyond the Mandarin-speaking population in Singapore. Surely it was a strategic decision on Channel 8‘s part that including English subtitles for these drama shows allows them to reach a non-Mandarin-speaking viewership. With this in mind, then, how can it come to pass that clearly racist comments are written into the script and uttered before the camera?
Even if this were an ‘oversight’ on the part of the writers, there is no excuse nor any place in Singapore for racism to even be acceptable whether in private or in the public sphere.
I have not been a regular viewer of Channel 8 programmes for several years now, but with this new knowledge of the kind of lax standards that local television possesses, I am undecided as to whether to ignore Channel 8 completely, or to be a more avid viewer and keep an eye out for any future attempts to disrupt the delicate fabric of our multi-racial society. I urge Singaporeans to consider this dilemma as well.
——–
The edited version of Ms Chow’s letter which was published by the Straits Times on 14 November 2009.
I WAS appalled when last Friday’s prime-time drama series of MediaCorp’s vernacular Channel 8, Daddy At Home, scripted in an ethnic stereotype.
Colleagues of the title character (played by Li Nanxing) joked that they should start calling him ‘Aminah’ as his character’s job was reduced to a cleaner. The nonchalance with which the name of a Malay woman is used interchangeably with the role of a cleaner is insensitive and has encouraged in the popular imagination the equation of Malays to occupations of low income and menial labour.
How could such a glaring comment have passed the stages of checks, if any? Would the actors and crew on location not have realised this during filming as well?
I am a teacher, and such ethnic stereotyping worries me. Children who watch these shows are exposed to potentially racist sentiments which they could easily replicate in the classroom and in their interactions with children of different races.
Chow Pei Sze (Miss)
Singa> it’s the minority. Read between the lines. Not every Malays and Indians are crying foul about discrimination. If they start to write their list, they can be a dissertation long. Many academics from Australia has been writing about it. Just because Singapore open the floodgates to all Tom, Dick or Harry to migrate here does not mean discrimination against minorities does not exist. Subtle and hidden discrimination is discrimination non the less. You learn about discrimination towards minorities from Malaysia and Indonesia from minorities themselves. Why must Singapore be judged from the lens of the majority races?
The editing here was acceptable, IMO. It preserved the essence of Ms. Chow’s criticism, but also left it open for ST Forum readers to evaluate for themselves the alleged instance of racism. The original version was a little too ‘preachy’ and repetitive. Speaking from my experience of successfully getting a number of my ST Forum letters published with minimal editing, the trick is to interweave your assertions with statistics or ‘scholarly’ opinions.
To those who think that this was an “insignificant” or “harmless” example of discrimination, consider these facts:
1. Free-to-air TV reaches 93.1% of viewers on a weekly basis, compared to 48.4% for cable TV.
2. The top 10 most-watched free-to-air shows from September to October 2009 were on Channel 8, which caters primarily for the Mandarin-speaking majority here (although non-Chinese viewers can rely on the English subtitles). Racism on free-to-air TV is thus likely reinforce existing discrimination against non-Chinese minorities.
3. “Daddy at Home” was ranked No. 1 free-to-air show during this period, with an impressive share of 15.5% of all TV households. (I’ll bet that only key EPL matches could challenge that figure.) This top ranking is typical of the prime-time 9pm Channel 8 serial.
4. Free-to-air TV is a ‘public good’ which is sponsored by (compulsory) residential TV licence fees, through the MDA’s Public Service Broadcast scheme. Licensees reasonably expect that their $110 per annum goes towards MediaCorp programmes which, at the very least, do not go against the public interest. It’s not just about ‘changing the channel’, unfortunately, since TV licence fees are compulsory.
5. As Ms. Chow rightly points out, racism is far more insidious when it’s packaged in the form of ‘entertainment’ (cf. the recent debacle in Australia over a blackface imitation of the Jackson 5), rather than expressed overtly. It infiltrates our minds when our guard is let down, when endorphins are flowing, when our eyes are held hostage by moving images in vivid technicolour. An analogy is the Christian ‘evangelical’, anti-Islam cartoons at the centre of the recent Sedition Act case; you had hateful, warped messages made through the seemingly innocuous medium of comic strips.
I’m not surprised that stuff like this should go past the great filter unchecked. It not only reflects mediacorp’s safety standards, but also illuminates for us the scriptwriter’s stance on Malays.
Personally, though, I have a suggestion: stop viewing channel 8.
Surely, you can choose to watch better quality shows online or via a cable? Why view stuff like that which, IMHO, degrades the mind and desensitizes the human faith? Try Japanese anime, or hk cop serials, or nat geog documentaries, or news on CNN (though I seem to be partial towards fox nowadays).
If you still crave for soap operas, go Korean.
Mediacorp’s nothing compared to the big boys.
mediacorp chn 8 local shows are what I call “dumb and dumber”. watch at your own risk. the more you watch, the more stupid you become.
Honestly, channel 8′s series are being used for propaganda. Better to switch to cable. I totally agree that it makes you dumber.
Viewership is indeed falling drastically.
#48 Singa
Good grief…..you seem to suffer from a blocked mind my friend. Please check your facts 1st. Most of the new immigrants into Singapore are from China. You are just using some facts to suit your arguments and ignoring others. Going by my logic, can I therefore say this (which I rather not): how many females from China has won the Miss World/Ms Universe contest in the last 15 years, therefore why are there so many majority race plying their trade in Geylang, why open the door wide for them? Far from garbage, just coz you did not experience discrimination does not mean it does not exist. This is precise why the forum writer chose to highlight it. So many of my Chinese Singaporeans colleagues who work with my in San Jose, say they have never experience such stereotypes in Singapore, where else this was common to me. Just yesterday, a five year old kid was pointing at me and shouting, ” Ee, smelly person, papa, see smelly dark person” in Mandarin, which I studied until University. It is quite obvious where the boy had this idea from, coz no one in US has ever made such a remark to me ever!
I’m not sure if anyone has pointed this out, but I think the letter was played down so much precisely because it deals with an ethnic slur against Malays – as opposed to any other race.
I’m not from a minority race but it worries me that the government & media are not even bothering to pay lip service to racial harmony. I didn’t watch the drama series (I haven’t watched local TV for months now) but I was appalled to read of this blatant stereotyping.
It’s an open secret that Malays in Singapore aren’t doing as well as the Chinese and Indians – exam results, income, percentage going to tertiary education. There are statistics freely available at Statistics Singapore – in 2005, 3.4% of the Malay population had a university qualification, compared to 17.7% of the Chinese and 25.1% of the Indians.
Anecdotally, Malays make up a disproportionally small percentage at our top JCs. Last week when ST had a photo of 6 NorthLight students, if I’m not wrong 1 was Chinese, 1 mixed-race, 1 Indian, and 3 Malay. Yet – correct me if I’m wrong – I can’t remember anything concrete the government has done recently to reverse these trends.
Possibly the only thing that’s keeping Singaporeans (especially non-Malays) from realising this is the kind of watered-down press coverage we get regarding our Malay community. Every time the Malaysian press runs articles highlighting the Malay community here, the government loudhailers come out to drown them out. And the local press continues to paint a rosy picture about how our Malay community is improving (top PSLE student, random aunties opening pastry businesses or upgrading themselves, etc.). This is the reason why ST’s editing of the forum letter should outrage all of us.
I fear we are creating an entire ethnic underclass without really realising it.
If you watch Singapore Idol then you would have seen how the 3 judges in action – objective & meritocractic.
The majority Singaporeans voted 2 Malay Singaporeans as Idols in succession. Why? Singapore thrives on Merit.
Give you another example. Land of the Caste System. Where the people are born with racism.
India has but a handful of people of Chinese descent compared to HK, China which houses hundreds of thousands of Indian PRs & citizens left over by the British.
Watch Indian Chinese Meiyang Chang @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMuA9fRqYT0&feature=related.
Poor chap booted out of finals. This prompted one of the judges to walk out in tears calling the decision you know what (tat video has since been removed).
Robox,
Total agree with you.
Singa
Singapore Idol, bad example dude. Only recently, our dear friend Ken uttered to one contestant to go and audition for Vasantham Superstar and wasn’t he the one who said that he wanted Slyvester to win instead of Taufik and that Taufik should focus on the Malaysia and Indonesia market. Very objective and meritocratic indeed!
Similarly, the forum letter writer should be guilty of ‘equating’ cleaning workers as low income and performing menial work. Yes, there is a rascist undercurrent.
But the writer is in no better shape for calling cleaning workers low income and menial.
62) urbanrant on November 16th, 2009 1.12 pm
What! are you and elite or something. Come down from your ivory tower and mix with the peasants. You are divorced from reality. Or you could just have been released from IMH.
Because of the influx of cheap foreign labour, cleaning companies now pay their cleaners only $500 to $600 a month. This is barely enough for any Singaporean to survive. Even Malaysians are rejecting cleaning jobs now. Did you know that. Only PRCs still find it worth their while to be cleaners. Singaporeans who have no choice but to work as cleaners cannot pay their bills and sometimes have to skip meals.
Cleaning is a low income job. Please don’t show us your ignorance.
58) Singa on November 16th, 2009 10.45 am
Ken Lim is hardly objective. Anyway, the fella doesn’t make any sense. He is the reason why Singaporeans are not tuning in to Singapore idol.
And Singapore is hardly meritocratic.
http://www.feer.com/articles1/2006/0610/free/p018.html
Mediacorpse is one of the worst public funded organisations. Why are we paying TV license money for this kinda crap?
Racism is wrong, repugnant and should not be tolerated. The editors at MediaCorp did not do do their job well. MediaCorp should apologise to the viewing public, and advise their staff to shape up or ship out.
The writing and editing style of The Straits Times is well known to be middle-of-the-road. It is the publication’s style and there’s not much you and I can do about it. Of course, we can stop reading it if we don’t like the style. We can write castigatory letters to the Forum Page and hope they get published. Or we can use the other weapon we have as consumers — boycott the publication.
The racist jokes that we once loved to crack, and still do, must stop. They can hurt and if repeated, can become part of our psyche, without our realising it.
If we want to preserve our multi-racial fabric (where more of the new generation are of mixed-race parentage), we need to treat one another with respect, and goodwill.
I doubt if Mediacrap will ever apologise. Ken Lim did not and will not, Zoe tay did not, so I don’t expect Mediacrap to do so with Shaun Seow on his hands and knees…….
What’s there to apologise?? If the Straits Times were to post every single 400 word letter, i think it’ll be a lot thicker now.
Isn’t the letter still as it is, except shorter, tempered, and succinct? One could do without all the words describing how “thoroughly” outraged she felt.
68) Cardin on November 16th, 2009 4.43 pm
While some are unhappy with the Shitty Times for changing the tone of Ms Chow’s letter, the majority would like an apology from Mediacorp for being racist.
You guys from the internet brigade are really thick.
I dont think its just about the apology. The main issue here is about the Strait Times editing someone’s letter and hence, as a result changing the face of one’s opinions. Ms Chow wrote the above letter so that her opinions could be shown to Singapore not for an editor to edit her opinions and make it seem like it ‘wasnt such a big deal but yet she’s writing the letter’. It was obviously a big deal, one which mattered enough for her to make enough of an effort for her to get her laptop and sit there furiously, to type a letter.
Don’t cloud yourselves with emotions. Emotions can’t fill stomachs. Have a heli view. If you have a slightly high IQ you will better see things in the right perspective. Foreigners write to desatablise others. Plenty on the net by the West today against China. Why? The answer is obvious.
It’s not abt discrimination. Singapore, a resourcelees, tiny island in fact needs all, yellow, brown or black, who can contribute & grow the pie (economy). The silliest thing to do is to discriminate Singaporeans in education and the economy.
On the other hand you don’t want to continually throw good money after bad (if you understand economics). People (private sector taxpayers) who provide the money then will be angry. Furthermore, you’d only breed more bad now (who would now just want to sit back and receive). Moreover, it’s economically untenable in the long run.
IIt’s abt competition. It’s abt globalisation today (cheapest & the best for survival). It’s abt innovation & creativity. It’s abt talent.
Look macro and you’ll see things much clearer. We need mindset change or maybe even cultural change to compete and not cry for more handouts & subsidies to empty the treasury and chase away good taxpayers.
Our ancestral homelands. China home to 1.3 billion. India, 1 billion. Indonesia, 300 million.
Forget abt Taiwan & HK for a moment. Compare. China’s per caipta income, reserves (> $2 TRILLION), tops the Olympics medal tally, puts man in space, US’ No 1 creditor nation today, No 1 aid donor today, etc.
Just compare India’s & Indonesia’s with China’s (all happening in a short span of 30 years). India and Indonesia didn’t even have to go through a civil war, cultural revolution and wat not.
It’d again easy for people like Robox & Nur to cite chauvinism for my citing these facts. But wait a minute and ask, “Why?”. Yes “Why?”. Why is all these possible in China but not in India and Indonesia governed by Indians and Malays respectively without the Chinese? There is in fact no “Chinese to discriminate them.” Right?
Btw, see if you can find something you like over this latest UN list: http://www.ams.org/membership/develop.html
Finally, as earthlings in the same planet, Robox & Nur might wish to bark at the UN against China for dicriminating India & Indonesia for putting them in the list and holding them back.
To sum it all – look at things positively. Singapore doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t pay.. There is nothing here in Singapore except people (the private sector taxpayers/paymasters) who contribute to nation building and help their fellow citizens (check out the average per caipta income of India Indians & Indonesia (malaysia) Malays against their counterparts in Singapore). . Competition is not by choice but thrust upon us because of globalisation. So don’t blame discrimination when in fact it’s competition that’s drving people crazy.
There’s no NEP for the majority race to cause a resourse rich exchange rate to be $1 buying RM2.5; neither is there a Caste System to harm the rupees accession.
Finally reflect . . frend. We’re all Singaporeans, trying all sorts of ways to making a living in this tough and competitive world to safeguard the livelihood of all Singaporeans in the long run.And it makes no sense to alineate any good & productive fellow Singaporeans. Right?
many comments posted since i posted mine (comment no.6)
some people brought up the point that we are making much out of nothing regarding that small comment. and yes it is true that we all are indeed a little racist once in a while.
but i prefer to fall back on caution most of the time. because, as pointed out by some in the forum so far, while it seems apparently miniscule, it (ie the racial remarks) perpetrates itself and can become entrenched if not carefully managed.
Singa, Singa
I just got one fact for you:
Eventhough India/Indonesia may not have all these wonderful ratings/medals that China has, then WHY does China have the LARGEST number of illegal immigrants worldwide? Snake heads/Chinese stuffed in shipping containers, Huang Na’s mum using fake passport to get into Spore,etc,etc. Indian/Indonesians are not so desparate to do this inspite of their lower GDP and reserves. So I would therefore claim that India/Indonesia is better run than China.
so weird that all references to mediacorp is removed. Perhaps they want to promote Mediacorp to the international market.
We are a nation predicated on ‘race’, so why so much ho-hah about racial stereotypes on local TV? Remember that one of our senior politicians said that if not for an Indian minister’s ethnic background, he would’ve been a number-one choice for PM? Or that Malay/Muslims soldiers cannot be in ‘sensitive’ posts because their ‘race’ may prevent them from doing the patriotic thing when facing a Muslim enemy? We may recite ‘regardless of race, language or religion’ in our pledge, but our politicians have reminded us that these are only aspirations/ideals that are not to be fought for in reality.
The bard Shakespeare ridiculed Jews, Muslims, Kings, working class, aristocrats. Would those who object to racist jokes take it up with the MOE to drop Shakespeare from the syllabus? I watch cable TV and equally appalled by some of the blatant racism, but would select only those worth viewing.
There are two issues at play here.
One is an ediiting of a letter. The other is racism.
For the editing, the meaning is still there though her outrage is not as evident. Still, the letter starts with “i was appalled…” to help us come to the conclusion that she was appalled.
On the second issue. Some people think its making a big deal out of it though no one really denies it is a racist comment.
Faced with such a tough choice, racism and editing, TOC had to pick one for the main thrust of the story.
From it’s headline “Letter on ethnic stereotyping gets heavily edited by Straits Times” it’s obviously more upset with the editing than the racism, if its upset with the racism at all.
How instructive. Good to know that TOC has a fierce anti-ST agenda and is sticking to it. You all get MediaCorp sponsorship, is it?
@Yuchengko, surely your analogy to Shakespeare is misplaced. In the first place, the two key ‘racist’ portrayals in the Shakespearean oeuvre are in Othello and The Merchant of Venice; even so, both characters (Othello and Shylock) are depicted as psychologically complex and human. There’re clear hints that each character’s eventual downfall was precipitated in part by the irrational, toxic suspicions of those around them. In short, Shakespeare is very far from condoning the racism and anti-Semitism he puts in the mouths of characters like Iago and Antonio, as evinced by this passage in Shylock’s famous speech:
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means,
warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison
us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not
Revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that.
Second, even if racism is present in and endorsed by Shakespeare, that’s clearly outweighed by the works’ literary merit, which ensures that they’re a mainstay on the school curriculum. Does “Daddy at Home”, or any MediaCorp show for that matter, have the same redeeming qualities?
Third, Shakespeare’s racism (assuming that’s what it is) was a reflection of the Elizabethan cultural milieu he lived in. Surely some four centuries on, we expect much more of ourselves — particularly with regard to any new creations of ours? We’re pretty much stuck with Shakespearean plays in the form and manner he wrote… with MediaCorp’s programmes, we’re not.
We do have to guard against mindless censorship on grounds of “political correctness”, which would be the case if MOE expunged Shakespeare from the syllabus. But this instance of racism on Channel 8 is worlds apart from that nightmare scenario.
Re : 77 – that is precisely what I’m trying to get at. You don’t think I’m serious about expunging Shakespeare from the English syllabus in Singapore?Allegations that Shakespeare was promoting anti-Semitism have been made by certain quarters in the UK who petitioned for removing some texts for examination.
If you refer to my earlier comments, you’d have found that racist overtones of the TV serial are noted and the standard of local TV productions leave much to be desired.
Beware, there are racist hypocrites among us who champion equality but think and act otherwise. I’ve heard some really mean racist jokes that people in our multiracial society crack in private. The joke on TV is far milder by comparison. How often does the local TV touch on racially sensitive subjects? Besides, some of the staff are foreign talents who may not appreciate the importance of promoting racial harmony and avoidi sensitive jokes.
Would we appear to be patronising towards protecting the minorities and apply political correctness at random? I wonder how many ethnic Chinese would be offended when they watch some popular chauvinistic TV serials.
DEFINING THE GREAT SINGAPOREAN SPIRIT
I don’t think it should be such a big issue. The essence of Ms Chow Pei Sze’s letter was well preserved by the Editor of STForum. I would like to think the published version of the letter was a fine example of good editing. That is what really mattered. She should be happy that her letter got published.
Anyway, well done to Ms Chow for taking the trouble to speak up for the Malays when they were being unfairly stereotyped. I hope more will speak up for others across the racial and religious divide. That should be the way we should define the Great Singaporean Spirit.
Frankly, I don’t see why there should be a need by the MediaCorp scriptwriter to put in such unhelpful racist line in their film.
“Please lah not again loanshark. Got other role or not for me?”
“OK. Pimp lah. After all you have so many pimples on your face.”
“What?”
“OK. OK. Gambler. Many vacancies in our serials since IRs up. People enjoy watching gambling shows. Want or not? Don’t be over-sensitive lah. Laugh at others. Learn to laugh at ourselves at time. You want the job or not?”
“OK lah. King of Gambler like Chow Yuen Fatt. OK?”
For goodness sake, have you guys no sense of humour? With prudes like you around no wonder the arts scene here is so sterile. Oh sure that remark is racist, just like when I joke with my buddies and I call them stupid I’m discriminating the mentally challenged!
Get a life please!
@retiredgangster
You seem to think bad English = honest / unpretentious. This is false. Please recognize that a command of language reflects nothing on the person’s integrity.
That said, I refer you to http://engrishfunny.com/. I visit it when I wish to feel better about being an unemployed English major. You should feel right at home.
Its easy to overlook how much this would hurt a malay person if you are a majority race. someone even said that Chinese are often portrayed as prostitutes and gamblers and asked sarcastically if that was discrimination. Please have some sense to put things into context
- were the portrayals of chinese hookers and gamblers on malay or tamil programs? Does it happen often ?
- also, yes chinese characters sometimes get portrayed that way but chinese characters in shows and advertisements come from a diverse range of backgrounds, personality types and occupations.
discrimination happens when you essentialise or pigeon-hole a race. two trends i have noticed….
1) malays and indians are presented as baju-wearing , head-swinging ethnic bumpkins in contrast to modern chinese who are represented as being able to simultaneously inhabit tradition and modernity. ( ex. a KFC add from a few years back, with western dressed chinese couple and caricaturised malay and indians with exaggerated facial features )
2) malays and indians are often presented in lower income jobs in contrast to chinese characters who are middle class. ( ex. the recent government adverstisement about singapore going high-tech, thats somewhere on this website. You never see minorities in condo or car ads, and dont tell me its about target market, cos these are not race or culture-specific products )
[i]New Era on November 15th, 2009 11.14 pm I can see that KopitiamApek & retiredgangster are really flustered by this thread. They have been posting non-stop. Guess they must be staff of Mediacorp’s channel 8. LOL. [/i]
neigh….i simplee hates hypcrites who thnk that they are the onlee highly iq educated trained…
they still never see a catapult targetted them even if it was right in front of their eyes..mediacorp? please lark… i am a survivor follower..followed by fringe and flashforwards… this ia all about ME…
The Straits Times published the full essence, while summarising the original letter and taking some of the sting out of the original.
I think it did a pretty good job on this letter, and I am one person who disses the sh!t times/states times on every possible occasion. So let’s focus on the content of the letter and not the messenger
47) New Era
/////I can see that KopitiamApek & retiredgangster are really flustered by this thread. They have been posting non-stop. Guess they must be staff of Mediacorp’s channel 8. LOL. /////
4 postings out of 87 is non stop? Quite a intereting way of defining things.
Ya, when I do not behave like sheep to rant in symphony with the rest, I am branded a staff of MediaCorp when the thread is about media. Of late, I have been branded a staff of so many gahmen depts I now must be having multiple strings of income!
We’re discussing about unjust treatment upon ethnic minority. Indians are out of question because they’re given priorities (Air Force, Higher Ministers) like the Chinese.
Singapore is not multiracial as what the government and media brag about. The Malays are often stereotyped as having low education and skills.. even though the truth is opposite.
Employers play a major role in silent discrimination. Many Malays are underpaid and underemployed. It seems the years of good education are nothing. When someone hard to survive with low salary, there is no harmony.
If Singapore government is really sincere about multiracial harmony, do a thorough ground check. Employ all Malays with decent education with correct positions.
Patience has a limit in the universe. Even God has certain amount of patience.
In Malaysia, the government allows ethnic Chinese to do business and they receive support from all races. The Malays buy products from Chinese. They have numerous Chinese tycoons/millionaires.
In Singapore, we have Malays doing business. But the Malays are often neglected from equal support. How many Malay tycoons/millionaires do we have?!