James Gomez
Racial discrimination is a global phenomenon that the United Nations seeks to eradicate. In contemporary Singapore, research shows that the basis for racism is anchored in the role of ethnic identity and how it frames the formulation of policies related to education, employment, housing, immigration and politics.
These policies have been formulated and implemented by the People’s Action Party (PAP) government that has been in power for over 50 years. When confronted with its racially based policies, the PAP government insists that it follows a tolerant approach towards different races and that it propagates the idea of multiculturalism and meritocracy as a racial equaliser.
However ethnic minorities in Singapore complain they are being discriminated daily on the basis of their race or religion. They argue their views are often not given airing in the local mainstream media and are further prevented from discussing these issues openly due to legislations restricting freedom of expression and assembly on these matters.
Given this background, the first ever visit of the UN Rapporteur on Racism to Singapore at the invitation of the PAP government in 2010, allowed city-state’s racialist based policies to be put on an international spotlight.
This paper (see link below) examines the visit of UN Rapporteur, his initial findings, government and civil society responses and the significance of this first UN mission. The paper locates its research on racial discrimination in Singapore in the context of the city-state’s political framework and the United Nations efforts to eradicate racism. It argues that ultimately policy changes in Singapore can only take place as a result of politically challenging the PAP government.
Paper: Politics and ethnicity: framing racial discrimination in Singapore.
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Dr. James Gomez is presently Deputy Associate Dean (International) and Head of Public Relations, School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences at Monash University, Australia. He is co-editor of a forthcoming book entitled New Media and Human Rights in Southeast Asia which is part of Routledge’s Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia series. He can be contacted at james.gomez@monash.edu
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That paper really, really needs some proofreading.
This paper has been submitted to the Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies for review and editing before formal publication. It is shared here as advance information.
Best wishes, James Gomez
As a person of an ‘ethnic minority’ here, I wish to add some perspective to this:
I don’t think most Singaporeans are consciously racist. Yes I am aware that there are still some households that scare kids from dark men, or some families who virtually renounce their son/daughter for even dating a man/woman of a different race but thankfully, these people are a minority. Most Singaporeans I know are as accepting of me as a Singaporean of Indian descent as I am of their Chinese descent.
Having said that, however it must be remembered that racism does not have to be conscious. A lot of times it permeates the sociopolitico-economical landscape subconsciously and its impacts still are as powerful as when it is overt.
I don’t mean to sound like I am nitpicking and personally am not affected by these instances, but they all add up to tell a story about the majority here which at times is not too pleasant.
1> One of my closest friends is a Chinese guy who was my army buddy. We’re still close friends but I recall the first conversation we had.
‘I generally don’t like Indians’.
Why? Because they are loud, lewd in conduct and violent. This was his explanation. As an Indian myself, I wondered how on earth he arrived at that conclusion, and he gave me instances of how he had difficulty with Indians in the past. I then pointed out to him that our section commander who was a power-hungry nutcase who loved handing out extras and punishments like candy was a chinese man, two of our section mates who hated us to the point where we nearly came to blows were chinese and our OC who went and asked a chap whose cousin had committed suicide, ‘Eh your cousin failed airborne ah?’ was also chinese. In fact, the only relaxed and chilled out people in our company was an Indian CSM and a Malay trainee. My point to him was, bad people exist in every race. But it is natural to notice grievances when the one committing them looks different.
2> I next encountered a very bitter episode on the trains when I was yelled at by this couple for no apparent reason than standing up. They were hurling abuse at me at the top of their voices in the train, for no reason at all. They just didn’t like me I guess. Not ONE person in the train asked them to stop. People looked embarrassed. Some of them shook their heads and remained quiet but no one told them to stop the racial abuse. For the first time in my life I felt really scared, not at the old couple, but at the fact that there were 50 Chinese and Malay people there in the compartment, and not one of them got up to tell these people to stop the racial abuse. Yes, we all know the explanation. ‘I don’t want to get involved’. ‘Not my problem’. ‘The Indian man must have done something wrong or why they would yell at him’. But it reflects a hidden thread of racism that most people don’t encounter, and I am sure other people have had such experiences in the past.
3> My brother graduated from NTU with quite good results, and went on the job hunt. Three different companies that he found jobs that perfectly suited him required him to be bilingual, which my brother said he was. He could speak English, Tamil and Hindi. But to those people, Bilingual means only one thing: English and Mandarin. The job is one which does not really require knowledge of mandarin. This is Singapore, where everyone supposedly has at least primary level exposure to English. Even my father in law, with Pri 3 education, can speak some english, for chrissakes. It then turned out that since companies cannot discriminate based on race, they were doing it this way. fine enough. He started his own business.
4> My other good friend from JC, a Malaysian-born Singaporean chinese, had these words of wisdom to impart to me:
‘All malays are lazy’.
What do you mean?
‘See we give them free education upto unvirsity, give them easy jobs in NS and still they are so backward’.
I had to point out that Malays do NOT get free education for university, Malays are discriminated against in NS (my wife is muslim and her entire family not one got to go to army, all police) and the reason for their supposed ‘backwardness’ could simply mean that they want to slow down and enjoy life rather than run themselves ragged for a paper chase that means nothing. I know for a fact malays are NOT lazy. I have seen old malay women bust their butts at 2am in the morning preparing curry puffs to sell from 6am onwards near my block. I have seen my old malay neighbour at the age of 80 still actively contributing at the RC and Senior Citizen committee.
All these instances are not anyone’s fault. I don’t blame anyone for being the way they are, although it is sad to hear these things in a country that is supposedly free of racism. Whether these are isolated incidents or not, I do not know, but if I, as an educated, employed, contributing Singaporean of Indian ethnicity had encountered these isntances, I am sure the impact on those less fortunate than me would be much, much bigger.
the thing is… racism doesn’t apply to friends. However, everyone else seems to be fair game.
i.e unless you are my friend / I know you, you are <insert racial stereotype).
This is an interesting read…..sometimes we take it for granted.
Most of us either assumed too much or failed to appreciate the social integration of our local customs/traditions.
Here is a written reflection of one Italian visitor.
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A Jewel in the Jungle of Asia .
Reflections of a Foreign Student on Religious Harmony in Singapore .
by Rev. Fr. Athanasius Atta Barkindo.
Priest-Student of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies
89, Viale Trastevere , 00153 , Rome – Italy
Dear Editor,
I refer to your news item “Breaking the Fast Together” in the Strait Times of 13th August 2010 which clearly portrayed the invitation extended by the Muslim Kidney Action Association to all other religious faiths to join them and participate in the Muslim breaking of the fast.
I have attended so many conferences on religious harmony, visited different institutes for peace studies, attended seminars and participated in workshops for community and religious leaders to help rebuild the lives of families shattered by religious bigots in Nigeria , Egypt , Italy , UK , etc. While attending all these programmes, reference was always made to Singapore as the “Jewel in the Jungle of Asia ”; evidently a gift from God to the entire Asian region.
I made up my mind to visit Singapore ; to see for myself the gift God has given to Asia . From my seat on the Singapore airlines flight, to the warm reception of the air hostesses, the beauty of the Changi Airport, the skyscrapers, the well fed trees to the sea of humanity eating away in different locations. The orderliness is amazing. I whispered to myself, this is called political stability, economic success. No question was directed to me about my religion, my faith and my creed. No one seems to care if I worshipped the mountain or the emperor. All that matter was I am human and I was treated as such, with dignity and courtesy.
My amazement was complete when I was invited on the 13th August 2010, by the Muslim Kidney Action Association of Singapore to participate in the breaking of the fast at the premises of the association in Telok Kurau Road . It was absolutely magnificent to see all the representatives of different religious faiths including government officials, seated together in harmony and sharing together with our Muslim brothers and sisters in this most important month of Ramadan. There was no distinction based on religion, creed or race. There was no prejudice, sentiments or fear. Religious arrogance and superiority was completely absent. The most important thing was being a Singaporean.
Singapore has indeed understood the advantage of pluralism whose core value is “humanity and meritocracy”!! I watched the President of the Muslim Kidney association as he passed the dates from the Catholic Archbishop to the Taoist Master, the Buddhist Venerable etc. The sincerity of the atmosphere made a tear tickle down my smiling cheeks (cheeks shining and smiling from the two weeks of hospitality rolled around the mixture of the satay, chicken rice and roti prata all tasted in Singapore ). I told myself, this is the real Singapore . This is the real Jewel in the jungle of Asia .
For once I thanked God for giving us such a beautiful gift as Singapore . I thanked the Singapore government for its cooperation with religious leaders to educate Singaporeans on the importance of religious harmony and pluralism in the world today. I even stole a thought of envy at Singaporeans yet proud that I am a Singaporean by association. I wondered how many Singaporeans appreciate what their government is doing in promoting religious harmony. It is a hardworking government, a sincere government, a government committed to the physical and spiritual welfare of its citizens; it is indeed Majulah Singapura and not Malulah Singapura!!!
I hope some African governments and Africa at large is learning from Singapore; a country tolerant in nature, progressive and religious in outlook, where all peoples, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, Atheists, Secularists, and Traditionalists coexist in mutual respect and harmony, and contribute selflessly to the development of their country. Africa, the Middle East, Europe, America and indeed the entire world has no choice than to learn from Singaporeans and their government. Singapore is indeed a gift from the God not only to Asia but to the entire world.
Congratulations to the Muslims Kidney Action Association, Congratulations to the Inter-Religious Dialogue council of Singapore , Congratulations to the Government of Singapore, Congratulations to Singaporeans.
Long live Singapore , the Jewel in the Jungle of Asia .
You’ll find the official pro-Malay NEP in Malaysia. Even Hindraf can’t change it.
Back in India, they shun the untouchables in the unofficial caste system
It’s an interesting point to note that common decency and treating everyone equally has to be legislated, not just here but all over the world.
Are you on moral high ground, James?
Watch the hidden cctv filming you sheepishly sneaking the papers back into your own briefcase and then cry “wolf” the next day.
Shameless.
Maybe u shd go back to India and reform the caste system.
See thousands upon thpusands of Indians are flocking to Singapore to become citizens but not vice versa. Why?
Oh dicrimnation.
But unlike the Chinese in Malaysia the Malays here not emigrate . . . even back to free carrot (NEP) land.
Speaks tonnes.
At the risk of being accused of playing the racial card and politicising the issue of race to score point, James Gomez’s effort to raise this issue can only scratch the surface of an otherwise deliberate and covert policy of managing the ethnic balance in Singapore.
On the surface of all its policies implemented since coming into political power in 1957 – the Pro Alien Party has in principle shown itself to be a fair and color blind political party.
In the name of protecting the ethnic and gender minority it has created the GRC system to protect these minorities as claimed.
However, is this “altruisitic” political gesture made to advance the interest of the minorities, or to advantage itself at the polls ?
An alternative view is given in a study entitled – “Election Strategy and Ethnic Politics in Singapore” by Joel S Fetzer
http://www.tfd.org.tw/docs/dj0401/135-154-Joel%20S.%20Fetzer.pdf – which showed that the GRC policy to protect the minorities – is no more then a thinly disguised gerrymeandering efforts to disadvantage the Alternative Political Parties at an election.
From the analogies used in some of the public speeches made by the political leadership from the Pro Alien Party – one can read the mental attitude of the leadership of a party concerning ethnicity, which will set its agenda when pursuing to win and dominate Singapore’s National Politics and the social engineering process.
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“Three women were brought to the Singapore General Hospital, each in the same condition and needing a blood transfusion. The first, a Southeast Asian was given the transfusion but died a few hours later. The second, a South Asian was also given a transfusion but died a few days later. The third, an East Asian, was given a transfusion and survived. That is the X factor in development.” – 27 December 1967
“We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two… We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellecually and culturally anaemic.” -Lee Kuan Yew in 1967.
“Let us not deceive ourselves: our talent profile is nowhere near that of, say, the Jews or the Japanese in America. The exceptional number of Nobel Prize winners who are Jews is no accident. It is also no accident that a high percentage, sometimes 50%, of faculty members in the top American universities on both the east and west coasts are Jews. And the number of high calibre Japanese academics, professionals, and business executives is out of all proportion to the percentage of Japanese in the total American population.” – 1982
“If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society…So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem.” -Lee Kuan Yew in 1983 National Day Rally
“The Bell curve is a fact of life. The blacks on average score 85 per cent on IQ and it is accurate, nothing to do with culture. The whites score on average 100. Asians score more … the Bell curve authors put it at least 10 points higher. These are realities that, if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending money on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow.” – Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997
“I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that’s the most unlikely thing ever to have been, because millions of years have passed over evolution, people have scattered across the face of this earth, been isolated from each other, developed independently, had different intermixtures between races, peoples, climates, soils… I didn’t start off with that knowledge. But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I’ve come to.” – Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997
“If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who’s very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine gun unit, that’s a very tricky business. We’ve got to know his background… I’m saying these things because they are real, and if I don’t think that, and I think even if today the Prime Minister doesn’t think carefully about this, we could have a tragedy.” – SM Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, September 19, 1999 on Malays in the Singapore Armed Forces
“At the end of the day, we are so many digits in the machine. The point is – are these digits stronger than the competitors’ digits?” – MM Lee Kuan Yew on Singapore workers, History of Singapore, 2005
“That was the year the British decided to get out and sell everything. So I immediately held an election. I knew the people will be dead scared.” – On winning 88% of the votes in 1968 (actual share was 84.43%), The Straits Times, March 7, 2007
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The recent debate on the “Foreign Talent” policy of this Pro Alien Party, has shown its agenda to balance the ethnic groups so as to maintain the ethnic composition to compensate for the poor birth rates of the respective ethnic group.
In the process, in its ill considered “New Citizen” policy freely given to anyone from any corner of China and India, the Pro Alien Party may end up disadvantaging the local populace – who has learnt to accomodate, accept the values, culture, social norms, diet and ethnic idiosyncracies, and the important need for ethnic tolerance.
Now the Pro Alien Party has to throw S$10 MILLION at the problem of integrating the New Citizens into the local community – so as to eradicate social prejudices and bias, when some of these social and cultural baggage had existed and lasted centuries – as in the Indian Caste System.
From its own intelligence, the Pro Alien Party has created its own version of the Caste System by elevating its own wages and insisting in its right to perpetuate itself by tinkering at legislations to disadvantage the populace; while refusing to consider even a minimum wage policy for Singaporeans, nor leaving the Singapore Constitution intact and remove all the legislations that disenfranchise Singaporeans of our POLITICAL RIGHTS to participate freely in the POLITICS OF LIFE.
This issue of Racialism is made even more complex by the PAP government allowing the Influx of foreigners.
It is amazing that they are seem to be solving a racial problem and at the same time creating the problem.
Isnt the present government Fluid like water?
Life is so peaceful, jobs plenty & comfortable for the majority in Singapore under PAP. That many from India, China, Europe, M’sia & Philippine are settling in Singapore. Coming in via Aeroplane, some even swim illegally or hide in Car boots to get into Singapore.
Give me a hundred reasons why a VoteForChange.
Dear funny
Do you really need one hundred reasons? You are funny indeed (funny meaning STRANGE!! not ha ha)
Let me just give you one good reason. There are 2 million Singaporeans in the workforce. 300,000 of them do not have any money going into their CPF account when the LAW says that if you earn $50 a month or more the employer is obliged legally to put money into your account.
Does the Government care about the CPF law being broken? No,not at all.
It jails people for harbouring illegal immigrants if the person they rent a room to turns out not to any longer have a proper visa. It hangs drug mules but are in bed with the Burmese drug and war lords.
Does the MOM or the Government care about employers breaking the CPF law? Not on your life. They are in bed with the employers.
Does the MOM and Government care about foreign workers being exploited? Not on your life. They are in bed with the employers.
Wakey,wakey funny. It ain’t so funny anymore!!