4/01/2013

Xenophobia a badge of honour?


When one scans the social media today, there is an unmistaken trend developing, a trend that no one could foresee will ever happen in this migrant society, open and international. We are a very open society and people, very cosmopolitan and liberal, some even called themselves international citizens. How could there be a rise of xenophobia or racism? Some angry Singaporeans are claiming that it is a right to be xenophobic, to be racist in a way, against the intrusion of so many foreigners in their midst. On the other hand, the Govt is planning to have more foreigners to reduce the citizen core to 40% in order to strengthen the core. Believe it? I cannot understand the logic when the people are showing their objection openly. So I must be daft.

Singaporeans are familiar with the annotation of CMIO or Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others as the official racial groups of the island. Everyone is one of these four different racial groupings. How then can Singaporeans be racist when they have embraced different races as one of them and living in harmony for years, the envy of many countries? Racial conflicts or riots are things of the past.

Is it racism or xenophobia, is it nationalism or patriotism, or is it simply about the rights and privileges of being citizens, being owners of this island? The rising anger and trend got to do with a little of each and a combination of all. What is the root cause of this ugly development? Many books can be written by the sociologists or political scientists but I will try to put them simply in one sentence and leaving all the big theoretical jargons to the academics. The problem of xenophobia is due to the Govt’s thoughtless policy of flooding the island with foreigners to compete with the citizens for good jobs, housing, cars, schools, facilities, space and a seat in the train.

There are just too many foreigners around and competing with the citizens in many unfair ways with citizens being displaced from top and middle management jobs, being priced out of good housing, being deprived of car ownership, compromising the good life they used to have. The latest revelation that foreigners are ganging up to discriminate and victimise citizens in employment and work place is just about the last thing that the citizens can stomach. There is anger and more anger against foreigners. And the foreigners did not help but add to the burning fire with callous behaviour and talking down on the locals.

In the face of such gross infringement of foreigners everywhere, with the local citizens calling themselves true blue and bred Singaporeans feeling the pressure, the Govt’s White Paper of increasing the population further by bringing in more foreigners was just the breaking point. The rage is unrestrained among the more vocal citizens. The Govt is seen as uncaring and aloof, totally disconnected from the feelings of the common Singaporeans. It is like two persons in the same bed but having different dreams, going separate ways.

How is the Govt going to contain this anger of the people? Or is the Govt going to do something positive to appease the unhappiness of the people? If the Govt fails to rein in the growing anti foreigner tension, the social fabric is up for a bitter test in tolerance. The main media, like the Govt, is telling the angry citizens to be more tolerant of foreigners. Would the affected Singaporeans listen and be swayed? T shirts are being printed to ‘down with the 6.9m population’ and a May Day protest is on the way. Would Singaporeans end up wearing the racist badge as an honour to defend their basic interests as citizens of this island? A point to note is that much of the anger is actually directed at the Govt for its pro foreigner policies and not directly at foreigners per se.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Red Bean

Good Morning, have a click on your adv(hope is enough for a coffee)

Well said, PAP need another 10K protest of 1st of May to acknowledge the ground sentiment.

I have started a blog in worldpress and how to safe it in case of server is down or corrupted.

Limcy

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Morning Limcy, thanks for the kopi. But you wound need to open the advert and flip a few pages. One click alone is 1c I think.

Thanks anyway.

oldhorse42 said...

The G knows that the citizens can only gather at Hong Lim Park, shout slogans and wear T shirts. That do not hurt the G and they can continue flooding the little red dot and drown the sinkies with hordes of foreigners.
Gosh, I do not know that one click on the advert gives RB only 1 ct.That is real cheap, even the beggar now do not accept any thing less than $2!
I probably have to spend the whole day clicking to buy RB a decent cup of kopi!

Anonymous said...

RB, ok I flipped a few pages from two ad so hope that is enough

Plumber

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Thanks Plumber and welcome to the blog. I think they pay a bit more when visitors flip through the pages of the adverts. Casual clicks would be treated quite casually.

Oldhorse, just open a couple of pages of the adverts would do, I think. One minute enough.

Cheers guys and gals. And thanks for the kopi.

Anonymous said...

Oh there is a time limit as well?

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

No time limit lah. I think a couple of minutes may be enough for a cup of kopi. The longer and more pages read the better : )

Cheers.

Veritas said...

Hi RB, I may want to write a epic story about Bogyoke Aung San and his struggle against FT Indians.

Today you see Burmese kicking Rohingya and wonder why the hell the whole Islamic world keep relatively voiceless? And who hell is Rohingya? Why Aung San Suu kyi did not use the case as a pretext against junta? Why is western media KPKB.

If you know the the real truth about this issue, you will understand why people behave in this strange way.

The Rohingya is FT Indians. And if you studied Burmese history, you will know that within 100 years of British colonization, FT Indians tries discriminating the Burmese so much that the most tolerant people in the world Burmese hate Indians.

Suu Kyi father make a career out of anti-British/Indian. You call him xenophobic? Everyone call him hero. The elite white who know the whole truth believe in a rather eccentric way. I may elaborate more if I have time.

If Aung San does not show FT Indians the balls, today Burma will be the biggest Dalit land in whole universe.

In SG now, LKY is mass importing FT Indians not unlike what British did yesterday.

We need to stand up. We are now already Dalits.

This is a long story. I may blog some of it.

Anonymous said...

There is an urgent need to stop foreigners discriminating against Singaporeans. Despite so many whistle blowers, nothing came out of them. Are the victimisation real or imaginery? Or are they being ignored, swept under the carpet? If the latter, it is going to blow up like a time bomb one day.

Anonymous said...

let me share my encounter.

I went to a property investment talk recently. The speaker is one of the top men of property Agency ECG. At one point when talking about property and foreigners , he shared that an elderly once told him that Singapore is no more the same. To this he replied the person that he will not be where he is today if not for foreigners (to sell properties to ?). Then, he did an appalling thing by asking the audience to give the foreigners a round of applause. I believe he is singaporean. Is money everything ?

I felt disgusted and offended to be in the audience.

Anonymous said...

Give the foreigners a chance and they have the numbers and money to buy up the whole island.

Sinkies must stop being stupid and sell their island away to foreigners. It doesn't take much money to buy up everything.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

redbean:

>> Some angry Singaporeans are claiming that it is a right to be xenophobic, to be racist in a way, against the intrusion of so many foreigners in their midst.

Absolutely correct. Whilst I don't support bigotry, I do support one's INDIVIDUAL RIGHT to be a bigot. That includes alleged hiring "of their own kind" by foreign human resources directors.

People are free to make their own choices and associations even though others might be indirectly affected.

If you can curse the foreigners, then the foreigners are also entitled to make choice on WHO they hire -- even for bigoted reasons.

It works both ways. You cannot just have it your way.

Race is an ugly thing. Until the day comes when people of the world accept that there is only one race: THE HUMAN RACE, you can count on ongoing issues based on pre-historic TRIBALISM.

>> s it racism or xenophobia, is it nationalism or patriotism, or is it simply about the rights and privileges of being citizens, being owners of this island?

Call it what you want. These attributes are simply varying degrees of TRIBALISM.

We are a species of SOCIAL PRIMATES. If you investigate monkey behaviour, you'll get many insights into human behaviour.

We become "human" because we have large brains which is capable of abstract thought, symbolic language...which eventually leads to CULTURE.

>> Would Singaporeans end up wearing the racist badge as an honour to defend their basic interests as citizens of this island?

If it comes to that: so be it. Public discourse is best when it is loud and messy. EVERYONE involved has competing interests. The best way is to allow chaos in the discourse. Let the market for ideas and opinions be unrestrained.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Matilah, these people can practise whatever they want in their own country. They are guests here and this is our country and we decide the terms. They not happy can go back to where they came from. And don't they think they can bully the Sinkies in Sinkie land.

Anonymous said...

People only say say lah. They are not serious lah. In reality, they cannot wait to marry to foreigners. So many men married foreign gals and so many women married foreign guys. Where got xeno? only a small minority.

Anonymous said...

I am not afraid of foreigners. So I have no phobia about them. I just f**cking hate them and wish they stop messing up our country. Is that so wrong?

Veritas said...

I am not afraid of foreigners. So I have no phobia about them. I just f**cking hate them and wish they stop messing up our country. Is that so wrong?

Today people like Veritas are deemed racist by many people. I am just a racial realist.

There is differences among race. We look at Detroit today. It has become a big slump and capital of homicide and a sorts of violent crime. Why?

Because during the heyday of Detroit, many blacks start to move in for economics opportunities. They bring in their crime murder.

The whites move out as a results.

And if you look at many formerly posh white neighbourhood of south africa, they are strip mined today by blacks.

This is reality.

The chopstick culture people are able to build great civilization.

The Germanic white are able to build great civilization. The latin white other than french screwed big time.

The blacks destroy civilization.

The Indians build shithole India. Everywhere Indians go, they bring their racist caste-ism.

These are reality.

Veritas said...

High caste Indians are 3000 years of shit head racist. Now PAP imported lorry FT Indians and want us to sleep with them side by side -- for the rest of my life.

1 min with a racist in front of you is already unbearable.

And FT Indians has strings of proven racist record. First is India, then Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka. Now is Singapore and USA. Everywhere they go, they impose racism on native.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

redbean:

>> Matilah, these people can practise whatever they want in their own country.

I agree, and I'll go one further: anyone can (and will) do anything they like anywhere. In the realm of human behaviour: ANYTHING GOES. Which means foreigners can (and will) do whatever shit thy like to "stake their claim" in a new cuntree.

If you don't agree, just try and stop people behaving in ways you don't approve of.

Good luck to you :-)

Anonymous said...

Veritas, I do not think you are racist. You do not hate the local indians and malays. You are a patriot just like many bloggers. People who think you are racist are simply too ignorance of the history of those type of people in india, china, turkey. They, including the ruling party, should do some research before calling names.

Anonymous said...

'anyone can (and will) do anything they like anywhere'

knn Matilah. this statement sounds zo absurb. we are not wild animals. we are humans.