Racial Discrimination in Singapore

This is a report I'm doing for one of my modules. It was due last week, and everyone had submitted theirs way before then. I didn't even do any shit, and was made to come to class yesterday to finish this, when all my classmates hadn't needed to come. Since I've nothing much to blog about these days, why don't I let you read what shit I've written in my report?

I have a lot more opinions about the issue of racial discrimination in Singapore, but whatever.

Racial Discrimination in Singapore

1. Introduction

For a country that prides itself on the fact that it is multi-racial, Singapore may be seen from the outside as a state whereby people of all races or religions live together in peace and harmony. Singapore is a very special place, founded and intended to be a place where everyone could flourish and prosper; a place where you can be yourself and comfortable with your own ethnicity, culture and religion, and at the same time feel part of a bigger unity with the same nationality shared. Singapore not only has to celebrate its similarities, but differences as well. The purpose of this report is to highlight the reasons for the issue of racial discrimination, and why it must be prevented.

2. Why is there discrimination?

The question to ask is, "why do people discriminate?" There are many possible explanations, some of which being, people discriminate because they are afraid, and most of the time, they fear because they do not have a clear and precise understanding of a certain something. So when people speak against the wedding practices of another race, it is because there were not familiar with the practice of this other race. As they are in the middle of doing something in their own time, instead of taking initiative to go down to see for themselves what the wedding of another race is like, a person might choose to look at things from their own perception, and prefer to believe that the wedding is just a disturbance.

A popular form of inequality and discrimination in Singapore is the apparent preferred treatment that majority of citizens with Chinese heritage enjoy, over those with Indian or Malay backgrounds. For example, employment ads explicitly state that the position is preferred to be filled by a Chinese person. This division along races is an unfortunate reality of daily life in Singapore, which often boasts about its status as a multi-racial country. However, certain laws have done all but silenced debates on matters of race and ethnicity, making it very difficult to address the problem of racial discrimination in Singapore publicly.

3. Types of Discrimination 

3.1 Discrimination on the net
Shimun Lai, a Nanyang Polytechnic student, had felt frustrated and angry toward a certain race and vented it via racist remarks on her Twitter page. These comments were uncalled for, and particularly hurtful towards Indians, as she had mentioned: "Indians need their own form of transport. Or trains need to have separate cabins for humans and dogs", making it clear that she categorised Indians as low as "dogs".  (http://sg.news.yahoo.com/, 2012)

Another incident, this time against the Malays, showed how Amy Cheong had vented her frustrations about a Malay wedding happening at the void deck of her home, feeling annoyed just because the custom she knows and possibly grew up with is not the same way. She garnered much attention after putting up the remark, with netizens calling her disrespectful. It was also reported that her comment was lodged to the police. (http://news.asiaone.com/, 2012)

3.2 Discrimination in jobs
Over the years, little has changed. Job advertisements today state “Must be able to speak Mandarin” as a very important job requirement. This is done presumably to ease business communications with mainland Chinese and Taiwanese companies and certain authorities, but the truth is, these Chinese and Taiwanese representatives have their own cultural differences that local bosses are not sensitive to, hence they may need translators. So what does it matter for one to be fluent in Mandarin when a skilled translator is used? (www.transitioning.org, 2011)

Another factor lies in the military. No matter how tempted a Malay male is to join the Navy as a regular, they know that they can never fulfill this dream because of the fact that certain units in the army, and mostly the air force, are out of bounds to Malays, despite how high their capabilities and how fit they are. It is appalling to know that such policies exist for a reason such as "security", even after these Malays have sworn to protect their own nation against aggressors, whether or not they share the same religion as certain terrorists. (www.transitioning.org, 2011)

A survey was conducted to determine the country’s progress in building harmonious relations among races and religions, and covered 4,131 Singapore residents. According to the response, about  67% of Malays have faced discrimination at some point when applying for jobs in Singapore; 60% for Indians, and 39% for Chinese. When the surveyors asked the respondents “How often do you feel racially discriminated when being considered for a job promotion?”, the results were similar: 63% of Malays faced discrimination;  58% for the Indians and 40% for the Chinese. (Institute of Policy Studies, 2013)

4. Why must discrimination be stopped?

Racial discrimination in Singapore brings about social tension among the existing races. The more the Chinese benefit from certain policies, the more the minority of races will feel angry towards them. This way, the races will not live in harmony at all, but instead, grow further apart because of this unnecessary division. Singapore, being a multi-racial country, has to make sure that all its races and religions are treated equally, whether or not they form the majority of the country.

5. Conclusion

It is definitely true that on the surface, Singapore might seem like a perfect state where residents of all ages, religions, and races peacefully coexist. However, this does not mean that discrimination in Singapore does not exist, although it is often not openly visible. For a country who constantly prides itself to be a multi-racial country, Singapore has to make sure that the differences in the country brings the people together instead of bringing about disputes, like it has over time. By highlighting the main issues of where discrimination has been found and extracted from, the people of Singapore should be able to see the problems they have brought about along time, and that everyone has to do their part to keep the harmony going, because differences are what should bring the people together.

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