Singapore—Mr Amrin Amin, a former Member of Parliament (PAP-Sembawang GRC), uploaded a video on TikTok on Wednesday (May 12) that referenced a recent hate crime where an Indian-Singaporean woman was kicked and called a racial slur while she was brisk walking.
The woman sustained injuries and filed a police report. Her attacker was arrested for public nuisance, uttering words with intent to wound the racial feelings of others, and voluntarily causing hurt.
Mr Amin’s version ends completely differently, however.
The former MP’s version is captioned, “Brisk walker meets flying kicker.”
He plays the ‘Brisk Walker’, and a masked man who looks to be of a different ethnicity plays the ‘Flying Kicker.’
Instead of ending in violence, the video concludes with the two men holding hands and playing together.
The screen reads, “Let’s all get along. No to racism and xenophobia,” while the Singapore flag flutters in the breeze.
Here is Mr Amin’s video.
https://www.tiktok.com/@amrinsg/video/6961150159887535362?lang=en&%3Bis_copy_url=1&%3Bis_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
No doubt it is an attempt by the former Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Health to promote racial harmony.
But it has not gone down well with netizens, who have accused Mr Amin of glossing over very serious issues of racism and xenophobia.
One commenter seemed to feel the former MP was “making fun” of the victim, Ms Hindocha Nita Vishnubhai. A 55-year-old private tutor, she is now “afraid of taking a walk in her own country”, according to her daughter.
Another commenter left an equally pointed remark, writing that “racists aren’t people we should be getting along with”.
“We have to acknowledge the atrocity and not downplay it like this.”
One netizen called the video “tasteless and horrible”.
Another commenter simply wrote, “Get off TikTok, boomer.”
There were several other comments written in the same vein.
Not all comments were negative, however. Some former constituents greeted a “slimmer-looking” Mr Amin and wished him well.
Interestingly, the former MP has so far engaged only with the positive comments on his video, and not addressed those criticising him.
The incident referenced in Mr Amin’s video occurred last Friday (May 7). Ms Nita was walking near Choa Chu Kang MRT station at around 8.30 am, on her way to work.
She had lowered her mask so that it rested on her chin while she walked.
At one point, Ms Nita heard a shout from a man behind her, telling her to pull up her mask to cover her face.
“She explained that she was brisk walking but he didn’t care,” wrote Ms Parrvyy, her daughter, on social media. She added that wearing a mask is unnecessary when one is brisk walking.
But the man shouted at Ms Nita again.
Ms Parrvyy wrote that the man “hurled vulgarities and racial slurs” at her mum.
She added, “F*** anyone who downplays racism here. All it takes is a trigger—be it anti-CECA sentiments or blaming a country in crisis for local outbreaks—for silent racism to manifest into violence.”
The man ran towards Ms Nita, landing a flying kick on her chest that knocked her to the ground. “I kept saying, ‘He kicked me, he kicked me.’ I was in complete disbelief,” she said.
Her daughter said: “My mum landed on her back and hurt herself. The guy ran away leaving my mum shaking in tears. She was too shocked to call the police and turned up to work bleeding and shaken.”
The fall left her with scratches on her hands and arms.
Fortunately, a kind bystander who had seen what happened helped Ms Nita after she was attacked.
/TISG
Read also: Pritam Singh: “There is no place for racism in Singapore. No ifs. No buts.”
“Retrenchment is likely to rise”: Chan Chun Sing addresses post-GE plans