Singapore—Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Leon Perera (Aljunied GRC) commented on the recent video of a man telling a Chinese-Indian couple that it is “racist that Indians marry Chinese because it is predatory” that went viral last weekend. Mr Perera said he believed that the man’s views did not represent the majority of Singaporeans.
In a Facebook post on Monday (June 7), Mr Perera said he was “glad” that the man who posted the video on social media, Mr Dave Parkash, “drew public attention to the racist abuse he and his partner endured”.
The MP added, “It is through understanding of such incidents that public opinion can be shaped and consensus formed about our attitudes towards race and other sensitive topics as a society.”
Mr Perera added that there had been other countries such as the US and South Africa where inter-ethnic unions were once against the law, but that “public opinion in both countries has moved a long way since then”.
On Sunday (June 6), Mr Parkash posted the video showing an older man, who was later discovered to be a lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, who kept insisting that Mr Parkash, a Singaporean who is part Indian and part Filipino, should date an Indian. His partner is half-Chinese and half-Thai.
CNA reported on Tuesday (June 8) that Ngee Ann Polytechnic had suspended the man from his teaching duties.
At one point in the video, he told Mr Parkash, “I’ve got nothing against you personally but I think it is racist that the Indians prey on Chinese girls.”
He also told Mr Parkash that for him to be “preying” on Chinese girls, “the Chinese don’t like it”.
To Mr Parkash’s partner, he said that her parents were disgraced because she was dating an Indian man, adding that she was disgracing him as well.
The video was widely shared and commented on, and even Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam called the incident recorded on the video, “Quite unacceptable, very worrying.”
The minister added, “I used to believe that Singapore was moving in the right direction on racial tolerance and harmony. Based on recent events, I am not so sure anymore.”
On his part, Mr Perera wrote it was “disheartening” that there were still Singaporean citizens who “have not embraced the part of our Pledge that reads ‘regardless of race, language and religion.’”
However, the “outpouring of support” Mr Parkash and his girlfriend have received, the MP added, “suggests that the stranger in the video speaks for a minority”.
Mr Perera also noted that “If all those who stand for the values of equality, fairness and kindness stand up for what we believe in, that minority can only get smaller.”
/TISG
Netizen: Perhaps exposure to happy Chindian families would help ‘racist uncle’ change his mind