Singapore—Leader of the Opposition and Workers’ Party head Pritam Singh weighed in on the recent incident that went viral, wherein an older man told a Chinese-Indian couple that it’s “racist that Indians marry Chinese because it is predatory”.
The backlash that the older man, a lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic identified as a “Mr Tan”, received for his overt racism has been swift and unequivocal—with many condemning his “racist diatribe … in a determined, yet restrained manner,” Mr Singh wrote in a June 8 Facebook post.
He has identified this as a “silver lining” amid the racist incident, which showed “that such views are not acceptable in the Singapore of today, even if we continue to live with the uncomfortable truth that they persist”.
The Member of Parliament (Aljunied GRC) noted that disapproval of inter-ethnic relationships is not uncommon, especially among older generations.
Mr Singh even brought up Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who shared the same inclination in his book, Hard Truths.
Mr Lee “once shared that if his daughter wished to marry a black African, he would have no qualms of telling her: ‘You’re mad’. He also expressed reservations about inter-racial marriages,” wrote Mr Singh. But he added that “paradoxically” the late Prime Minister said in the same book that this type of marriage is “an example of how some racial communities integrate better than others”.
Mr Singh said this attitude is by no means confined among the Chinese community in Singapore, adding that he knows of older Indian and Malay parents who share these sentiments, but their perspectives change as they witness their children’s happiness or when their grandchildren are born.
But most of the time, however, these views are held privately and are not openly expressed.
The Workers’ Party chief called Mr Tan’s actions in publicly declaring his racists views “a serious and fatal misjudgment”.
He added that “Bigoted views, even if privately held, have a nasty habit of showing themselves up opportunistically in day-to-day circumstances.
“It would be important for those who host such private views to reflect deeply on how these can hurt themselves and more importantly, those around them. When it comes to racism – there can be no ifs or buts.”
Mr Singh emphasised that the “public space is a shared space which is for all Singaporeans – regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation etc. to participate actively in”, and that when “bigoted views are aired”, people should “as a society” call this out for the purpose of making “the public space safer and accommodative for all”.
This would give everyone the opportunity not only to reflect on their views but to “determine what sort of society we aspire to be”.
He also acknowledged, “Tectonic shifts are taking place with regard to societal norms in Singapore,” primarily felt between different generations and added that “there will continue to be episodes of divergent cultural and generational norms”.
The Leader of the Opposition ended his post with an appeal to all Singaporeans:
“Going forward, my colleagues in the Workers’ Party and I will appeal for greater understanding and mutual respect from all, even as we work to promote efforts to eradicate the bigotry and racism that many Singaporeans – both young and old – seek to consign to history.”
/TISG
Man says it is ‘racist that Indians marry Chinese because it is predatory’ in viral video