A woman living in a condominium in Sembawang sparked outrage and annoyance among neighbours for her lack of racial and religious tolerance.
In a WhatsApp group chat for residents of The Brownstone Condominium along Canberra Drive, the woman posted a message on Monday (Feb 15), asking her Indian neighbours not to burn their incense as it “really don’t smell nice”.
In her message, she asked her “Indian neighbour” to “please control and minimize the amount of incense u burn”, adding that it was “spreading widely across everywhere with the wind”.
In response to TISG’s queries, residents were puzzled by the woman’s message since, according to them, the woman lived on the sixth floor, and there were only two Indian families living in that block – on the third floor and the 10th floor.
The residents added that the neighbourly thing to do would be to approach your neighbour and speak to them politely instead of publicising the issue in a group chat.
The Brownstone resident said to TISG: “when (the woman was) asked if she knew her neighbour, she said that she was unsure and mentioned that it was obvious that it was an Indian just by the smell of the incense. How can she just assume this? It is very discriminatory and this gives me the impression that she assumed that just because it was a smell that she does not like, it was an Indian as there is a possibility of the person who burnt the incense being Chinese”.
“It is an incense stick, it has no race or religion associated with it. Anyone could have burnt it. Being in a multiracial society, we are taught to at least tolerate if not accept practices of other races. This lady failed to do so”, they added.
“It is more puzzling to me that, during the 7th month, others burn paper items and the smoke and ashes produced are sometimes far more severe yet, I have not seen any complaints about it while a 10-inch incense stick receives complaints”, the resident continued”.
TISG has reached out to The Brownstone Condominium for comment and clarification. /TISG