By Phyllis Lee
On Thursday evening (Sept 14), Minister of Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam posted a photo of President Halimah Yacob with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon on Facebook.
He captioned the photo: “Malay President, Chinese Prime Minister and Indian Chief Justice. Representation of Singapore.”
In response to this, Singaporean blogger Xiaxue wrote an 814-word long post accusing him, as well as the public, of playing identity politics on Friday (Sept 15).
She said: “Don’t play identity politics because it’s a slippery slope that never ends. You will end up dividing the nation as collectivism takes over, separating people by into divisive groups competing with each other for so called equality – when people are supposed to be treated as individuals.”
The well-known PAP supporter continued by pointing out the lack of representation for the female, agonist, atheist, LGBT, overweight, disabled, midget and less-educated communities in the Cabinet.
Moving on to the general public, she cited a popular tweet she saw, which said that only the Chinese were angry with the elections results, followed by a sarcastic “I wonder why”.
“We are all Singaporeans that didn’t get to vote, it’s natural we are upset. Please don’t make this a race thing. But hey this is an example of what identity politics do; divide people. You are Chinese? You are not part of my group,” she posted.
Xiaxue lamented that it’s a shame that Mdm Halimah isn’t recognised for her personal experience and achievements, but instead for her race and gender.