Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Singapore, not for Indians or Malays

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Two days ago the state owned and controlled Singapore newspaper reported Singapore's ruler Lee Kuan Yew stressing the importance of bilingualism. You correctly guessed that when he said bilingualism, he meant Chinese and English; not Tamil and English or Malay. As far as the Singapore supremo is concerned, he has no intention of even thinking about you Malays and Indians.

Although this is no doubt outright racial discrimination, it all happened with Lee Kuan Yew realising, albeit mistakenly that Malays and Indians are by nature, not so compliant as the Chinese Confucianists whose characteristic, he wrongly believed, was the ability to kowtow to authority; in Singapore's case to kowtow to Lee Kuan Yew.

But truly, his view of the Chinese was wrong as Hong Kong has shown. Even though ethnic Chinese, Hong Kong citizens have bravely stood their ground with massive public demonstrations whenever the Communist Chinese tried to erode their rights they were accustomed to under the British.

In Singapore today, every government department, every private organization either openly, with job ads requiring knowledge of Mandarin, or subtly, slowly but surely have marginalized the Malay and Indian community. Today in Singapore regardless of how qualified you are, a Malay or Indian continues one rung below the dominant Lee Kuan Yew favoured Chinese race.

But the Chinese educated too are unhappy with these racially discriminatory policies and for numerous other reasons including the lack of human rights, the vast majority have simply emigrated and left the island, principally to Australia or Canada.

At the same time, the reproductive rate among the Chinese being particularly low which results in the Chinese population actually shrinking. At the same time, the educated Indians and Malays are emigrating as well, finding it unacceptable to accept the blatant bald discrimination.

The end result of this dissatisfaction among the educated Chinese, the Malays and Indians coupled with the dearth in childbirth, is that there are simply not enough skilled people to do the jobs, leaving the government no other choice but to bring in foreigners to fill the vacuum.

In the past, to keep the Singapore population principally Chinese, Lee Kuan Yew relied on massive immigration of Malaysian Chinese. But just as any finite source, this supply of Chinese Malaysians has also bottomed out, one because all the Chinese there wanting to leave have already left, and secondly, the Malaysian Chinese themselves consider coming to Singapore an equally disastrous decision, as if they were jumping from the frying pan into the fire; or from one dictatorship to another.

Which therefore leaves Lee Kuan Yew no choice but to turn exclusively to one country alone where immigrants can still be attracted, Communist China. Problem here of course is they know no English.

Today you see the irritation, annoyance and desperation in the Malays and Indians having to deal everday with these imported mainland Chinese. The moment they come in, they are given immediate citizenship. You find them in the entire spectrum of employment, from dishwashers in the food stalls, to prostitutes in Geylang the red light district to doctors in hospitals. And all of them cannot speak a word of English, let alone Malay or Tamil.

Today the Malay steps into a bus, finding the bus driver a Communist Chinese import, who speaks no English at all. The Malay is unable to get any advice whether the bus goes to Nee Soon Garrison. All he gets from him is a blank stare. And what good is that, you tell me that.

The Indian goes into the hospital with an appendicitis case. He is confronted with a Chinese doctor who speaks no English. What satisfaction does the Indian get for being a citizen of Singapore, in a Singapore hospital.

Another Indian boards the bus stop at Tekka wanting to go to Woodlands. He asks the Chinese from China bus driver with no English whatsoever, whether it goes there. The driver nods either deliberately or by mistake, not knowing a word the Indian spoke. Finally the Indian ends up, instead of Woodlands but at Changi Cargo Complex! Naturally he gets upset and confronts the bus driver, who in turn yells at the Indian Mandarin vulgarities. The Indian too gets upset at the way the Chinese man is behaving. Having only recently downed a good measure of Scotch at Tekka, he decided to give the China man a broken nose, and ends up in Court 26, Subordinate Court on charges of assault and battery. This is a true story by the way. Nothing like this would have happened if the bus driver knew some English like a good bus driver should in Singapore.

But I am sure you see my point. Singapore was never meant to be a Chinese speaking city. It was supposed to be an English speaking place with the Chinese Indians and Malays speaking their languages at home, not in public, which should not be done.

And this situation of Malays and Indians becoming completely lost in their own country is getting worse, as Lee Kuan Yew the Singapore bully has wowed to flood the island with Mandarin speaking ethnic Chinese, from every job you can imagine from shoe shine boys to bank managers. So unless the Malays and Indians go out now and enroll themselves in crash courses like "Mandarin in 48 hours", they are going to be left completely high and dry.

Personally, although I find the study of languages a useful endeavour, the study of Mandarin is not at the top of my list. If I had to chose, I would say French is particularly fascinating and secondly Arabic.

And Mandarin may even have a deleterious effect on your other languages as shown by the fact that Chinese have a great difficulty in pronunciation, eg. saying "fried rice" only being able to manage "flied lice" or "Lichard" instead of "Richard". I understand is has something to do with being able to twist your tongue.

The best joke on this went something like this. American goes to Chinese eye doctor. Chinese doctor tells him he has a "cataract". The American tells him that that is not the case. He says he drives a Lincoln Continental. The Chinese doctor could only manage to say "Cadillac" for "cataract"!

Something particularly hilarious the last time I was in Singapore in 2008, at Kopitiam, Killiney Road, the Chinese coffee shop which was not far from my house in Singapore as a child, I asked the Chinese waiter what he had. He said "gla jelly". No matter how much I tried, I simply could not know what he meant, when on checking the menu, I realised it was "Grass Jelly".

Without proper ease of communication among the races in Singapore, it is not advancing but is sliding backwards. The Malays and Indians should realise they have no place in a declining Chinese Singapore and simply get out. In any case, it is simply a boring place with these mainland Chinese instant citizens with their communist one track brainwashed minds.

Lee Kuan Yew's aspirations for his Singapore is to be no more than a satellite Chinese city which services the Peoples Republic of China, nothing more than that. All the good thinking people have left and all you have left behind are either the department store yes sir dummies, the sycophants or the Chinese human imports.

Not a fantastic place by any reckoning.

Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is indeed a dangerous trend,the educated minorty's will be first one to flee from the island.Their less educated brethren will be trapped.There large influx of migrants from china (without knowledge of english and local culture) will have a deep impact in the long run.It was even reported china born children tend to
mix with their own country-men,even when studying in our local schools (Be it secondary schools,ITE,Polytechnics and universitys),Though govt have taken some step's to intergrate this people with our locals,it seems majority are comfortable with their own kind.(which is
also found with migrant indians
as well)

Even in HDB block's you can see china-born nationals forming close cohesion between themselves....Let's assume in the near future,their children who brought up with
this mentality,will someday become
an MP or a Minster.

There will certainly be a strain in
bilateral relations between their neigbours partcularly Indonesia and malaysia.Though chinese are majority in this Island,but in this region,they are
still a tiny minority.Good bilateral relationships between the Malaysian's
Barisan National party and Indonesia's Golkar party had lead to a more peacefull coexistence.Ignorning this would be serious mistake.Given,the rise in Islamisation in this region,there is possiblty in the near future,Islamic-based poltical party's might come to power in
this nations and the future leader's might lack foresight to establish good relations with them.
Then we can see the rise in terrosim activties ,evetually It will mark the beginning of the end.

A Rebel leader once quoted "
WHEN THE OPPRESSED PUSHED TO THE LIMIT,SOMETIMES THERE IS NO OTHER
WAY BUT TO FIGHT BACK...WITH WHATEVER MEANS AVALIABLE..."
----------------------------------

Anonymous said...

I am a Malay who has emigrated out of SG. Even though I have 3 different degrees from Australia, I could not get a decent job in my home country. I was very discriminated against, not because I asked for very high positions, but because I am a Malay. This is the sad reality. The Chinese are very racist indeed in SG. But I will have the last laugh. With global warming, I am actually the lucky one as I now live in a big country with a lot of land and can actually live life. How I wish my family members back in SG are not as blind as they are with the situation in SG.

Anonymous said...

singaporean malays are not just blind but also in denial...totally brainwashed

Anonymous said...

You have a deep insight into the mind of LKY. He is basically an english man trying hard to be a china man. He by three-legging and boot-licking China he hope he can become one.

Anonymous said...

Hey you Malay person reading this, open your eyes to the discrimination inflicted to your race in your own country by the Chinese Singaporeans. Its true that you are disadvantaged both financially and academically by this very discrimination, instituted by the very government that you voted in. Please consider leaving Singapore, not because you are a quitter, but to save your dignity from continuous oppression. Do not complain that you cannot emigrate because of a lack of education or finances. Do not complain anymore, period! Just move out of Singapore and start life anew in a foreign land. I guarantee that you will be much more happier with more opportunities available to you than in Singapore. Just like how I did.

Anonymous said...

I am a chinese. But I am not a racist . In fact most of the chinese are not racists . In fact we are the victims under this system . Please do not mix up racist citizens with racist govt. I do think the the post of PM should be rotated among different races to prevent racist govt from exist . Because I prefer a down to people and fair govt, be it malay, indian, or other races, than a unrealistic selfish, money minded, arrogant, autocratic govt . In fact this govt has made disharmony among our different races . The harmony displayed is just on surface. in fact most of the chinese here are suffering as they are just used by the govt for purpose. Other races also have some responsibilities to blame for electing this govt. Without their purporting of this govt, (about 25% of the population is non chinese), do you think our present govt can rule for 50 years that long?

Anonymous said...

Singapore is fast becoming a chinese city. School names, road names, programmes in buses, shop signs are all turning into chinese. I am ashamed of my Malay brethen who voted this govt in every election. Anything the PAP does is geared towards making Singapore into a satelite city of China. They even tried to change the national anthem and pledge! Singapore is a multicultural city, not a chinese one!!!

Anonymous said...

All chinese are indeed not racist,They are indeed racist indians and malays,I am aware of that.But racisim percieved by "chinese" (racist chinese) have far deep impact on life's of the minorty's.As they exercise control over poltical and economic entity's in singapore.If the entire minorty's refused an ethnic chinese a Job apportunity,given large chinese population (around 75 %),the indiviual would have no problem finding a Job.The same scenario,but this time the entire chinese community refused a minorty (indian or malay) for a job postion (maybe he prefer's main-land chinese),It would cause massive jobless population among the minorty's ,followed by social problems.As the entire economy of singapore is dominated by the "Elite" chinese,in case of dsicrimmination it's indeed devastating.

I agree the 25% of the population are indeed,made of minorty's.But your argument that they contributed this govt coming to power is invalid.The govt had actually implemanted an ethinic quota system,restricting ethinic minority to be less than 13 to 15% in HDB Flats or Housing estates.The chinese population at large,exist as majority in all constituencies.Thoese constiuency which used to have large minorgty's are merged with other constiuceny,where chinese are in the majority.Malay and Indian dwelling's of the past had been forcfully uprooted and the resident's scattered across the island.

Anonymous said...

In the IT industry, I think the Indians are very competitive. We are much more knowledgeable than our Chinese employers, but their ungraceous rudeness and discourteous manner with their backward Singlish drove many of us away to countries like US and Canada. Many of my compatriots told me they cannot live in such a discourteous society. Even with our rampant poverty in India, we are respectful humans unlike the Chinese in Singapore.

ThEDISSapOintEDSiNgAP0R3An said...

i feel the racism, even in the office i work in. singapores meritocratic you say, but the merits that i earn from completing my junior college years do not get me respect i rightfully deserve. just because of my race and the colour of my skin, i've been a victim of racism. it would be a dream of mine to be the one to put an end to this because i love singapore and i do not want her to crumble. for now, all who have been victims of racism, like this tamil teenager, i leave you with this. "The best response to provocation, is better performance." Live by it and earn your places in respectable institutions rightfully. we need to change the way things are going around here, at least if we see past 2012 :)

Anonymous said...

Long Live Sir Gopalan Nair. I'm a 28 year old Chinese Filmmaker in Singapore helping out the opposition. I would definitely love to make a documentary about you and your views. We need a dose of right wing policy sir!!!

Anonymous said...

Nice article. Unfortunately, you Sir yourself, seem to be biased towards Chinese.

I am not Chinese but I understand the importance of knowing it in years to come and even now.

I can understand how it feels to be surrounded by more hard working and better work ethic minded Chinese. I am sure if one feels Singapore is too biased he/she can always migrate to other countries like you mentioned. Unfortunately, once they are out of Singapore they'll realise how bad it was of them to leave Singapore.

XZR
London

Anonymous said...

I am an Indian and had a singapore trip and had to admit I did face racist mentality from Chinese Singaporeans. None of them was willing to assist an Indian guy asking for direction and their attitude was understandably racist. A bus driver was totally rude in reacting when I mentioned I do have exact change but hopefully an indian helped me at that time. I do see the difference in the way Chinese Singaporeans react when they see an Indian tourist compared to others say a cacausian Tourist.
Most of the Chinese had terrible english and takes a lot of time to understand what they meant.

After Singapore, I had a Malaysia trip and need to admit that it was a breeze, the local were really hospitable and sincere in assisting.

-Afzal, India