Confessions of a racial minority

On the surface, Singapore might seem to have a harmonious interracial society.

But delve deeper and you will see the cracks in our nation’s foundations of equality.

By Amir Yusof, Opinions Editor

LANGUAGE BARRIER: Taiwan based superstar Wang LeeHom was one of the biggest highlights of the 2013 Countdown party, broadcast on Channel 5. While he attempted to incorporate some English in-between, all of his performances were in Mandarin. PHOTO: OurHomeUK Facebook Page

There was neither anything wrong with the remote nor the television set. This was real.

There I was, watching the telecast of Singapore’s New Year Countdown celebration on Mediacorp’s Channel 5 — our national English language public service broadcaster — only to be ushered into 2014 by Taiwan-based star Wang LeeHom in Mandarin.

“Xin Nian Kuai Le!” he shouted repeatedly.

A Malay by birth, I never learnt Mandarin. And neither did most of the 30% non-Chinese Singaporean minority. So why host a large portion of this ‘national event’ in a language some of us don’t understand? Are racial minorities supposed to go with the flow of the majority and be consumers of Chinese pop culture?

Since our colonial days, English has been our lingua franca. It serves as an important tool to break the racial and language barriers of our multi-ethnic society. But recently, there has been a noticeable push for more Mandarin use in our community.

Language, a form of discrimination

This is perhaps a product of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, launched by the government to preserve Chinese heritage. Actually, I do empathise with language movements that encourage the use of our mother tongue. Across the board, all local ethnic groups are fighting an uphill battle to preserve the cultural relevance of their respective languages.

But the efforts to invigorate Mandarin should be restricted to the Chinese community, and the rest of us Singaporeans shouldn’t be subjected to this. Communicating with us (minorities) in Mandarin, especially without any effort to translate, alienates us completely. Not only do we not understand what is being said, it is a way (perhaps unintentionally) of telling us that we are different from the majority and that we don’t belong.

Personally, I always enjoy a bowl of Yong Tau Foo and will never miss an opportunity to use Chinese dialect lingo in my Singlish vocabulary. I appreciate the presence of Chinese elements in our distinctly Singaporean culture.

But when Mandarin is emphasised in so many aspects of our daily lives, from MRT Station announcements to street signs and loud Chinese pop music in our grocery stores, I feel displaced from my national identity. Sometimes, I feel like a foreigner, living in a place I neither belong to nor recognise as home.

And sadly, for many of us minorities, the buck doesn’t stop there. Besides language-based discrimination, some minorities also face discrimination because of physical traits, in particular, their skin colour.

Judging a book by its cover

Who’s the fairest of them all?: Ms Rathi Menon (centre, in black) who was crowned Miss Singapore Universe last month, has received online criticism for her skin colour (seriously) PHOTO: LoOp – Stills & Moving Pictures

In her blogpost, entitled Is Singapore a racist country?, freelance journalist Surekha A. Yadav relates how many Singaporeans reacted negatively to having a Singaporean woman — Rathi Menon — crowned Miss Singapore Universe 2014. According to Ms Yadav, some locals complained that her skin was too dark and others remarked that she didn’t look as pretty as the average K-pop star.

The implication here is that a Singaporean representative should look more like a ‘Singaporean’, i.e., have fairer skin like that of Eastern-Asian oriental beauty queens.

These critics must realise that Singapore is not just home to fair-skinned people, and having darker skin as a result of ethnicity or genetics does not make a person any less Singaporean.

Lessons from abroad

That’s not to say that the majority is completely unaware of what life is like for the minority. Those who have lived in Western countries may have felt what it’s like to live as a minority.

When I was studying in the United Kingdom early this year, I noticed how some of my Singaporean Chinese friends grappled with being treated as a peripheral member of society. They were shocked by how immigration officers and train ticket operators would spend extra hours checking their identification. They also get insulted when the British natives intentionally speak to them slowly … as … if … they … do … not … understand … a … word … of … English.

Associate Professor Adeline Koh, a Singaporean Chinese living abroad, gives her take on the issue. The Assistant Professor of Literature at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey wrote an online piece, entitled To My Dear Fellow Singaporean Chinese: Shut Up When A Minority Is Talking About Race.

‘Chinese Privilege’

She asserts that Singaporean Chinese enjoy ‘Chinese Privilege’ here in Singapore, a concept similar to White privilege in the United States. It often includes the assumption that one’s experiences are universal and normal, while others are different.

She writes: “As a Singapore Chinese person, when I am in Singapore, I never need to think twice about whether my race/ethnicity is represented on mainstream media, whether my languages are spoken … or whether I can get a taxi.”

I applaud her efforts in raising awareness on this issue. It is not often, in Singapore or around the world, that those in the majority are aware of the privilege they have, simply by belonging to a dominant ethnic group.

But her solution –– that Singaporean Chinese should stay silent and merely listen when talking to minorities about racial issues –– is not ideal.

As a firm believer in meritocracy, I see this as patronising.

We (minorities) don’t need to be placed on a pedestal to make us feel more understood. All we want is for our voices to be heard equally, as quoted in our national pledge. Singling minorities out for preferential treatment demeans our value to society, even though its intention is to boost our self-esteem.

Affirmative action as a non-solution

Although affirmative action is largely a thing of the past for a society like Singapore, our constitution still calls for the protection of the Malay community, who are considered natives of Singapore.

Article 152 — (2) of the Singapore Statutes states: “The Government shall exercise its functions in such manner as to recognise the special position of the Malays, who are the indigenous people of Singapore, and accordingly it shall be the responsibility of the Government to protect, safeguard, support, foster and promote their political, educational, religious, economic, social and cultural interests and the Malay language.”

Previously, this included free tertiary education for the Malays, but fortunately, it was stopped in 1991 to level the playing field in our meritocratic system.

Affirmative action can spell trouble for a multi-ethnic society. For instance, Malaysia implements bumiputera policies to favour their local Malays in areas such as education and business. But this has led to dissatisfaction among the Malaysian Chinese and Indians who are finding it harder to get university places, government scholarships and housing grants.

There are better ways to raise awareness of racism and ultimately eradicate the notion of ‘Chinese privilege’ from our society. And education plays a big role.

No, I’m not talking about Racial Harmony Day celebrations in our school. Neither am I referring to Social Studies lessons that drill into us the importance of maintaining racial harmony for a safe and secure Singapore. These lessons fail to highlight sensitive interracial topics that Singaporeans grapple with everyday. And without talking about these issues candidly, we won’t progress.

Rather, the education must come from beyond the classroom.

Resist calling the cops all the time

Public discourse is the way forward. If people of different races voice out their dissatisfactions with each other in an open and mature manner, common ground may prevail. Issues like pollution during the Hungry Ghost Festival and the inconvenience caused by Malay void deck weddings are rarely discussed openly.

However, instead of discussing sensitive race-related issues among ourselves, some Singaporeans choose, instead, to make a beeline for the authorities with their dissatisfactions.

In his Straits Times article published in April 2012, entitled No need to call police everytime, former NTU Communications lecturer Associate Professor Cherian George discussed how Singaporeans have developed an “over-dependence on the government to deal with problems”, explaining that turning to the authorities should only be used as a last resort.

Here’s what I mean. When Singaporeans, for example, see a racist comment on Twitter or Facebook, they might become sensitive and dial 999. Depending on the severity of the the perpetrator ‘s online content, he or she may get charged under the local Sedition Act –– which results in a jail term or a fine, or both. Then another person posts an offensive post on social media, and the cycle repeats. But to what end?

As a society, we need to practice in dealing with racial issues by ourselves. We should engage in frank civil dialogue, instead of merely relying on Singapore’s strict laws. When we confront each other amicably, we are making the decision to hear each other out, and this only makes us, as a society, more resilient in dealing with racial discrimination.

Ridding ourselves of racial labels

Dissolving Differences: We need to stop judging one another by race. Photo: NTU Facebook Page

Race as a highly prominent marker of our identities may serve to stratify us as a society. Our identity cards (ICs) and passports differentiate us by race, and race also comes into the picture when we fill up school or job application forms. Here is the irony. Our government constantly reminds us that racial division makes us vulnerable, and that it is a potential cause of conflict. But in day-to-day life, we are identified first or foremost by our race.

However, in 2010, the government introduced the double-barrelled race IC category, which allows Singaporeans who have mixed parentage to include both races of their parents in their ICs. For instance, a citizen with a Chinese father and Indian mother can have ‘Chinese-Indian’ indicated as their race. This embracing of mixed-raced Singaporeans opens up our minds to a Singapore that does not consist strictly of the three race categories –– Chinese, Malay and Indian.

Still, there are many Singaporeans who actively bring in race when communicating with each other. Many of us may have labelled our fellow Singaporeans by ethnicity, and unwittingly reduced each other to our racial categories. For instance, instead of saying how much they enjoyed their morning prata made by the friendly uncle, they say ‘friendly Indian uncle’.

It might seem fairly innocent to attach race here — almost everyone has done it unconsciously — but when it refers to a negative comment, things get ugly very quickly. It might take time, but throwing race out of the picture will rid us from racial labels that tend to cloud our judgement of people.

On this front, our newspapers can be considered role models. In national news articles, especially in news reports on crime stories, the race of a person is not relevant and is, most of the time, not stated anywhere in the text. This is one way for reporters to report fairly, and on a significant level, it prevents readers from forming prejudiced racial stereotypes.

Sadly though, there will be those who are firmly rooted to the status quo. Some are in denial of the existence of ‘Chinese privilege’ in our society. A sizable number doesn’t realise its existence. But for the sake of our future, we must make the effort. Our nation faces interesting demographic changes in the short term, with the Population White Paper predicting an influx of foreigners. And with that comes another host of issues relating to xenophobic sentiments that are emerging among Singaporeans.

But if we can’t even sort ourselves out, how are are we going to deal with these more complex issues head on? Some claim that achieving true racial equality in Singapore is just idealistic. Others believe that it is achievable, but needs time. Former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew projected in 2009 that racial equality in our city state is “going to take decades if not centuries”, saying that Singapore was still far from becoming a homogeneous society.

It’s going to be a long and arduous journey but it is important for us to keep in mind the desired end result.

As the Scottish-born writer Frances Wright put it: “Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.”