There is No Racism in Singapore

So, if You’re Dark Skinned You Better be Grateful for Your Lot

Around eight-years ago, I befriend and Englishman who had moved to Singapore. Half way through our conversation he asked me what I missed most about England. My reply was “The intrinsic decency of people.” His reply was “There’s a lot more of that in Singapore.” My reply was “That’s because you’re white – try being a dark skinned labourer from the Indian Subcontinent.”

I’m reminded of this incident because I had the strange fortune of stumbling into an article in the Independent Singapore, which was about a post from the Singapore Government’s favourite white-skinned boot polisher, “The Fawning Follower,” who goes by the name of “Critical Spectator,” who proved the point I made to my English friend so many years ago:

https://theindependent.sg/critical-spectator-says-he-doesnt-think-racism-exists-in-singapore/

 

If you read the argument of the Fawning Follower, it runs along a pretty simple line – Singapore is a wonderfully multiethnic place and although a few derogatory terms are used in between the races, everyone gets along and there isn’t the equivalent of a Holocaust against anyone so, what racism is there?  To make matters more interesting, the fawning follower then goes onto argue that there is no racism in Singapore and therefore anyone who gets offended by a “blackface” portrayal is just a namby-pamby left wing cry baby who can’t take being called a name.

To be fair to the Fawning Follower, he has a point. On the surface, things look good. People of different races live harmoniously and unlike our neighbour across the Causeway, there are no laws that discriminate in favour of one ethnic group in things like employment. Singapore also compares well in as much as you’re not going to get beaten up in certain parts of Singapore for being who you are. Our political leaders also make plenty of the right noises about the need to have multiracial harmony.

However, as in his posting on migrant worker conditions, the Fawning Follower misses the point completely. Just because it is worse elsewhere it doesn’t mean that the problem does not exist here nor does it make it right.

The Fawning Follower also misses the point that all humans have their intrinsic nasty prejudices. It’s merely a question of whether they control them and acknowledge their “dark side” and make the effort to create a nice place to live. By saying that “there is no racism” in Singapore, the Fawning Follower is actually saying that Singapore does not exist on earth – it’s the celestial kingdom ruled by God himself.

Unfortunately, that’s not true. While racism is for the most part not overt, it does exist in subtle ways. My English friend discovered this at his workplace, which is a shipyard. He found that there was a clear “colour correlation.” The darker your pigmentation the more you did the “shit” work and the less you got paid. After going through this, his stance of decency in Singapore changed – when we met again after eight years, he described our labour policies as being based on “slave labour.”

My English friend is a decent man who, despite a comfortable existence in Singapore, sees the ugly side and calls it out. Its people like him who drop ideas that will hopefully get people to make the world a more decent place.

The Fawning Follower is different. Instead of enjoying the good side but acknowledging the ugly side, he actually promotes the ugly as beautiful. According to him, Singaporeans should keep migrant workers in shit-shacks that have killed people through unsanitary conditions (this happened before Covid-19) because it is the reason why Singapore succeeds. Now, he says that the unspoken “colour bar” in parts of Singapore don’t really exist.

Interestingly enough, it’s always the expats who have pointed it out to me. One of my favourite English families made the point that when F1 was first brought to Singapore and kids volunteered for holiday jobs, it was somehow a coincidence that White and Yellow skinned people were awarded catering jobs, while anyone black or brown was shoved into cleaning.

I think of how it works in immigration. I think of my friend, an Afrikaans dental technician, a highly skilled man, who was denied a visa. Then, when he went to see them, they were stunned and suddenly approved his visa when he explained that there are “white” people in South Africa.

Racism here isn’t the overt kind. It’s subtle and what makes it more worrying is that it’s become acceptable. Tokenism is used so successfully that ethnic minorities end up being the biggest proponent of things that are discriminatory against them. I always remember a discussion with one of the security guards in my dad’s condominium. He’s an Indian chap who was defending a policy of not hiring Indians. If Hitler need a reason to gas Indians in Singapore, this man would have provided it. I’m also told a local Tamil Minister didn’t quite understand why the local Tamil community was upset over “blackface” portrayals.

Singapore has done well in many ways on the race-relation front. However, we are not perfect and we need to do more to ensure that whatever discriminations our ethnic minorities face are quashed. We prospered because to a large extent worked on “regardless of race.” However, more needs to b done and people like the Fawning Follower who tries to tell us that the ugly side doesn’t exist or that we should be grateful for the ugly have no place in a Singapore that I’d like to be a part of.