It Actually Matters if You Are Black or White

 

Saw the story of how Mr. Uddin MD Sharif, a Bangladeshi worker and writer is facing deportation amidst unfair dismissal amidst harassment claims, despite assurances from the powers that be that he could stay in Singapore. The story can be found at:

https://gutzy.asia/2024/05/27/migrant-worker-faces-forced-repatriation-despite-claims-of-harassment-victimhood

 

 This is unfortunately, only unusual in the fact that it’s being told. The sad reality is that although Singapore is in so many ways everything a city should be, we are a failed society. Yes, I do like living in Singapore. There’s a lot of be said about having good facilities. As a dad to a young lady, the physical safety of Singapore is a treasure. I like having a passport that allows me to travel to just about anywhere I could want to visit without being shaken down for a visa. Who does not want to live and be proud of living in a place that’s green, clean and rich?

Well, while there’s no way one can deny that Singapore has got it right in so many aspects, there is one crucial aspect, which marks us out as a “failed” society – that is the inability of the system to treat people as people. This can be seen most visibly when it comes to two particular groups.

One group is our elderly. We brag about how we are an “Asian” society that respects the elderly. However, that’s not quite true. The only “old” person that got any form of dignity was Lee Kuan Yew. The late Mr. Lee was such a force to be reckoned even in his twilight years that one could say that he soaked up whatever good will we may have had for people over a certain age that we became unable to respect anyone else over a certain age. We are, for a society that claims to respect our elders, quite happy to ensure that the frailest grandma around is inevitably the person doing the heavy lifting, whilst the young, strong and fit sit around and plan and strategize, which often a code for mental masturbation.

The second group that we seem unable to recognise as human is anyone who happens to have the misfortune of being darker than pink and happens to work in a “menial” job. If you look closely enough, you’ll see that anyone doing the actual work on a construction site, a ship yard or a restaurant, inevitably comes from anywhere except Singapore. These are the guys who do all the jobs that we would never do or accept our children doing. When we want to get our kids to study hard, we warn them – “Study hard or you will end up sweeping the streets,” and the implication is you will be no better in life than a Bangladeshi.  If you head into any particular organisation, you’ll find that it’s the dark-skinned South Asian doing most of the brutal labour and getting the least. Whenever you point that out, the reply is inevitably “It’s a lot compare to where they come from.” Yes, sure it’s a lot compared to their home country but it’s the point is that these guys have to live and they’re not living in their home country – they are living here.

Contrary to what the late Michael Jackson used to say, it actually matters if you are black or white. Never believe anyone when they tell you that age is just a number. If you look at the way we treat our elderly and South Asian labourers, age is actually a demarcation of what you deserve and the difference in being black or white is inevitably about how much you deserve to be paid.

Let’s remember that we are officially a “meritocracy,” where things like age and pigmentation are not supposed to matter. Yet, despite this glaringly obvious point, people seem to accept it as a fact of life. Let’s put it this way, the real problem with Mr. Uddin is not that he was unfairly treated. The real problem is that he was unfairly treated and said so. In our system, the “darkies” of South Asia are supposed to be grateful for whatever shit they get.

This is not about being “liberal” or “conservative.” It’s about being human. The “Darkies” are here to do a job. To anyone who thinks they should be grateful for the scraps we feed, just understand that its not like we were doing the job and then out of the goodness of our hearts we gave the jobs to them and did something else. The fact of the matter is, our people won’t do anything that looks remotely menial. Whenever there was talk of going to the warehouse, the Padwan who is a healthy 28-year-old, would inevitably find that he had too much course work to handle. I’ve asked long term unemployed people to help out and the Bistrot and they’ll inevitably have something on and then ask you to top up their bus card.

So, let’s understand that the “Darkies” are not taking jobs from us. We are not offering them a blessing. We are hiring them because they are an important component of our relatively decent way of life. Let’s get the understanding that they’re willing to put up with certain hardships. So, in return, let’s accept that they should be treated fairly. Making sure they live in places where we’ll only enter without a hazmat suite is part of the bargain. If we want to keep our social contract going, its time we ensure that our part of the bargain is being kept.