SINGAPORE: Former CEO of Temasek Holdings Ho Ching urged Singaporeans to be kind, weighing in on the subject of online hatred against Indians as well as Singapore’s multiculturalism.
On Facebook on June 9 (Tuesday), Mdm Ho, the wife of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, shared a post from the former Nominated Member of Parliament Calvin Cheng, where he called out Singaporeans online who said they accept Indians who grew up in Singapore but discriminate against more recent arrivals.
“These people – vast majority of whom are Singaporean Chinese – try to excuse themselves by saying they are ok with local Indians. Just not what they call ‘ceca’s,” he wrote, adding, “What rubbish.”
Mdm Ho wrote that she “agreed totally that we should stop the BS and excuses for being racist.” She acknowledged that humans are inherently tribal and added that deciding to include others who are different takes awareness and intention.
In Singapore, due to the multicultural environment people are raised in, they are “much more inclusive and open to different races, accents, languages, and skin colours, among us.”
However, she warned that “we sometimes let our own insecurities take the form of parochialism, xenophobia or racism, to hit out at others who may be different from us.”
“Better to remember that the colour of our blood is the same, same types of blood regardless of the colour of the skin or eyes or place of birth. Be kind always,” she reminded others.
What Singaporeans are saying
Many commenters agreed with Mdm Ho, with one writing, “This entire nonsense of racism should stop. When I was growing up, I had lots of different friends. Naidu was just Naidu to me. Ah Hock was just Ah Hock to me. Majid was just Majid to me. Babu was Babu. I was just their Sekani pal. No race involved. All naughty boys are enjoying each other’s company. That’s life. That’s how it should be. Period.”
To this, another replied, “And that is uniquely Singapore.”
“It is just melanin,” a commenter chimed in.
“Simple – just remember that when you’re in need of a blood transfusion, the blood that you are getting isn’t from the one that you chose, it’s from another human and you don’t know his skin colour,” wrote a Facebook user.
The context
Last week, Law Minister and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong announced that the Police issued Disabling Directions under the Online Criminal Harms Act to deal with the content circulating on YouTube, Facebook, and X, requiring the platforms to disable access by Singapore users to these posts.
Mr Tong told members of the media that the content was likely to have come from overseas, and CNA reported that they are believed to have originated from a platform based in China.
“These videos attack our multi-racial society and try to divide people based on race. This, however, is not who we are. Every community in Singapore is valued, and everyone has an equal place,” the minister said, adding, “We don’t tolerate narratives which undermine the racial harmony that we enjoy and work so hard to protect.” /TISG
Read also: Ex-NMP calls out Singaporeans who accept local Indians but discriminate against ‘Cecas’
