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[h=2]Is ‘Singaporean First’ & ‘Singapore for Singaporeans’ Xenophobic?[/h]
March 27th, 2013 |
Author: Contributions
Kirsten Han
Whether by design or by accident, “Singapore for Singaporeans” became the one takeaway message of the first protest against the White Paper.
It sparked off a huge discussion over whether Singapore is becoming more xenophobic, with people – including myself – pointing out that “Singapore for Singaporeans” sounds very much like right-wing ultra-nationalist anti-immigration political parties in the W…est.
Although we didn’t seem to get to a consensus over whether Singaporeans are xenophobic or not, I think we generally all agree that xenophobia IS a problem (perhaps why so many are eager that we do not call Singaporeans xenophobic, lest we have to admit we REALLY have a problem on our hands).
Well, there’s another protest being planned. According to one of the posters, the slogan is “Singaporeans First”.
While I was ready to give the first protest the benefit of the doubt when Gilbert Goh apologised for his racist/xenophobic posting, because I believed that it is important that the government be made aware of the depth of outrage against their policies, and because I know of a group of respected friends who were there that day trying to make an impact in address xenophobia (although they were not related to the organisers of the protest).
I am incredibly disappointed by the lack of reflection since the first protest – the lack of self-examination by the organisers even after all the discussion and debate on xenophobia and warnings against the dangers of ultra-nationalism “Singapore for Singaporeans”+”Singaporeans First”.
This was an opportunity for Singaporean society to grow and progress; an opportunity we have failed to take.
*********
by Goh Meng Seng Freedom (Notes) on Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 1:23am
Do you really understand what Xenophobia is?
I believe many of those people who keep accusing others, especially those activists and participants of the 6.9 protest, as “Xenophobic” don’t really understand or experience Xenophobia before.
I will tell you what slogan will be considered as “Xenophobic” : eg. “Go Home FTs!” “Get Lost FTs!” or any slogans targeted at foreigners in Singapore… that’s Xenophobia. All these aren’t new because it had happened all around the world before, be it in Australia, Europe, Japan, Korea, US, China or even Hong Kong. Nothing new, really.
Singaporeans are very mild and well behave in nature. We seldom take to the street for anything unrelated to monetary interests. But when we do take to the street to protest for something like this, it means that we are really pissed off.
But yet, I believe in most of my Singaporean brothers and sisters that we do not translate this anger upon foreigners. Our anger is targeted solely on PAP government’s liberal FT policy that is now doing more harm than good to us. Worse, their insistence of pushing forward to a totally unrealistic figures of 6.9 million population by importing more FTs in spite of the present uneasy shrinking living space has really added oil to the fire of anger.
Our anger is targeted at PAP government, not FT. Although there are really some cultural behaviors and insensitivities of these foreigners to our way of life are making us frustrated at times, but we are still treating them decently as another human beings.
Thus we should reject anyone who tries to label us as Xenophobic because we are not. Calling for “Singaporean First” isn’t Xenophobic but a timely reminder call to PAP government to get to the basics of how a Nation should treat its citizens.
.
* The article first appeared in transitioning.org. It is a non-profit society specially set up to cater to the emotional needs of the unemployed Singaporeans. Goh Meng Seng is the former secretary-general of NSP and Kirsten Han is a journalist and blogger. In her biodata, she also said she is a social media junkie, activist, teacher, traveller, amateur ukulele-strummer and expert chocolate-eater. Her main areas of interest are in social justice and human rights issues.
Kirsten HanWhether by design or by accident, “Singapore for Singaporeans” became the one takeaway message of the first protest against the White Paper.
It sparked off a huge discussion over whether Singapore is becoming more xenophobic, with people – including myself – pointing out that “Singapore for Singaporeans” sounds very much like right-wing ultra-nationalist anti-immigration political parties in the W…est.
Although we didn’t seem to get to a consensus over whether Singaporeans are xenophobic or not, I think we generally all agree that xenophobia IS a problem (perhaps why so many are eager that we do not call Singaporeans xenophobic, lest we have to admit we REALLY have a problem on our hands).
Well, there’s another protest being planned. According to one of the posters, the slogan is “Singaporeans First”.
While I was ready to give the first protest the benefit of the doubt when Gilbert Goh apologised for his racist/xenophobic posting, because I believed that it is important that the government be made aware of the depth of outrage against their policies, and because I know of a group of respected friends who were there that day trying to make an impact in address xenophobia (although they were not related to the organisers of the protest).
I am incredibly disappointed by the lack of reflection since the first protest – the lack of self-examination by the organisers even after all the discussion and debate on xenophobia and warnings against the dangers of ultra-nationalism “Singapore for Singaporeans”+”Singaporeans First”.
This was an opportunity for Singaporean society to grow and progress; an opportunity we have failed to take.
*********
by Goh Meng Seng Freedom (Notes) on Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 1:23am
Do you really understand what Xenophobia is?
I believe many of those people who keep accusing others, especially those activists and participants of the 6.9 protest, as “Xenophobic” don’t really understand or experience Xenophobia before.
I will tell you what slogan will be considered as “Xenophobic” : eg. “Go Home FTs!” “Get Lost FTs!” or any slogans targeted at foreigners in Singapore… that’s Xenophobia. All these aren’t new because it had happened all around the world before, be it in Australia, Europe, Japan, Korea, US, China or even Hong Kong. Nothing new, really.
Singaporeans are very mild and well behave in nature. We seldom take to the street for anything unrelated to monetary interests. But when we do take to the street to protest for something like this, it means that we are really pissed off.
But yet, I believe in most of my Singaporean brothers and sisters that we do not translate this anger upon foreigners. Our anger is targeted solely on PAP government’s liberal FT policy that is now doing more harm than good to us. Worse, their insistence of pushing forward to a totally unrealistic figures of 6.9 million population by importing more FTs in spite of the present uneasy shrinking living space has really added oil to the fire of anger.
Our anger is targeted at PAP government, not FT. Although there are really some cultural behaviors and insensitivities of these foreigners to our way of life are making us frustrated at times, but we are still treating them decently as another human beings.
Thus we should reject anyone who tries to label us as Xenophobic because we are not. Calling for “Singaporean First” isn’t Xenophobic but a timely reminder call to PAP government to get to the basics of how a Nation should treat its citizens.
.
* The article first appeared in transitioning.org. It is a non-profit society specially set up to cater to the emotional needs of the unemployed Singaporeans. Goh Meng Seng is the former secretary-general of NSP and Kirsten Han is a journalist and blogger. In her biodata, she also said she is a social media junkie, activist, teacher, traveller, amateur ukulele-strummer and expert chocolate-eater. Her main areas of interest are in social justice and human rights issues.
