http://blueheeler.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/765/
BothSidesOfTheJohorStraits b l u e h e e l e r
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Minister George Yeo says “Townships in S’pore”. Have we learnt nothing from apartheid in South Africa??08Sep08
Ah, a heavyweight has lent his bulk to the fight about whether a disused school in Serangoon Gardens should be turned into a dormitory for foreign workers. Foreign Minister George Yeo (right) is not just any minister, but the head of the Aljunied GRC of which Seragoon Gardens is a part of.
To quote http://www.todayonline.com/articles/274673.asp, Minister Yeo said that the Ministry of National Devpt is ”seriously considering how to create townships for foreign workers which are sustainable and self-contained”. You see, from this statement alone, you know that the dorm is NOT going to be in SGdns anymore, because Minister Yeo has to be a crowd-pleaser MP since his GRC’s victory in 2006 was only about 56%, defeating narrowly the WP’s team which includes Sylvia Lim (who is current an NMP beacuse her team is the ‘best loser’ amongst the non-winning opposition candidates (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aljunied_Group_Representation_Constituency).
But that Minister Yeo chose to call these proposed purpose-built accomm for foreign workers a TOWNSHIP is unfortunately. Historically, the word ‘township’ has a negative loaded meaning. A township “usually refers to the (often underdeveloped) urban living areas that, under South African Apartheid were reserved for non-whites (principally black Africans and coloureds but also working class Indians). Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities”. Till today, townships created in apartheid South Africa are still problem-spots, leaving a messy legacy for the current democratic govt to clean up (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Township_(South_Africa) and http://www.straight.com/node/148143).
Under South African apartheid townships were crime- and poverty-ridden slums where the undesirables (dark-skinned, poor, uneducated) of white society were forced to stay, separated from the Whites. In slums, most residents were caught up in a vicious cycle of poverty, poor-facilities, poor health, and violence.
Lets see: South African townships were:
1) built in the fringes of urban areas, 2) for ‘dark-skinned, undesirable’ people, 3) heavily policed.
I am sure that Minster Yeo’s townships would be:
1) built in the fringes of urban areas, 2) for ‘dark-skinned, undesirable’ people, 3) heavily policed.
Minister George, what are you implying about wanting to put our foreign workers into townships? The similarities with his proposal to the one of the worst legacies of apartheid, racist, White South Africa are undeniable, and shocking. Dear Minister Yeo, beside a poor choice of vocab, the township-linked attitude of ’out of sight’ out of mind’ is NOT the way to treat the manual labour that makes our Singapore tick like clockwork; integration is.
BothSidesOfTheJohorStraits b l u e h e e l e r
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Minister George Yeo says “Townships in S’pore”. Have we learnt nothing from apartheid in South Africa??08Sep08
Ah, a heavyweight has lent his bulk to the fight about whether a disused school in Serangoon Gardens should be turned into a dormitory for foreign workers. Foreign Minister George Yeo (right) is not just any minister, but the head of the Aljunied GRC of which Seragoon Gardens is a part of.
To quote http://www.todayonline.com/articles/274673.asp, Minister Yeo said that the Ministry of National Devpt is ”seriously considering how to create townships for foreign workers which are sustainable and self-contained”. You see, from this statement alone, you know that the dorm is NOT going to be in SGdns anymore, because Minister Yeo has to be a crowd-pleaser MP since his GRC’s victory in 2006 was only about 56%, defeating narrowly the WP’s team which includes Sylvia Lim (who is current an NMP beacuse her team is the ‘best loser’ amongst the non-winning opposition candidates (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aljunied_Group_Representation_Constituency).
But that Minister Yeo chose to call these proposed purpose-built accomm for foreign workers a TOWNSHIP is unfortunately. Historically, the word ‘township’ has a negative loaded meaning. A township “usually refers to the (often underdeveloped) urban living areas that, under South African Apartheid were reserved for non-whites (principally black Africans and coloureds but also working class Indians). Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities”. Till today, townships created in apartheid South Africa are still problem-spots, leaving a messy legacy for the current democratic govt to clean up (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Township_(South_Africa) and http://www.straight.com/node/148143).
Under South African apartheid townships were crime- and poverty-ridden slums where the undesirables (dark-skinned, poor, uneducated) of white society were forced to stay, separated from the Whites. In slums, most residents were caught up in a vicious cycle of poverty, poor-facilities, poor health, and violence.
Lets see: South African townships were:
1) built in the fringes of urban areas, 2) for ‘dark-skinned, undesirable’ people, 3) heavily policed.
I am sure that Minster Yeo’s townships would be:
1) built in the fringes of urban areas, 2) for ‘dark-skinned, undesirable’ people, 3) heavily policed.
Minister George, what are you implying about wanting to put our foreign workers into townships? The similarities with his proposal to the one of the worst legacies of apartheid, racist, White South Africa are undeniable, and shocking. Dear Minister Yeo, beside a poor choice of vocab, the township-linked attitude of ’out of sight’ out of mind’ is NOT the way to treat the manual labour that makes our Singapore tick like clockwork; integration is.
