Former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian has come under fire from netizen for posting a status seen by some as racist.
Mr Tan had taken a photo on board a bus where all the commuters in the photo appeared to be foreign workers from India.
He accompanied the photo with the caption “I boarded SMRT 857 and found that I was in Mumbai. Hahaha.”Preview
He had likely intended it as a light hearted observation of the number of foreigners in Singapore and passed comment on a common frustration Singaporeans feel but doing so on a public platform like Facebook wasn’t taken well by netizens.
Many commented that his comments were racist and unfit for someone who was once running for presidency.
Some netizens commented that they were glad that he wasn’t voted in or he could have steered Singapore wrongly or made such social media gaffes which could result in international outrage.
However, some others also defended Mr Tan saying that the comment itself was not particularly racist as he was just observing that the commuters were probably from India and did not make any derogatory or otherwise negative comments about them.
It is also clear that many people agreed with Mr Tan or at least found his comment accurate and funny as there were at least 101 people to like his status.
Mr Tan has since removed the Facebook post after the heavy criticism received but he failed to remove the linked post on Twitter which still shows his post and some users comments in response.
Source: www.therealsingapore.com
