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Tag: minority

  • Former President, S R Nathan, Passes Away

    Former President, S R Nathan, Passes Away

    Former President S R Nathan died on Monday (Aug 22), said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in a statement. Mr Nathan was 92.

    In its statement, the PMO said: “The Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues are sad to learn of the passing of Mr S R Nathan and would like to convey their condolences to his family. The late Mr Nathan passed away peacefully at Singapore General Hospital on Monday at 9.48 pm. He was 92.

    “Arrangements for the public to pay respects and for the funeral will be announced later.”

    Mr Nathan leaves his wife, daughter, son and three grandchildren.

    Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sent his condolences to Mrs Nathan and the family. “Deeply saddened by the passing of Mr S R Nathan today,” Mr Lee wrote in a Facebook post. “He passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital, surrounded by family and loved ones, three weeks after suffering a stroke.
    “Mr Nathan’s life is an inspiration to us all. His was a story of how a young boy strove to triumph over his circumstances and make a contribution to society. He held many public service posts, and occupied the highest office in the land.
    “Mr Nathan was our longest serving President. He was a warm and approachable President who endeared himself to Singaporeans. He impressed visitors with his knowledge of world affairs, and served with dignity and distinction.
    “I have known Mr Nathan for 40 years, since I was a young officer in SAF. I remember him as a man guided by a deep sense of duty to the nation. He stepped up each time duty called. He was a true son of Singapore.
    “My condolences to Mrs Nathan and the family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you in this time of grief.”

    President Tony Tan Keng Yam said that he and his wife Mary were “deeply saddened” by Mr Nathan’s passing. In a Facebook post, he wrote: “”Mr Nathan had an outstanding career in public service. He rose from humble beginnings to become the sixth and longest-serving President of Singapore.

    “Mr Nathan began his career is the civil service as a medical social worker in 1955. In his long public service, Mr Nathan served with dedication and distinction, including years in leadership positions in the labour movement, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs and Defence.

    “I had the privilege of working with Mr Nathan from 1996 to 1999 when I was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence. He helped set up the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, which is now the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies. The School is ranked among the top think tanks in the region.

    “Mr Nathan also played an active role in uplifting the Indian community when he was Chairman of the Hindu Endowment Board and founding member of SINDA.

    “As President of Singapore, Mr Nathan championed social causes by initiating the President’s Challenge in 2000. The President’s Challenge gained much support from the community and raised over $100 million for more than 500 beneficiaries during Mr Nathan’s two terms of office.

    “Our thoughts and prayers are with Mrs Nathan and Mr Nathan’s family during this time of mourning.”

    Mr Nathan had been warded at Singapore General Hospital since suffering a stroke on Jul 31.

    He served two terms as President, from 1999 to 2011. He officially stepped down on Aug 31, 2011 after announcing that he would not seek a third term in office, and was succeeded by President Tony Tan Keng Yam.

    After stepping down as President, Mr Nathan took up appointments as Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and at the Singapore Management University’s School of Social Sciences.

    Prior to becoming President, he held key positions in the civil service, as well as in security, intelligence and foreign affairs. He was appointed as Singapore’s High Commissioner to Malaysia in 1988 and later Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States of America from 1990 to 1996.

    He also served as Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large, and later pro-chancellor of the National University of Singapore.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • A Chinese-Singaporean Husband’s Dilemma – ‘Sorry Your Wife Is Indian. Landlord Won’t Rent To You’.

    A Chinese-Singaporean Husband’s Dilemma – ‘Sorry Your Wife Is Indian. Landlord Won’t Rent To You’.

    Darius Cheung, founder of Singapore-based property listing site 99.co, is married to Indian-Singaporean wife Roshni Mahtani, who’s also an entrepreneur (she started parenting portaltheAsianparent).

    Late last year, they began searching for a property to rent, thinking that an oversupply of apartments would make it easy. They were wrong.

    You see, as a Chinese Singaporean man, Darius had been sheltered from the everyday racism felt by minorities. He was about to get an education.

    “I began to notice something very odd as we went for these viewings, something I never encountered before in the dozen years that I’ve been renting,” he writes on the company blog.

    “On several occasions, the agents seemed eager to end the viewings quickly, sometimes without even discussing the offer. I would text them afterwards to negotiate on the price, but one of the responses we got was a shocking ‘Sorry your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you. Next time please indicate earlier, so we both don’t waste time.’”

    He did precisely that. True enough, 20 percent of their enquiries were rejected right away because Roshni was mentioned in the text message.

    “In one case, after the typical vague response of ‘profile doesn’t match,’ I pushed harder to ask ‘Is it because my wife is Indian?’, and the response was a dead-pan ‘yes, thanks for your understanding.’”

    They ended up paying 15 percent more than what they should have because of their difficulty finding a place.

    The event led to some soul-searching. They wanted to include both parents’ surnames in their daughter’s name. They thought about dropping the Indian surname to protect her, but decided against it.

    So Darius sought to do something about racial discrimination in the property market. He writes:

    If you google ‘No Indian No PRC’, you will find actual rental listings in Singapore in the top results. The problem is so prevalent that even BBC had extensive coverage on it some time ago.

    Enquiries about rental properties often come with a series of profiling questions that includes ‘What race are you?’, ‘Where are you from?’, or outright rejection by stating ‘Profile doesn’t match.’ The top two groups of people who receive discriminatory responses are Indians and PRCs (referring to those from the People’s Republic of China).

    Landlords often cite reasons like “lack of cleanliness”, “likelihood of damaging the apartment,” and even “I don’t like them.”

    99.co is now tackling this by introducing an “all-races-welcome” indicator on its website. What this means is that agents and landlords can positively indicate that their properties can be rented by anyone regardless of ethnicity. Such listings will get prominent placing on the website.

    “The idea is to give renters peace of mind during their home search journey – reducing instances of rude comments and unpleasant experiences while enquiring about listings.”

     

    Source: www.techinasia.com

  • Walid J. Abdullah: Racism Is No Laughing Matter

    Walid J. Abdullah: Racism Is No Laughing Matter

    A lot of us like to share feel-good stories about seeming cooperation and tolerance, or acts of goodwill, involving people from various races. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it can be an extremely positive thing: if we are too mired in negativity , we may forget that there are genuinely nice and kind human beings all around us, and that we experience these acts on a regular basis.

    At the same time, some of those who wish to believe that their societies are harmonious and tolerant find it difficult to accept that racism does indeed exist, or even, that they themselves are racists. Too many times I have seen people justifying their palpably chauvinistic stances via what they think is “reasoned” argumentation.

    “Calling an Indian apuneneh is not racist, it is just a term of endearment.”

    “Saying ‘keling’ is not wrong, it has historical roots.”

    “It was just a joke, don’t be so sensitive.”

    “How is saying that Malays make good barbers and security guards racist; I joke like that with my Malay friends all the time.”

    “Believing that Malays are lazy is not necessarily racist; that is just stating a fact.”

    Next time, I hear some smart alec making a racist comment, I may just be tempted to slap the person and then say:

    ‘Don’t be so sensitive, i am just playing.’
    ‘This is my way of showing endearment to you.’
    ‘I do this to my friends all the time!’

    Racism will continue to exist, as long as we allow it to, and as long as it remains unchallenged. Whether mainfested in ‘jokes’, words or actions.

     

    Source: Walid J. Abdullah

  • Walid J. Abdullah: Be Honest – Why Are We Selectively Indignant To Racism?

    Walid J. Abdullah: Be Honest – Why Are We Selectively Indignant To Racism?

    -When people who disagree with the government are harassed-

    *silence*

    -When politicians one likes spout racist comments-

    *silence*

    -When fences for foreign workers are mooted-

    *silence*

    -When Donald Trump suggests a wall to be built on the border, Muslims to be monitored, and that Mexicans are rapists-

    ‘This is absolutely outrageous. No human being who believes in the values of liberty and democracy, and basic human rights, should tolerate this. This is an attack on all of us. I really hope Americans do not vote for this demagogue. He is a threat to the entire world.’

    ——

    Selective outrage sure is not limited to Fox News.

    If we are inconsistent in our indignation toward similar events/actions, it is then perhaps timely to touch our hearts and ask ourselves what we are actually disgusted with or angry about. Our selective outrage could reveal more about ourselves than about people like Trump.

     

    Source: Walid J. Abdullah

  • Lee Hsien Loong: Give-And-Take Critical For Racial, Religious Harmony

    Lee Hsien Loong: Give-And-Take Critical For Racial, Religious Harmony

    The racial and religious harmony that Singapore enjoys is a result of give-and-take between the different communities in the country, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.

    “This is something which we have to always continue to work upon, because it is not something which will ever become a solved problem,” Mr Lee said in an interview with Russian news agency TASS at the Istana on Saturday (May 14).

    “All the major religions of the world are in Singapore. There are three major races, but many other communities in Singapore. We speak very different languages. Tamil is Dravidian, Chinese is totally different from English and we have to get on together.”

    This give-and-take between the different communities is a matter of constant effort, social policy and integration, PM Lee said.

    In his comments responding to a question on how Singapore maintains a harmonious balance between different ethnic groups and religions, Mr Lee added that this policy of integration sees Singaporeans of different races and religions come together in schools, housing estates, workplaces and during National Service and learning to work and live together in a multi-racial context.

    “If you are in Singapore as a Christian, you do not treat this as a Christian country. If you are in Singapore as a Buddhist, this is not a Buddhist country, even though the Buddhist may be one of the biggest religious groups in Singapore. If you are a Muslim in Singapore, you can practice your faith, you can fast, you have mosques, but you understand that this is a multi-racial society and you are working and living within a multi-racial context.

    “It is this give and take, and trust that has been built up over a very long period of time, which we think makes for the nature of our society, which makes for what is gradually emerging as a Singapore identity.”

    RUSSIA CONTRIBUTES TO REGION’S STABILITY: PM LEE

    During the interview, which was held ahead of Mr Lee’s visit to Russia to attend the Russia-ASEAN summit, he also touched on the relationship between Russia and ASEAN, describing bilateral relations as “very good”.

    Singapore appreciates Russia’s participation in regional affairs and its contribution to ensuring stability and peace in South-east Asia, PM Lee added.

    “Russia is an important power and economy in the world. The economic ties between ASEAN countries and Russia have been growing, but (do) not really commensurate with the importance of Russia in the world.”

    This is gradually changing, Mr Lee noted. For example, Singapore is planning to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union.

    “In this way, by strengthening the ties between Russia and individual ASEAN countries, we can strengthen the ties between Russia and Southeast Asia, and ASEAN region as a whole,” he said.

    50 YEARS OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

    Russia and Singapore will celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations this year – a “major milestone”, Mr Lee said.

    “Fifty years ago, Singapore was newly independent, and the world was completely different, and Russia was still the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Today, Singapore has celebrated its 50th anniversary of statehood and the world has completely changed,” he said.

    Plans to build a Russian Cultural Centre in Singapore are at an advanced stage, Mr Lee said, adding that a site at a “good location” has been found.

    In terms of economic ties, major Russian companies like Lukoil and Gazprom are in Singapore while Singapore companies like Olam are in Russia and Changi Airports International is co-managing several airports in Russia, he noted.

    The two countries also cooperate in the educational, scientific and cultural fields. Singapore’s universities have cooperation partnerships with Russian institutions, and Singapore is also a popular destination for Russian tourists, he said.

    Still, more can be done in terms of trade between the two countries, Mr Lee said. “Our trade is not in proportion to the potential. It has risen rapidly in the last 10 years – has about quadrupled – but still Russia is just our 21st largest trading partner. It should not be like that.

    “With my trip to Moscow, I hope to meet some Russian business people and executives and get them interested in Singapore a bit. We hope something will grow from there.”