An Nguyen Discusses Racism in Singapore

There are 3 major ethnic groups in this country. Chinese (70%), Malay (20%), Indian and others (10%). While the Malays and Indians are easy going groups, who seldom make any complaints about foreigners, the Chinese are the most vocal on this issue.
 
The Chinese-Singaporeans complain that their jobs and their livelihood are at stake because of foreigners (mainland Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, Westerners, etc...). They urge that the government should have strict control over working visas and immigration to protect the locals.
 
Their main targets are the Chinese from mainland China. The Chinese-Singaporeans often regard these people as Mainland-Chinese in order to distinguish themselves as more refined Chinese. They say that these people are unrefined, lazy, and have a lot of bad habits that they carried with them from the old country.
 
The truth is that most of these people are very decent and hard working. They often take on low wage and unwanted jobs that are rejected by the locals (chef, waiter/waitress, cleaning, odd jobs, etc.). They can be found in almost any profession that one cound think of.
 
Racism can also be found in schools here. Most Singaporean students don't want to be friends with foreign students. A friend of mine, who has been here for 10 years on a government scholarship, told me that no one in her school wants to be associated with her or other foreign students. They especially look down on students that come from third world countries like India, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, etc. Last year she won a scholarship to do exchange study at Carnegie University (Pittburg, PA) for 6 months. She told us that she made more friends in the US during those 6 months than the 10 years that she spent in Singapore.
 
Other foreign students told us that their Singaporean teachers would not hesitate to make racist remarks toward them (e.g. "Philippino workers are very loyal like dogs.")
 
Everyday, I see the local employers transporting their foreign workers to different work locations in appalling conditions. Their lorries don't have any cover and these poor workers have to put up with 30 - 35C heat and rain. Very often, the employers scold them like they are some kind of animal.
 
What does the Singaporean government do? Well, nothing. If you are being ill treated by your employers and stage a protest, that would be the end of your working days in this country.
 
Have you ever heard of 100% - 150% rent increase before? Well, it happens here in Singapore. Most apartments and houses are owned by Singaporeans and they are the best profiteers on earth. The rent contract is usually from 1 - 2 years max. When it expires, the landlords can raise the rent as much as they want.  Practically all foreigners are tenants, and there is no such thing as a Tenant Advocate to help protect them. As a result, a lot of them have to squeeze themselves into tiny apartments to save money. A lot of foreign students have to leave because they can't afford the high rent.
 
In my opinion, Singapore is a good country with many good things like clean government, safe, clean, excellent infra-structure, good health care, low taxes, excellent educational system, etc. The government is doing a lot of good things to look after the welfare of their citizens. However, racism, discrimination and the ungracious manners of the locals have begun to their toll on the image of this country. Most foreigners view the Chinese-Singaporeans as ungracious blood suckers, opportunists, and racists. This will definitely have a negative effect on Singapore in the future.
 
You can read more about the Singaporeans on Asiaone News.

Comments

[Ian]

Hello

I have lived in HCMC for 6 years. I have seen more discrimination of your own people against your own people from other provinces.

Please put things in proper perspective.

[Lee Goan Tze]

Your shallow information that only the chinese are against the flow of foreigners. It shows you have not mixed around. The Indians and malays are equally unhappy!You have also not seen what is happening in the MRT trains, markets, supermarkets etc and then you will know more. In any case , comments should come from true Singaporeans who have done national service, and committed to Singapore!

[Yang Guizi]

Lee Goan Tze, what is happening in the MRT trains, markets, supermarkets etc? I (a "chao ang moh") have lived here for 3 years and practically all of the ungracious behaviour I have seen - people pretending to be asleep rather than give up a seat to a pregnant woman - has been from Singaporeans. I regard them as selfish, full of themselves and very uncourteous (which is part of why I am leaving soon). Mainland Chinese are on a much higher level.

[wwq]

if spore salary scale gave its own citizens enough then they would be makin so much noise on why spore is flooded with cheaper labour that destroys sporeanmarket€!
how would u like it if vietnam employed laos who are willing to werk for free on weekly basis?

[f]

the main reason is graciousness and courteous behaviour from these "babarians".i assure you had these people been allowed to work in japan....all of them would have been turned into #$#$#% and that is why japan,korea and taiwan forbid them in to work!the police dont really care a hoot about their rights!

these people are lucky they have spore to come to at the expense of its local citizens who sacrificed their saary market for years and came to nought!oits so bad most people can retire.......and with younger foreuigners into the country to werk.....the older sporeans are left to die a penniless merciless death at the hands of their very own government who make use of their youths for national service which is considerd tougher and much more longer to the age of 45 years old than the vietnamese army and the korean army!

we love foreigners and like to work with them but unfortunately the spore government got in way too much killing our own sporeans salary scale which is reduced to low china standards and will be lower in times to come!

we have our parents to think of and high costs of living in spore isnt helping.....and if we stopped werking...we have no land to plant vgetables and fish in!

spare a thought for the sporeans...........we are nice people but one small dot thats smaller than any province in vietnam cant accomodate so much foreigners....we need to survive too and think of the impolite people who yell and scream like spore belongs to them!

[e]

nguyen....i see people yelling at werk all the time....and we yell back!

forigners are lucky...they only get sent back when they protest!!!!sporeans on the other hand are jailed and might not even get another job as long s they are in spore!!
the spore gov has forced their thoughts on each sporean now not to talk anymore with any foreigners...in the past everybody could tlk to one another back in 1970s.....but not so now.spore is more like north korea in many ways...only much richer!

it is a pity u think so good aboutthe singapore government....that is perhaps why many dumb foreigners end up as virtual slaves in singapore!

what the people do is always a result of the government!im sure if u are from vietnam and have learnt some altered form of communism it would tell u so!!either that or simple common sense will tell u that too!

pity so much foreigners blame it on the sporeans and sing praises about the sporean government!i blame it on them and u too for self enslaving yourselves for what u perceive to be a good government.u know next to nothing about singapore!

from your opinion you are not only shallow but lack the balls to blame it on the government of spore but lay the blame on fellow sporeans which i find it not only illogical but down right stupid in process!that probably explains why 3rd world countries will always be 3rd world!

tjhe real enemy to poke with would be the singapore government and not its people.the people are powerless to act on gov matters!

[Lee See Yung]

Racism exists everywhere...but to single out only Chinese Singaporeans clearly demonstrate you are an indisputable a racist yourself!

The Indian Singaporeans are having problems with Indians immigrants too from their own country…as most of these immigrants are from Northern India, whereas the majority of Indian Singaporeans are from the South. It is well-known that North Indians look down and discriminate on their Southern countrymen. Why?

Even in mainland China, the people from first-line cities like Shanghai had openly made their discriminatory stance against people from poorer cities…often calling them uncultured country pumpkins and stupid pigs. Case in point…Chinese from Henan province are almost instantly be associated with any bad or evils things that the Chinese can think of. Why?

Your article is at most, a manifestation of your own sense of inferiority. Only a born loser like you will write such an article.

[ash]

I completely disagree with your comments about Singaporeans not being friendly with foreign students. I went to Singapore in 1997 on the same foreign student grant your friend had, and in later years, so did my 3 brothers and 2 cousins.

Throughout the 3 years in school, I made lots of friends with Singaporeans. In fact my best friends are all Singaporeans. In my class, there were only 2 non-Singaporeans, and we made good friends with all the Singaporeans. The other non-Singaporean was Malaysian Chinese and I was non-chinese. We were both equally treated and well liked by our classmates. We were invited to their homes for Chinese New Year, Hari Raya and Deepavali. Remember, gaining your classmates' acceptance is as important as you giving them the acceptance rather than pretending to be different from them. When you are in a foreign country, learn about the country and the people and join them. When in Rome, do as the Romans do !

And upon graduation, I got a good job and nobody treated me any differently from the locals. In fact my career advancement or recognitions were never affected by my nationality or race.

I have often heard non-Singaporeans or minority races complaining about racism when they face obstacels. It is the easiest thing to do to cry wolf. But if you are good at what you do and you get rewarded accordingly, you don't have to whine in your own pitiful deserving situation.

My brother is also in Carnegie on a scholarship. During his time in Singapore and now in Pittsburg, I believe he has more foreign friends rather than local friends. Some people are different from the rest, even if from the same family.

[ajishdotcom]

by the way it is Filipino and not Philippino ! and your article does not seem to have any substance as your allegations are not substantiated with any proof or reference. It is better not to write nasty things when you do not have the material to support your claims.

[j]

this seems to be xenophobia more than racism!

[j]

i also find this article one-sided and extremely generalizing.

[Daniel]

The least racist people in the world seem to be the ang mohs. They learnt from their past mistakes.

[contrarian]

In a free market, landlords can set the rents at any level that they think suits their own interest. In a free market, tenants will seek to maximise their own self interest by offering the lowest possible rent. In a free market, the rent is the clearing price that the landlord meets the tenant.

If something is too expensive, either you adapt or perish. Expect no socialism from the free market. As you point out, those who cannot deal with it, quit. Others who can will survive. The law of the jungle has been the same for millennia.

Guess what, having been the tenant negotiating rental contracts in HCMC, I will tell you that the landlords in HCMC can also increase the rent to whatever level they like!

[Ben]

Racism is not the right word to use. In fact, the word is so strong that it should not be used by any professional blogger.

Your writing is more on social cohesion (and social discrimination), which is a common issue faced by countries with high influx of foreigners. For that matter, the issue/problem of social cohesion/discrimination happens in every country with or without foreign influx. Anyone who has visited Hanoi and Ho Chih Min City would agree that the North Vietnamese often do not see eye-to-eye with South Vietnamese.

Thailand is yet another example where people are deeply divided. Do you think it is appropriate to use the word "Racism" to describe the tension between the Elite and the villagers?

On your example of foreign students in Singapore, we have students from many countries at http://Singapore.math-chinese-tutor.com/ It is common for students to socialise with others who share the same interest. It is also common for students with weaker language skills to keep away from those with stronger language skills. There are many reasons for one to feel " being discriminated" by others.

[Howard Wan]

Hi Will, from a neutral perspective of your comments, not siding with any party, I do agree there are a certain extent of truths to the atrocious ways which the cheap, unskilled foreign workers are treated in Singapore.

In most of the cases is because the workers are not educated of their rights as an employee due to most of them being lowly educated. The local employers have sick attitude of treating them like slaves, clocking high man hours without proper welfare.

Regarding the sky high rental, you are right. The tenants have no Tenant Advocate to protect their rights. The regulations in the local Real Estate Market leaves much to be desired. The whole market is largely unregulated while the authorities prefer to let the market regulate itself.

Up till today, we have no proper governmental body to regulate the real estate agents, where most of them unscrupulously jack up the prices to serve their own interest, using the owner's greed as a carrot.

The unregulated influx of foreign labor for the past 5 years has made most of the locals xenophobic. Knowing that there are no minimum wages policies in Singapore & the foreigners are willing to accept low wages due to currency conversion advantages, the employers took advantage of the situation by lowering the wages of the locals. If not the jobs goes to the foreigners.

Regarding the local Chinese treating the Mainland Chinese as 2nd class, that is one of the ugly side of this country due to the history of communism in Mainland China, until their recent embrace of capitalism.

The factor is also because of social problems caused by differences in culture. Where the Mainland Chinese are used to habits like spitting,cutting queue & speaking loudly through the mobile phone, which appears as a culture shock to the local Chinese.

Singapore is also an elitist country by nature, where there are unofficial classes in the society ladder & the people here are very status conscious. Despite of all these ugliness there are some good sides to this country but perhaps you have yet to seen them yet.

There are courteous & gracious locals who respects the elderly & the handicapped. There are people who gives up seats graciously although it may be rare nowadays (sad).

All I can say is that no country is perfect & that includes Singapore. Welcome to the good, the bad & the ugly of Singapore.

[Peircegreen]

If you are saying that foreign workers are taking away jobs from the locals, and depressing their salaries, think again. Imagine yourself in the position of a business owner or an investor in Singapore and foreign workers are not allowed here, what do you do if you know that setting up a business in China or Thailand enables you to save 50% in manpower cost ? Would you still insist on putting your investment in Singapore and face the obvious consequence of making yourself uncompetitive compared to your competitors in countries where manpower cost is much lower ? Would you want to be a kind employer, adopt a locals-only policy, and face the risks of bankrupting your business ? If no investor is stupid enough to pay Singaporeans high salaries, do you think Singaporeans will have any jobs at all ?
As a consumer, do you insist on having your air-con repaired or leaked water pipes fixed by companies which employ locals only and charge prices higher than others ?
With the unstoppable tide of globilization, our lives and lifelihoods are inevitably influenced by the outside world. We should choose either to whine like a frogs-in-the-well, or improve our own productivity in order to command salaries higher than the foreign workers’.

[CW Teo]

Then you are encouraged to relocate & start a business in China or Thailand. What is stopping you?

[ChinChanSu]

Looking at the reply of the Singaporeans in this Blog I would say that this article trully hits the mark. I hate to think what would happen to them if they go overseas. I hope they get the same treatment that this high and mighty Chingaporeans give to other people

[Ho Peng Yew]

It seems that the writer is just cherry picking and being baised against the Chinese majority. There has been a tirade of complaints against foreign workers who does not even speak simple English and these are mostly from non-chinese Singaporeans. And ofcourse there are ungracious behaviour, yes it happens, but I've also seen kind acts as well. To single out a particular racial profile just shows the writer's bigoted views. Trash I suppose.

[The Wobbly Guy]

Many nuggets of truth here. However, it's not exactly racism, but xenophobia. The same attitudes you decry may be seen from Singaporeans of other races.

There's a growing wave of discontent against foreigners as Singaporeans perceive their sacrifices (NS, suppressed wages, increased competition for jobs) not worth the perks. Scholarships and higher education being one particularly touchy subject, and one that often involves PRC students as well.

To me, the greatest tragedy is that this xenophobic attitude is by no means limited to Singapore. The UK is experiencing its own backlash. Japan is infamous for it.

Live and let live. A better way to get through life.

[bababoo]

I am back in US now and Singaporeans have been the worst lot of people I ever dealt with !! Its a first world country with third world singaporean chinese. Mainland chinese are definitely better than these selfish arrogant ugly pieces of flesh....

[bababoo]

I will also wait for the day I will encounter the Singaporean chinese outside their country. I wish to repay their great hospitality ...

[S]

Bababoo, you are a classic living example of Racism itself.

Funny that the author and the people who had commented here and singled out Singaporeans or other nationalities should forget that they were only demonstrating their own racist attitudes MORE, under their own hypocritical presumptions that they come from countries of graciousness.

[Ashvinder Rohal]

I have lived as a British Indian expat in both Singapore and Shanghai where I work as a director of an MNC. I can tell you that mainland Chinese people are extremely kind. Sure some have bad habits, but I'd rather put up with bad habits than the racist thugs of Singapore.

[bababoo]

S

I have lived in lots of countries so I know...What I have not felt is the human connection rather a contempt for people who do not look like them or are them. How do u explain a Chinese immigrant working in a MNC lie her nationality as Singaporean?
When people feel inferior they tend to show their insecurities by looking down upon minorities or poeple from other countries...The pinkerton syndrome and colonial baggage is also in play