If xenophobia is the word for the hatred
of foreigners, what is the equivalent word for the hatred of original citizens?
Yes, I must be a snob.
I simply cannot suppress my increasing
disgust at the bulk of foreign nationals, especially those coming from an
ancient civilization from the north of Asia who exhibit poor personal hygiene
such as trimming nails, spitting, littering, urinating in the public and even
lower civic-mindedness than our peoples in terms of giving up seats on public
transport, giving priority to alighting passengers on trains, standing on the
left on escalators..... well, every ugly social behaviour exhibited by our own peoples
that were denounced as ungracious by our own politicians and people in the past
decades are now exhibited by foreign nationals. And in greater scale. The
overwhelming presence of foreign nationals presented new forms of undesirable social
behaviour and thus “contributed” more
vibrancy to our island-nation.
I realize the likes of Baey Kim Yam and Sim Ann would chastise me for not reflecting on my own disgust or for making hate speech or being xenophobia on our foreign nationals even though my own observations conclude a higher proportion of poor behaviour and ungraciousness manifested by our darling foreign nationals than locals. And because it is a personal observation, I understand its validity and factual value are deemed inferior to official statistics/surveys despite the latter are often being skewed conveniently to prove a point and therefore diminishing the value of truth much more than individuals’ observations.
I realize the likes of Baey Kim Yam and Sim Ann would chastise me for not reflecting on my own disgust or for making hate speech or being xenophobia on our foreign nationals even though my own observations conclude a higher proportion of poor behaviour and ungraciousness manifested by our darling foreign nationals than locals. And because it is a personal observation, I understand its validity and factual value are deemed inferior to official statistics/surveys despite the latter are often being skewed conveniently to prove a point and therefore diminishing the value of truth much more than individuals’ observations.
I heeded Mr Baey’s advice and reflected
dutifully to avoid being accused of being divisive and precisely I did reflect
that I eventually refuse to hide my appalling disgust at some foreign nationals.
Reflection is futile, I do realize that. For what underscores Mr Baey’s advice
of self-reflection is not about self reflection itself but a plot to restrain
citizens from painting the foreign nationals in bad colours even if those were
their genuine colours. These days, the word “foreigner” has become a forbidden
word for citizens like me. Negative comments are immediately framed as a
xenophobic gesture. Ugly Singaporeans is not an unspoken secret and I hate our
ugly behaviour as well. Contrary to Mr Baey’s advice, Singaporeans have
explicitly reprimanded ourselves on our poor hygiene (think of our toilets and
flushing of toilets) and severe lack of civi-mindedness. Politicians even went
further to introduce a series of hard and soft approaches in the forms of fines,
corrective work and courtesy campaigns over the last two decades in cultivating
a more gracious society. It was then. We were lectured in the 80s and 90s by
our politicians about our ungraciousness, therefore the urge of a gracious
society helmed by then PM Goh Chok Tong. Politicians were determined to
"re-educate" our people. It was a positive move imo.
And because of the constant reminders and penalties
meted out for failing to adhere to gracious behaviour over the decades, we
begin to see glimpses of GCT’s gracious society. Even bad habits such as
spitting, a distinctive trait among our ethnic chinese men has become a
disappearing "trait" until it was re-ignited in recent years by the
whole load of a specific group of foreign nationals with die-hard spitting
habit across gender and age were unloaded onto our island.
By 2012, we have witnessed a play back of
the ungraciousness and poor personal hygiene in the public that we used to “endure”
and shockingly, new forms of ungraciousness appear fast and furious too. Contributed
by foreign nationals. Supermarket trolleys discarded at HDB void decks, supermarket
trolleys pushed onto shuttle buses, test-eating fruit in supermarkets .….are
adding on to the traditional list of the unbecoming Singaporeans, and when the
term “foreigner” is banned, all these undesirable traits are then conveniently
or cunningly classified under Singaporeans' behaviour. Littering, spitting,
jumping queue are on the growth again.
The distinction between citizens and foreign
nationals (new citizens, PRs or foreign workers/talents) is needed, not for the
purpose of promoting xenophobia, but to highlight (1) the growing trend of
undesirable social behaviour (a frequent tourist to our island has written to
our papers on finding more litter than 5 years ago) as the consequence of over-expansion
of population; and (2) the justification of Singaporeans shouldering the accusation
of a dirtier nation, appalling personal hygiene, more ungracious people when in
actual fact, the no. of Singaporeans is dwindling against an increasing proportion
of foreign nationals where 18 000 – 20 000 citizenships
were given out in recent years.
Yes, Sim Ann, this is my hate-speech--I
detest+hate+abhor poor hygiene manners and inconsiderate behaviour manifested
in the public sphere regardless of the nationality of the offender. Nevertheless,
it irks me more to find foreign nationals for exhibiting such manners because:
(1) Within my sphere of living space, I
come across proportionately more ungracious foreign nationals than locals.
(2) The gradual improvement (nevertheless, there’s
still more room for improvement) in our graciousness is promptly undermined by some
foreign nationals.
(3) The proportion of foreign nationals* are
growing whilst original Singaporeans (excluding the new citizens please) are proportionately
shrinking.
* My definition of foreign nationals differ
from that of the politicians. Foreign nationals should comprise new citizens
who were originally immigrants + PRs + foreign workers and talents.
Total
population in Singapore=5.31
million @ Sep 2012
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Citizens (original + new)
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PRs
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Non-resident population (people on
various employment passes)
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3.285
million
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0.533 million
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1.5 million
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TWO MILLIONS!!
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3.27
million citizens
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Original citizens
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New citizens
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?
unknown
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18 000 – 20 000 citizenships given out each year in recent years.
2005 -- 2010, Singapore
added between 17,334 and 20,513 new citizens to the population each year. In
2011, the number dropped to 15,777. (The Straits Times - 8 July 2012)
Taking the
conservative no. of 17 334 for the intake between 2005 – 2010 alone would
give rise to more than 100 000 new citizens.
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I exclude these new citizens from the original
citizens’ co-hort as they are generally immigrants from foreign
countries with their own social behaviour and have been exempted those years of
“rigorous education” of social behaviour as the original citizens. With the unabated
intake of new citizens, PRs and foreign people, we, the “original” citizens
(the definition itself is vague, I know) are already fast becoming the minority
in our own country before the official statistics would admit.
And because of the fast-changing demography
between local citizens and foreign nationals, poor social bahviour among some foreign
nationals is not a matter of a few black sheep, given their large numbers. Compounded
by the poor social behaviour from our very own citizens, our civilization is
going backward in greater scale and depths. Mr Baey and Ms Sim might not notice
this changing trend as they live miles and centuries away from mundane places,
such as our HDB flats and public transport where there is large presence of
foreign nationals. Both would find life in Singapore the same as it was a
decade ago.
Foreign labour has helped our country to
fast forward into the advanced nations thru GDP figures and image-enhancing buildings/hardware
and simultaneously, they are also lending us a hand to fast track into the
uncivilized worlds.
How many foreign nationals (NC, PRs, FW/FT) can original Singaporeans embrace given the large presence of foreign nationals? It took us decades to re-educate our then small population of 3.5 million in the mid-90s and we are now looking at 5 million and are still going on to 6 million or so (Lee Hsien Loong said so). And please refrain from asking Singaporeans to embrace the foreign nationals. With the dwindling number of Singaporeans, we just do not have enough hands to do so.
How many foreign nationals (NC, PRs, FW/FT) can original Singaporeans embrace given the large presence of foreign nationals? It took us decades to re-educate our then small population of 3.5 million in the mid-90s and we are now looking at 5 million and are still going on to 6 million or so (Lee Hsien Loong said so). And please refrain from asking Singaporeans to embrace the foreign nationals. With the dwindling number of Singaporeans, we just do not have enough hands to do so.
Mr Baey and Ms Sim have been very concerned
about hate speech and xenophobic comments demonstrated against foreign
nationals. Their usage of hate speech or xenophobia are just mere distraction
to the issue of holding double standards for original citizens and foreign
nationals. If our ungracious behaviour back then irked the predecessors of Baey
Kim Yam and Sim Ann, then why the silence now on the ungracious behaviour of
the foreign nationals?
If xenophobia is the word for the hatred of foreigners, what is the equivalent word for the hatred of original citizens?
If xenophobia is the word for the hatred of foreigners, what is the equivalent word for the hatred of original citizens?
