.. the tsunami of criticism that crashed onto Khaw came from something a lot more kneejerk. Significant numbers of Singaporeans just feel it to be wrong to single out any group by race or nationality in a way that casts aspersions on them. This is a morally illegitimate approach, they were saying. It indicates a much more acute sensitivity in the post-independence generation to using race and nationality categorisation thoughtlessly. It may also indicate a resistance to drawing a distinction between migrant workers and ourselves, such that targetting migrant workers in this way struck them as unacceptable. Khaw, the organisers of the ‘exercise’, his ‘grassroots’ and other ‘stakeholders’ — in other words, the satellites that slavishly orbit PAP power centres — clearly had no clue that this is how many Singaporeans now think. They were surprised that empathy and solidarity can cross race and nationality boundaries. In that sense, they are still stuck in an age where Singapore is seen as an uneven collection of racial boxes. One can discern another perception gap here. Singaporeans don’t see the (small) risk of riots in such an apocalyptic way. The don’t share the siege mentality that characterises PAP’s worldview. And especially as they don’t see any need for alarm, the singling out of foreign workers for this exercise appeared completely unwarranted. This failing on the part of our ministers is part of a broader pattern. They are increasingly out of step with how more and more Singaporeans think and feel. The Singapore that they know and consider normative is different from the Singapore that a new generation aspires to, and yet they’re not even aware of the gap. This lack of an intuitive feel for a new Singapore is going to lead to more such public relations blunders. yawningbread.wordpress/2014/11/15/khaw-finds-obedience-school-meaningful/#more-11077
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 06:57:31 +0000
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