[Vincent Wijeyasingha]: The findings of this study are worryingly inaccurate. Discrimination by public bodies against people of minority ethnic communities is not just rife, it is endemic. I have never come across a public body that has a Malay or Tamil option on its answerphone. I have pointed this out to their Corp Comms people and am always told that Malays and Indians speak English so there is no need for these language options. The Singapore Zoo and other places of interest have signs in English, Mandarin and Japanese but not Tamil and Malay. Signs in government and quasi-government agencies are usually only in English and Mandarin. Just yesterday, the National Arts Council offered a writing residency in only English and Mandarin and only later amended the announcement to include Malay and Tamil, citing “public feedback”. A public body that needs feedback before it recognises its inherent discrimination, together with the other instances I give above, does not evince a non-discriminatory culture. There is also a great deal of anecdotal evidence that Muslim women who wear the tudung are turned down from jobs in our public hospitals. And finally, the racist views of the first Prime Minister, including that Singapore is not ready for a non-Chinese Prime Minister, something that has never been repudiated by members of the PAP, is hardly evidence of non-discrimination. I await a response from the study’s authors.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 08:59:09 +0000
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