We ARE all human beings, and we DESERVE the same respect

I don't usually want to discuss socio-political issues on my blog, especially if I know I am going to have ALOT to say, so I think, might as well, don't start.

But this recent Serangoon Garden case was really getting too much to bear. As a Singaporean, I am really upset that these are the thoughts of my fellow countrymen.

Read here for the full report. It all started when a contractor chose a vacant building in Serangoon Gardens estate (an estate populated by middle class residents in mostly landed properties) to house about foreign workers. Angry residents there signed a petition to object the infiltration of foreign workers into their estate, airing concerns of safety, traffic (human traffic, they mean?) and property valuation.

Some comments from the article in 93.8 Live were appalling.

"It's the kind of estate where the kids call me up and they're coming home at 10 o'clock after school. They say "I'm taking the 317 and I'm walking home". And I say, "yeah, walk home!" With the domitory out there, I'm not sure whether I can make the same decisions anymore."

Other comments make further assumptions that foreign workers are likely to disturb the peace in the neighbourhood, loiter around looking out for maids, conduct crimes etc. And this blogger had this to say,

"Foreign workers, please come here to contribute to our economy, build our skyscrapers & condominiums but don't ever come and live near me especially if I'm middleclass Singaporean living in a private property."

"Lets all sign a petition like the Serangoon Garden folks to keep foreign workers out of our neighbourhood. If Serangoon Garden residents won't have them, why should the rest of us?" extracted from Diary of a Singaporean, Sept 6 08.
Are these coming from citizens who treat other citizens as human beings?

Are we teaching our children the meaning of differences and that the colour of one's skin has a certain derogative meaning, something to be feared rather then celebrate?

Do we judge people base on their skin colour, their social class, their family background, their educational level and their nationality?

Yes, we may feel uneasy having live in a more diversified neighbourhood if we have always been quite homogenised. But we shouldn't make such judgments. Put yourself in their shoes. Everyone HAS feelings and everyone deserves So foreign workers has no feelings? That they do not deserve respect? And they should stay and live as far as possible from the neighbourhoods?

Maybe it is time to think that how we treat others determines how we get treated.

Maybe it is time to rethink how we educate the meaning of MULTICULTURALISM or in Singapore's context, MULTIRACIALISM.

Don't just do lip service.

To all these people who has been making such unfounded remarks/ assumptions/ comments/ opinions, please read Charles Taylor, "The Politics of Recognition". In Multiculturalism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.