I must confess I have not read the full text of the NMP Sadasivan’s speech (might I be so bold as to suggest to legislators that brevity is the better part of eloquence!) and so will reserve my comments for when I have actually waded all the way through the rhetoric and know what I am talking about….
In the mean time, though, the fact that the pledge – at least the ‘regardless of race’ bit – is still more aspiration than reality was driven home to me in yet another occurrence of an incident that I am afraid I have come across several times.
I have a friend in his mid thirties who is an equity strategist in a multi-billion dollar hedge fund, an MBA from a world renowned business school and owns 3 residential properties (last I knew) in condominiums along the prime East Coast area which he rents out while he lives with his newly wedded (equally well qualified) wife in a rented apartment in a modest condominium in the vicinity.
Have you built an image in your mind of the profile of this person? What race do you think he is? Hold on to that image a moment.
Well, let us see how that compares with reality. He is, in fact a Singaporean citizen of Indian origin. Like me, he came to Singapore almost a decade ago and having embraced the people, the work ethic and the culture of this country, he became ‘Singaporean by choice’. It was not a cynical decision. Both he and I felt that Singapore was the one country (and we’ve both traveled and lived in a fair number of countries) that matched our idea of what a country should be. We both share the same feeling when our flight is landing at Changi – that we’re Home.
His misfortune, though, it appears, is despite his obvious qualifications – and very down to earth demeanour – he happens to look rather Indian.
He called me up last night somewhat agitated. He’d been looking for a new apartment to rent, and his agent had short-listed a few that met his criteria. You would think that with his profile – well behaved, wealthy, excellent education, enviable job etc he would be a dream tenant. But no. He was on the phone telling me how yet again, the moment the landlord became aware of his race, negotiations abruptly ended. There wasn’t even any euphemism employed. He was told, quite point blank, that Indians were not welcome as tenants. And we’re talking about landlords who obviously were wealthy enough to own a swanky apartment in a top-end East Coast condominium. The criterion for exclusion was just one – race.
He wanted to know if I had come across such blatant discrimination before. And the sad fact is, I had. I have heard such stories a number of times. Discrimination based on race is still practiced at a personal level in our society – as is discrimination based on religion. I have heard people say with fiery conviction that they would never consider marrying someone of a certain religion. I have heard others convey that they would find it almost impossible to accept a daughter marrying a man from a certain religion.
While such sentiments are certainly not as harmful as an official policy of discrimination like in apartheid South Africa, and hopefully not that widespread in the people, the fact that they do exist and are expressed in situations such as my friend’s does give one pause.
Even the word “tolerance” has a passive – somewhat negative – connotation. “Tolerating” people with different races and faiths from us – like “putting up with” some sort of inconvenience that we just have to bear with, though we’d rather not. I would banish the word tolerance and replace with one more active, more positive – and look for a society where we don’t merely tolerate but embrace, include, and be indeed one people regardless of race, languages and religion.
When in matters of renting property, of marrying ourselves or our children it matters not what race, language or religion the other party professes, then we as one people will truly be living the pledge.
From what I have seen, we’re getting there, but for now, it probably is still an aspiration.
Cursed with an insatiable curiousity for the world around him and an unquenchable thirst for exploring any horizon he finds himself looking at, Fredric fervently hopes that being a commonsensical Jack of all Trades is still a useful survival skill in a world that is incredibly specialized. He may be found online hopelessly plugged into Wikipedia or Google Earth, and in life usually astride a Suzuki Vstrom headed to yet another godforsaken corner of Southeast Asia .