𝐓𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥'𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭! 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟒 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬!

Our friend shares this story:

I pass by this place every day on my way to work. One day I noticed a rusty manhole cover, likely corroded by seawater from the aquarium next to it. I snapped a photo of it and sent it to Mr Baey Yam Keng 马炎庆, the MP to alert him to it.

The response of Mr Baey and the Tampines Town Council was speedy and impressive. I reported the cover on a Saturday evening. It was changed on Sunday evening and on Monday, I noticed the change. Mr Baey also took the trouble to inform me of the change a few days after it was replaced.

Tampines Town Council also faces the challenge of manpower. There are also inconsiderate residents who do not discard of their rubbish in a proper manner. Mr Baey has also highlighted this in a Facebook post. But in Tampines, the carelessly discarded rubbish is not allowed to pile up despite the manpower challenge. They get cleared. And by the way, Tampines also had a change of cleaning contractor not so long ago and there isn't any transition problem. In fact, the estate became cleaner with the new contractor.

Sarah Bagharib's PA saga: Was it racist or blown out of proportion?

Was it racist or blown out of proportion? Devadas Krishnadas shares his thoughts in a Linkedin post.

The MP apologised. The PA apologised.The vendor apologised. I am from an ethnic minority even smaller than that of this lady and even I think she has and continues to blow this matter way out of proportion.

I agree with the PA that a meeting would serve no purpose as this lady clearly has an agenda to push a general accusation against the ethnic majority population that they are racist and that the PA is also racist. I do not share either accusation.

While I have said that there is casual racial chauvinism I have rejected the insinuation that the people of Singapore are racist.

If anything, her repeated attempts to whip up emotions online are tantamount to herself being racist and having an overblown sense of entitlement.

In a heterogenous society, social cohesion is vital to maintain. That means being sensitive, which both the PA and the Vendor, have acceded that they were not in the first instance. But they have since made amends with their quick and public apology and corrected the situation by removing the standee.

But social cohesion also means having a sense of proportion about instances of insensitivity or even individual acts of racism as in the case of the lecturer from Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

These pin point instances should not be used as opportunities to generalise loosely or to appeal or rally minority groups into some coalition of resistance against something which is not there - I believe that the majority of my fellow Singaporeans are not racists. I do not believe that the PA is racist. Indeed, I do not even think this singular incident, while insensitive, was rooted in racism.

Let us not make volcanoes out of the occasional mole hill. It is playing with fire and dangerous. Using fancy language such as used by this lady in her social media posts cannot hide, indeed underscore, that she has her own agenda to propogate.

And I concur with the PA that it is purposeless to give her a platform to promote that unpremised agenda. Doing so would only lend legitmacy to her claims and I have little doubt that the meeting will not satisfy her and be framed as another episode of endemic racism. Better to leave her to stew in her own acidic juices. She has gotten her pound of flesh and that should be that. Let us not give oxygen to those with axes to grind and unsubstantiated broad 'firecracker' accusations to make.

Time to move on.

Lesson from the Sarah Bagharib's PA saga

Indeed, the lesson we learn from this episode is that we do not know enough of each other's culture. Let us resolve to learn more of each other's culture.

It is not helpful to label cultural ignorance as racism. It makes people unwilling to venture beyond their own familiar comfort zone for fear of being labelled a racist if he/she gets the culture of another ethnic group wrong. That's not the way to build an inclusive society.

Seek to learn from each other. Mistakes are part of the learning process. Turn every mistake into a learning moment, not a divisive moment.

Sarah Bagharib's PA saga. We should be careful how we phrase an incident

In an Instagram story, Ms Sarah shared a post by @jeanpsychologist who thanked her for her stand about the incident and “called for Chinese Singaporeans to educate ourselves on our conditioned racism”.

In multicultural and multi-religious Singapore , it is always good that all of us - regardless of whether we are from the majority or minority race - try to learn everything that can be learned of other cultures and religions other than our own.

This will help us to avoid misunderstandings and misrepresentations.

Few dare to claim that they are so knowledgeable of other cultures that they never make mistakes about others' culture.

Some of us may even be ignorant of certain aspects of our own culture. But we can hardly be accused of being racist towards our own race when we make mistakes about our own culture.

Mistakes are made and not every mistake pertaining to race and culture has to be motivated by racism.

Something is racist when it seeks to suppress, discriminate or cancel.

These elements are all absent in the PA incident. It was meant to be a happy occasion, for people to express their joy.

We should be careful how we phrase an incident because how we phrase it affects how it is perceived. And the race card is not something we want to wave so freely and easily.

Let every ignorance be a teaching moment so that we can be a better people for we are always work-in-progress.

Would be good to start a quiz programme where different races can participate and answer questions on each other's culture and traditions, make mistakes, laugh at them without fear of being accused of racism and come away, more enlightened, more knowledgeable.

Sarah Bagharib's PA saga: the better way to approach it

It is of course wrong to use other people's photo without permission. That's a copyright infringement. Copyright infringement is just that - copyright infringement. Copyright infringement is not racism. It's being unprofessional.

We agree with the comment that getting the costume wrong is a case of cultural ignorance. What do you do with ignorance? You can get angry with ignorance or you can turn ignorance into a teaching moment to enlighten people.

Back in September 2019, a social media influencer's post calling two men wearing turbans "huge obstructions" to her view at the Singapore Grand Prix went viral. Some among the Sikh community felt uncomfortable.

Online criticism of Ms Sheena Phua became increasingly heated. Instead of getting angry and offended, a group of young Sikhs invited her to an informal tour of a gurdwara so that she could learn more about their traditions.

Mr Sarabjeet Singh,, the president of the Young Sikh Association (YSA), said they recognised it as an opportunity for them to reach out and engage.

While at the gurdwara, Ms Phua was given an introduction to the Sikh religion and culture, and had questions like how Sikhs greet each other answered.

She also participated in sewa, or an act of service, by trying her hand at making chapati in the community kitchen.

She was also shown the Guru Granth Sahib, the principal scripture of Sikhism.

The outcome of such an approach is greater understanding and appreciation of other people's culture.

One can choose to be angry and create more division. Or one can choose to engage and educate to bridge the cultural gap and build greater understanding. Which is better? The choice is obvious.

It should also be noted that the vendor, Warabi Enterprise, that made the blunder had already apologised and so did PA.