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.