Singapore’s majority-Chinese population should do more to address racism-related grievances aired by members of ethnic minority groups, a minister has said in the government’s first major response to the country’s ongoing debate on racism, adding that the authorities are ready to update policies to strengthen social harmony.
Among them was a rare case of racially motivated assault last month that saw an Indian woman kicked by a Chinese man who was shouting slurs. In the aftermath of these incidents, social media platforms have played host to at times anguished reflections from the country’s minority Malays and Indians over racism they face in school and at the workplace.
The concept of Chinese privilege – which has gained currency in Singapore, mirroring the discussion about white privilege in the West – might be problematic as some in the community might feel they were not privileged at all, Wong said, given how they had “given up much” to bring about a multiracial society.
“Please understand that we still have a whole generation of Chinese Singaporeans who are more comfortable in Chinese than English, and who consider themselves at a disadvantage in an English-speaking world,” he said.
Asked about the CMIO framework, which commentators in the ongoing national debate have suggested should be scrapped, Wong said: “Consider this: if we were to discard CMIO, does it mean that people will start forgetting about their ethnic identities or paying less attention to their ethnic identities? Will that happen? If we were to ignore racial differences, does that mean that the differences do not exist? It’s not so clear to me.”
Interesting article bringing up the challenges that minority ethnic groups face in Asian countries, especially ones like Singapore which are very diverse. Though it also makes the good point that the idea of "Chinese privilege" shouldn't be equivocated with white privilege, since worldwide Chinese people aren't privileged and even in Singapore there are plenty of older Chinese people who still don't know English well and have trouble getting jobs.