Is there racial discrimination against Indians in Singapore?

This is a very sensitive topic, but for many Indians it has been a very common topic.

My first taste of racism was when I was in primary one. My classes were to perform a song during the school assembly on stage. The music teacher asked everyone in the class to sing, while she would select the better few to go on stage. I was selected. It was the talk of the class, we very happy to go on stage then. Then the form teacher would make another round of selection, this was the end of my stage aspirations. She looked the list and looked at me and said “no powder” and she included another student who was not selected and struck my name out. I was not happy about it but as a small boy I didn’t take it seriously. Then the day of performance came. To my dismay, every kid on stage was Chinese, then a Malay girl seated next to me whispered into my ear “see they only choose the Chinese!” Only then I realized the discrimination. Or maybe my teacher had an idea that the skin tone affects the pitching in singing nursery rhymes.

That is just one example, I cannot brand every Chinese to be racist based on just one example. Before I entered the army for my national service, I heard many comments about Indians not being treated equally in the army. One taxi driver told me, when I was in the army, the Indians would have to eat food that was soiled in mud, and the Chinese would get cleaner food. Then another relative of mind told me his vocation selection was based on his skin tone.

ALL THAT WAS CRAP.

I faced nothing of that sort in the army, we were all equal. There was no discrimination at all. Not based on any aspect. Every soldier were given his rank based on his academic qualification, his race was no barrier for him to get into any rank.

I can safely say that as the new generation is born the barrier of racism is constantly vanishing. Things are getting better.

My quote: Racism is like a very big wound on the minority (Indians); it is healing, sometimes slowly and sometimes fast. Unless we poke on it and make the wound bigger and hinder it from healing, it will heal.

Racism will only be gone only be gone when Indians stop blaming racism for them not achieving their goals. For example, if you go for an interview, and you are just met the qualification and could not get the job, don’t blame the employer for being racist.

The president, MR SR Nathan was interviewed on a local television show before he became the president of Singapore. This question was asked and his answer:

“Blame yourself for not being impressive enough. The next time you go for that kind of interview go with a higher qualification. You might say that a person of another race might just require 50% mark to get the job. Well you have to go in with 75%, and then it would be hard for the employer, not to employ you!”

Evolution of Indian women...

There has always been a trend that Indian wives will be housewives when they get married. Generally man in the family becomes the sole bread winner in the family. If the man has a good job that pays well, there is no reason for his wife to work. But in Singaporean context, the women are well educated and are career minded. In these conditions would they want to cook at home? I mean after a hard day’s work how are they going to find time to buy groceries and cook? This is when the maid comes in. The maid will do the cooking and the grocery shopping.

20 years ago if I were to make a rough gauge only 3 out of 10 Indian women were working. This is mainly because of their upbringing. Their parents taught that women do not need education has they are only going to be housewives. The future prospects of women were very narrow. Then the economy slumped this resulted in many families to have lower income. The solution to this problem was, both husband and wife have to work to support the family. With lack of prior education the women were limited to manual labor, factory jobs. With the pressure to support the family Indian women worked long shifts of work. Some were even working overnight.

What do these parents tell their children? “See with no education mother and father has to work so hard to make ends meet”. Driven by the parent’s advice the children excel in school, and so putting them through University education.

Now 20 years later the children are now the parents. Now they are not driven by their financial burden but their aspirations. Now the reading is 7 out of 10 Indian women are working. Women have evolved .They are not the ones in the kitchen, they are the ones on par with men in the working world.

And in the kitchen our foreign talent has taken over. Indonesian, Filipino or Sri Lankan cuisine? You decide!

*note: The readings I used in this blog were just based on my observation. Don’t “swan” me over it!

India born Indians and the local Indians is there a barrier?

I have seen in many cases that highly educated Indian nationals don tend to mix around with the main stream Indians in Singapore.

I have an uncle who rents out one of the room in his house to Indian nationals. Once he had a couple with a daughter who was just 4 years old. They did stay in Singapore for about a year, after which they migrated to the US. But during the time the little girl went to the local nursery which had other local Indian children studying as well. And the local Indian kids were also from the neighborhood. During my younger days when I was in kindergarten, when my grandparents brought me to the playground I would see my school friends in the play ground and I would be playing with them. But surprisingly this didn’t happen for that little girl. She was not allowed to mix around with the local kids. The mother of the girl would not speak to the local Indian parents.

It was like the family was having a barrier between the locals. If you want to maintain a distance why make the effort to come to Singapore? I am sure u can maintain better distance from India.Oh and I forgot, Singapore was the launching pad for them to go to the US.

Then again, is it the local’s fault by stereotyping that Indian nationals are snobbish people? When the local Indians have this opinion then it is harder for them to try to establish a friendly relationship with the Indian nationals.

I belief there are 2 faces to this story. But let’s not play the blame game. We both came from the same heritage but we are split by our egos. We should break the barrier and try to know each other better instead of avoiding association with each other.That’s my verdict.

Drinking Problem

As many Singaporeans might know there is a common stigma surrounding Indians as they are heavy drinkers. When I look at my father’s generation, men who are now in the 40’s and 50’s they were the only ones drinking in the family. This was happening in the last 20 years. Almost all Singaporean Indian man had a drinking problem. That easily led to family problems. Getting drunk and hitting the wife and getting into trouble when in drunk.

That was then, but now we have a new problem, we have quite a number of Indian women drinking. Please note that 20 years ago, to see women drinking is quite unlikely. I know you might say that women from other races also drink, but my idea of this blog is only to discuss problems surrounding Indians. Whether or not other races drink or not does not change anything. Generally Indian girls aging 16 and above, once they have left secondary school they are now developing a new culture of clubbing. The dance and the boos are more attractive to them. It is now a hobby now.

I told you that 20 years ago generally it was just the Indian men who have the drinking problem. Now we have couples who drink. It all starts with trying it out, then drinking to relief stress, and then it becomes a weekly thing. Then viola it becomes part of the Indian life.

With the men of the family drinking, it caused broken families, children going astray. In the next generation, it’s going to be 2 adults in the family with the drinking problem. What will be the outcome? We can only wait and see.

About my blog

Hi to all I am a Singaporean Indian guy currently staying Brisbane, Australia studying. My idea of this blog is to discuss common problems surrounding Indians in Singapore, occasionally i will deviate and discuss some general problems . Everything I discuss in this blog is based on my point of view. You do not agree with what I said please leave comments. I welcome all criticism and good comments.