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!”