Seriously. That’s why we can treat them like dirt.
You see right, when I saw the “We overreacted” headline in TODAYonline, I thought that the residents of Serangoon, having been living with the foreign workers in their neighbourhood for some time, have come to see that they are no more dangerous/dirty/immoral/smelly/unhygienic than non-foreign workers.
JK laughed at me.
Apparently, they overreacted because
they generally did not see the workers around the neighbourhood and were pleased that they had not encountered any problems with them.
It just makes me so angry with us Singaporeans. What kind of people are we that we think that the foreign workers should not be seen, that they should be segregated from us? What is wrong with all of you? They are people too and they have needs, wants and dreams as well. We need them to do all this work that no one wants to do but we treat them like dirt. They contribute to our economy and they have as much right as we do to benefit from it. They are not slaves. What gives us the right to oppress them like this?
This is precisely the problem in Singapore. Hardly anyone calls these xenophobic people out for their horribly prejudiced and hurtful behaviour and we all quietly support them with our silence.
What would it be like if we were to go to the States to work and we were considered second-class citizens? And when we are all shoved into a tiny corner of the city and people never actually see us, preferring to ignore our existence. And when we want to socialise and have some fun, they complain and shun us.
At the same time, JK showed me some complaints on a forum about maids in Singapore. Some excerpts:
secondly, does your maid Fast? now it is fasting month, first year when she just came, she asked me if she can puasar, i ask my agency, they say it is not necessary, reason being she need to work and regular meal at normal timing is necessary for them and to prevent it to disrupt their daily work. So i tell her no, and i explain to her, she agreed. This year (supposedly, contract going to end early next year, she insist on having puasar (eat at 4.30am and 7pm), giving a black face..haiz….i really don’t know what to do. Does your maid go on Puasar too?
…
Saw her standing outside the gate talking to other maid
…
(from another poster, emphasis mine) however, I asked my friends to my house for steamboat dinner on the actual day and one of my friends bring along her maid so they have each other for company…thats wat I think shd be happy for her and she shd be contented but…..wen its their dinner time, she showed patterns. My friend’s maid puasa during the fasting month and she totally dun eat pork whereby mine dun fast and she break the religion by having pork during CNY this year. SO….wen she knows that my friend maid wants to cook instant noodles and eat…she joined her bt actually we prepares her share of food.
Apparently, having friends and a social life is a luxury maids are not entitled to. And god forbid you want to practice your religion even if it should not impact your work. Maybe the maids are always so troublesome because they treat them like slaves? Like they are sub-humans who belong to us and should be able to do everything we expect of them.
We are such horrible people.
And their English sucks too.
‘We overreacted’
SINGAPORE – Yes, we overreacted to the building of a dormitory for foreign workers in our estate, admitted more than half of the Serangoon Gardens residents interviewed by MediaCorp, but the issues raised were relevant and ultimately benefited the estate, they added.
More than 100 days after the Serangoon Gardens foreign workers’ dormitory opened – a move that had drawn sharp criticism from residents determined to protect their affluent haven – there has been no friction between residents and the workers.
In fact, residents told Media Corp reporters, who spent a day in the estate soliciting views, that they generally did not see the workers around the neighbourhood and were pleased that they had not encountered any problems with them.
Residents, such as teacher Jacqueline Loy, told MediaCorp that their concerns proved unfounded, thanks largely to how the entrances to the workers’ quarters have been designed. She pointed out that entrance to the dormitory was on the other side of the estate.
This point about workers being out of sight, and so out of mind, was made by several others interviewed. “The dormitory is all fenced up and blocked, so we don’t see them around,” said Mrs Janet Cheng. “I also don’t hear any complaints about the workers from my neighbours.”
In 2008, the Government announced plans to convert the former Serangoon Garden Technical School along Burghley Drive into a workers’ dormitory. This led to an outcry from residents.
To allay their concerns, the dormitory was fenced up and the exit to Serangoon Gardens estate was sealed. A 400m slip road, which cost $2 million, was also built to allow vehicles direct access to the dormitory from the Central Expressway.
There were, however, those who felt that the entire saga was not a complete overreaction.
“We may have overreacted a bit but if we did not complain, the dormitory entrance may not have changed,” said Ms Jenny Chan, 26.
Despite the current arrangements, there was still a handful who were unhappy about the choice of Serangoon Gardens for a workers’ dormitory. “There are other housing estates in Singapore, why was the dormitory not set up in other estates?” asked resident Karen Neo.
Member of Parliament for the area, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, told MediaCorp that one reason there had not been many problems was that residents had worked with volunteers who represented them and voiced their concerns. “If concerns about disamenities like traffic congestion were not surfaced by the residents initially, there might have been post-dorm operation issues,” she said.
Mrs Lim is also hoping to organise joint events to promote interaction and understanding between the residents and workers.
Workers living in the dormitory told MediaCorp that they had been told by the dormitory operator not to loiter around the estate.
While residents seem to have been placated – workers complained about the long walk to the dormitory entrance and the living conditions. Said waitress Mu Jing: “The decoration of the dormitory is very bare. The rooms are filled with steel beds.”
Ms Xia Yu, who works as a hotel housekeeper, said: “There are eight people living in a room, it can be quite cramped at times.”
The dormitory, which houses about 600 workers, has a provision shop, canteen and barber shop. But such no-frills accommodation is the norm, said a manager of another dormitory for foreign workers.
“The most important thing is that the basic necessities of a mini mart and canteen are met.”
Today, Apr 26, 2010
Got to agree that when people are in positions of power, they do their utmost to make sure others don’t get their enjoyment.
Maybe ST should come to my neighbourhood where FTs have been walking around for longer than I can remember and before I lived here. It became worse in the sense that they are sleeping on the benches in the public playground but that’s only an eyesore and only after the playground was built. Other ‘unlocal’ behavior is tolerated. I say tolerated because the workers are not passing out drunk or puking on the sidewalk. I think it depends on the workers. Earlier batches were quite nasty. I heard of the odd case of FT snatching a maid’s gold chain. But that’s solved after the neighbourhood telephone box was removed. And no more cases of fire engines being called to their dorms. I guess that they are no longer allowed to cook.
In a roundabout way, I guess what I want to say is, SG govt can limit interaction with FTs by re-engineering the surroundings. It is not oppression. I call this controlled living.
1. What we should do is ask why the foreign workers are sleeping in the playgrounds and why they are cooking in their dorms when clearly, it is a dangerous thing to do. Perhaps if we fulfilled their basic needs better, they wouldn’t need to find peace and quiet in a playground or cook dangerously in the dorms.
2. The odd case of criminal acts is hardly justification for treating them as sub-humans.
3. We need to call a spade a spade and not go all Orwellian. When you control their basic freedom, when you forbid them or highly discourage them from taking part equally in society, then you are oppressing them. When did we decide that foreign workers had less rights than us?
Pingback: The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 29 Apr 2010
Answer to 1.
I think it has to do with the hot weather at night when it is cooler to sleep on the granite bench. And in a dorm, it’s packed usually so they want some peace and quiet. I don’t know if their meals are provided now but there doesn’t seem to be more throwaway containers littering the pavement.
2. I don’t think they are being treated as sub-humans, just cheap labor. I had a chat with a cleaner at a golf course somewhere in SG and she told us that she was happier to work OT than go home on time. They prefer to earn the $3/hr, instead of going home to rest and eat. They rather go home, to China, as a rich person rather than get laughed at. Their main objective in SG is to earn as much $$ as possible. It’s the same for any person who has to leave their home and work. Maids also. Those that can afford to take a day off each wk are likely to be the ones we see hanging out with friends or contributing to church. Those that have to work do so knowingly that they are compensated. Agencies that mislead or do not educate their workers are in breach of their duties and more importantly, the law. It’s these unethical agencies that I cannot stand. At least there is a maid forum in Singapore where employers can exchange tips and find out which agencies are the ethical ones. I would encourage pp here who know of unethical agencies to pinpoint and whistle-blow on them. That is an area that should be changed for the better.
3. Society is made up of a bunch of rules. We are quite basic. To fit in, people had to behave in a certain way. And govt was the earliest form of rule, from Roman days. Foreigners in SG do have less rights than citrizens. If they commit a crime, they are immediately deported. Does a citizen get deported for every crime they commit?
1. My point is that we look at these foreign workers and complain about their “anti-social” or “immoral” habits without asking ourselves why they act that way. As you said, people complain they sleep in the playgrounds – but that is because of their poor sleeping arrangement in the dorms. Is it fair then to take this out on them? Do they not deserve peace and quiet? A cool place to sleep?
2. When you refuse a maid the freedom to talk to other maids, when you insist that foreign workers use an entrance far away from where people can see them, when you refuse to allow your maid to follow her religion, when you think it is perfectly ok for foreign workers to live in industrial estates without easy access to food or other services, when you call them names or insinuate on their character for no reason, then you are treating them as sub-humans. When you decide a group of people, for whatever reason, do not deserve the same rights and responsibilities that you yourself have, you are treating them as sub-humans. This has nothing to do with however long they want to work.
3. Yes society has rules and I am not (and I do not believe I ever have) saying that we need to coddle the criminal elements, whether Singaporean or not. Although whether these rules are fair ones are up for debates. Still, while the foreign workers are subject to our laws, I am not sure where the law is that they need to live segregated from us.
Pingback: The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 18
I have to agree totally with your piece. I do admit that in my family there has been distrust of maids (past maids have stolen my mum’s jewels, prostituted themselves with the construction workers across the road, and pinched my bed ridden dementia stricken dad). My siblings never understand why i tell them off for shouting and scolding maids for no apparent reason at all, highlighting the flaws and mischief of past maids. My belief is that if you start treating them like criminals, you will only bring out the worst in them. Its time we started looking at everyone as humans with as much rights to happiness and love as any of us.
I have to say, I haven’t encountered bad treatment of maids around me so I don’t think they are treated any worse than anyone working in a foreign land. The examples of ill-treatment of maids are new to me since I have not had a maid help out since I turned 12. But my mom was not the best employer because of the suspicions she had constantly abt the things the maid was telling her. These are things that happened when people from different cultures are forced into living together. If maids didn’t have to live at the houses, I am sure there will be less angst betw the two. Speaking of which, did i tell u the maid that spiked an elderly lady’s food with sleeping pills lived just up the road from me? I think I used to see her around a few weeks ago. My mom said the newspaper story was not correct. The maid said she got the sleeping pills from other maids but rumor has it that she got the pills from the next door neighbour whom the elderly lady didn’t like. Apparently, she thought her neighbour, an elderly man, was spying on her bathing. Such a riot!
Point 2 on religion, I think, should be corrected. It is against the law of humanity to stop someone from practising their religion. I do hope that agencies, employers and generally everyone can see that and we can have a happier society.
As for why foreign workers live in industrial estates, it’s a perfectly logical setup since they are closer to work and do not have to spend money on transport. Those that were living in Serangoon Gardens didn’t like it because it was far from their workplace, inconvenient to walk to the supermarket and looked very bare. That is just bad planning on the part of the dorm designers. There’s another place near Serangoon which is the dormitories for the Gurkas, No supermarkets, no playgrounds within 100m and the nearest bus stop is 500m outside. Are the Gurkas being ill-treated? I think not. They are located near their workplace and small shops are popping up in the area as enterprising bosses spot opportunities. Same thing for oil & gas workers. They live in dorms and get 6 months of shore leave. Meanwhile, their meals are catered and they get enough rest. So I really do think foreign workers get a good deal here.
Pingback: Jack Neo – What Has He Done This Time? « philyra91writes