I read this in today’s ST Forum. I’ve reproduced it below.
The naivety and the underlying racism of this letter is making me very upset. In the first place, has this guy never encountered people who have worked hard yet not achieved what they hoped to? Does he really think that hard work is all that is needed to succeed in life? And also, he is clearly implying in his letter that the Malays are lazier, less competitive and thus not succeeding in society.
People like Mr Chen Junyi here, who blithely think that it is simply a lack of effort that makes the difference as to how well you do in the world are either incredibly naive as to the workings of society or have been incredibly privileged in life and never descended from their ivory tower.
We all know that the Malays are under-performing both academically and professionally. To blame this all on their laziness, lack of competitive spirit or lack of desire is simplistic and helps no one. Everyone starts life at different starting points – some, through sheer luck, are born into wealthy families and have everything at their feet. Others start out life less fortunately and are born into families who are barely able to support themselves. Who has a better chance at success? The child who can attend tuition, who has the opportunity to travel and see the world, who worries about nothing except his/her studies, who attends independent schools with wonderful facilities or the child who has to work part-time to help his family, who has parents who cannot help him/her in his/her school work, whose parents are too busy working to be around, who attends schools filled with similar students and thus are unable to provide a similar experience as the “elite” schools?
There is a student in one of my classes. Malay of course, whose father has disappeared and whose mother married again and kicked him and his brother out of the house. For some time, they lived with their aunt but she didn’t want the responsibility of looking after teenagers and so told them to leave. Now, they sleep wherever they can find shelter and naturally, they need to work to eat. As a result, although he works hard in school, he is often absent. Now you tell me, when he does not succeed in life, whose fault is it? Is it his because he was not working hard enough? Perhaps he should sleep less, eat less so he can work less and come to school instead. Of course the school is trying to help him but he isn’t the only student we have like this. There are so many of them with varying levels of problems.
So yes, the Malays are not doing as well as the other races but this is only going to continue if no one is willing to help them and instead conveniently lay the blame at their feet, claiming they are a group of lazy people. It is because people perpetuate the idea that the Malays are lazy that many employers are reluctant to hire them. I’ve even heard teachers complain that certain schools have too many Malays in them, that’s why the school’s ranking will never improve. When people already give up on the community and give up on people because they belong to that race, then that’s racism. Sure, we don’t hurl stones at them or beat them up, but we limit their opportunities in life, refuse to help them and then blame them when they can’t seem to rise above their problems.
I get angry when people say that there is no racism in Singapore, that we are a harmonious multiracial country because that’s just not true and believing that means we never talk about racism and we never come up with solutions to this. Just a month ago, I brought my students for a competition. The students were all Malays (and female) and when the opposing team saw this, they said, within earshot of my students, that this round would be an easy win because their opponents were Malays.
As a postscript, I want to point out that despite what others may say about meritocracy in Singapore, it has been found that there perhaps really isn’t much social mobility in Singapore. If you are born into the middle class, than chances are you will remain there.
Puzzled by professor’s Malay argument
I AM puzzled that Associate Professor Hussin Mutalib disagrees with the Government’s dismissal of United Nations Special Rapporteur Githu Muigai’s comments on affirmative action (‘Don’t be too quick to dismiss views’; Tuesday).
Prof Hussin identified only two possible answers to the conundrum of the PSLE performance of Malay students, the median income of Malay households and the percentage of Malays in administrative and managerial jobs.
I do not think any ethnic group is cleverer than another. But the cultural background of an ethnic group has a significant influence on the aspirations of its members.
By aspirations, I do not mean day-dreaming but a desire and willingness to commit oneself towards a target.
One cannot honestly say that one aspires to be a superb soccer player like David Beckham if one makes little effort to be good with the ball.
Does Prof Hussin know of Malay Singaporeans who, through no lack of effort, failed to achieve their aspirations?
Success in life owes more to determination than intelligence.
The challenges faced by Malay pupils in the Primary School Leaving Examination, such as lack of support and affirmation from their families, are not unique to the Malay community.
The same proportion of Chinese and Indians face the same problem.
What is different is the degree of peer pressure in each ethnic community.
In fact, such pressure in the Chinese and Indian communities often results in an unhealthy degree of competition by proxy among adults and undue stress on their children.
In their adult lives, many also suffer from their pursuit of material possessions, seeking advancement in their careers out of financial motivation rather than personal satisfaction.
Finally, any national stimulus package should benefit all underachieving students rather those from a particular ethnic group.
Customisation to different profiles of students should be done according to attributes such as their individual aptitudes and aspirations rather than their ethnic background.
Chen Junyi
Get angry for what?
“Now you tell me, when he does not succeed in life, whose fault is it?”
His parents fault lah, who else you want to blame? The non-Malays?
Who put him there in the first place?
You want government to feed him and provide for him like other normal families?
Can.
But why confine such help only to Malays in that kind of position and not other races?
If not confined, then it is not a Malay aid package.
If confined, then is it fair to other Singaporeans in similar positions?
I’m angry because people think it’s fine to blame the condition of the Malays on their lack of effort. Apparently, according to our dear forum writer, the Chinese and Indians work hard because of peer pressure, implying that the Malays don’t. I guess the Malays just hang out and play their lives away.
Secondly, I don’t see where I said only Malays should be helped. But I do think that we need to look into why the Malay community is lagging behind – claiming that they are lazy is simplistic. Frankly, I think Malays are discriminated against in Singapore, perhaps not explicitly but they are. Firstly, they do not have access to the more economically viable mother tongue, are unable to attend some of the more elite SAP schools, are considered to be lazy and stupid and thus not as employable or find promotion opportunities hard to come by.
I think the fact that the Malay community is doing relatively poorly economically and is overrepresented in social ills says that something is wrong and needs to be done and just saying, here have the same aid package as everyone else is not going to improve matters.
“So yes, the Malays are not doing as well as the other races but this is only going to continue if no one is willing to help them and instead conveniently lay the blame at their feet, claiming they are a group of lazy people. ”
This line implied that you think that Malays should be helped. Or at least that’s my opinion.
It does indeed imply that but it does not imply that the other races should not. If you think it does, then I have only my poor phrasing to blame.
I would think there should be plenty of improvement needed to help social mobility in Singapore. Particularly for the Malays. Because I don’t see how the existing conditions are any better for them from 20 years ago.
Now I have to admit my attention span is not as long as it was when I was a student, I do get that the letter was about determination as a motivating factor to help Malays get ahead. If that is simply the case, why has my dream of getting rich not being fulfilled by my determination?
The point on racism is quite valid. Many people hold their stereotypes quite tightly and do not feel guilty enough to change their behavior. Tsk, tsk. However, I do have a positive spin on the racism seen in this society. Singaporeans are more knowledgeable about the religious practices of all the races we come into contact with, either from newspapers, school or work. Such that when there are instances which require people from different races, culture, countries to come together, we accommodate these practices into the group activity with little questions asked. Some even do it ‘automatically’ without much thought. Compared to people who come from a homogeneous background, it is quite amazing to them while we take it for granted.
It’s a myth perpetrated by the government and those with money that effort + definition = success. This makes them feel better when they consider the poor and down-trodden. They can easily blame their plight on their lack of strength in character, :D
I don’t disagree that things aren’t all that bad in Singapore. I just think that sometimes we like to think that everything is perfect here and we don’t have to consider how racism has affected others.
You claim you did not say only Malays should be helped but that seems to be the implication, which is no different from your saying the forum letter implied Malays are lazy when it did not actually say so.
Don’t use example of a Malay child with one parent in jail to show why Malays deserve special help when such a misfortune can happen and does happen to other children of
Not having access to economically more viable MT? MT is MT – economically viable or not, it is still one’s MT.
SAP school caters to academically strong students in the first place. Issue is academically weak students.
It’s not about denying there is a problem – but it is questioning what is the root cause and hence, what should be the solution.
How many Chinese and Indian children from poor families living in 1 room flats aspire to be doctors or lawyers?
How many of them have been stuck in low-income group from generation to generation?
Just ask this question first before any solution: does the proposed solution address a problem that is unique to the community?
If not, then it is right for the solution to only be offered to that community and no other?
If yes, then what is that unique problem?
So far, people only looked at results and say there must be a problem, but no one has actually pin-pointed what it is.
If the problem is discrimination against Malays, then it is the fault of people who practice discrimination, and we should look to fixing their persception. If so, since it is not the fault of the Malays, then the Malays should not have to change, or be the party at the receiving end of the “solution”.
Eddy,
“SAP school caters to academically strong students in the first place. Issue is academically weak students.”
Before you made that statement, perhaps it is good to check out the state of TCHS before they were a SAP school. I’m not sure if the ranking of some of the SAP schools indicates that it is necessarily a school for academically strong students.
Piper,
I’m with you about the myths about Malays and your critic about the author of the letter’s assumptions about Malays. I’ve lost count of the number of arguments I’ve gotten into with people who hold such assumptions and challenged them with historical evidence of how it was constructed and perpetuated.
What I do not agree with you, but agree with the author, is the special treatment aspect. I do agree with the author that special treatment and aid packages should be made available to all races base on individuals’ circumstances, not race.
Let me explain.
Judging from what you’ve written, it seems that you attribute economic class and family background to be a larger determinant rather than race. Although I do not have the data (it’s never released anyway), I think the same way too. It is absurd to say that a culture does not encourage one to strive or work hard. Besides, there’s evidence that show how the Malays were systematically denied from the economic system during the colonial era, as compared to other races.
However, if race is not the factor, why should race be the determinant in deciding who gets more help? If other countries have taught as anything, it is that affirmative actions enhances stereotype rather than reducing it. How many of us have heard of laments about Malays, despite all the special treatment from NEP, still cannot improve, and thus, are really stupid and lazy? Ditto for what’s going on in the states about quota college entry. If the underlying variable is not race, neither should the attempt to solve it base on race. And as what other countries have shown us, it creates more problems rather than solves it.
Yanjie,
TCHS is …?
I am not sure which assumption you refer to that is supposed to be made by the writer.
There are several interesting articles in http://www.mendaki.org.sg/Policy%20Digest%2008.pdf discussing relevant issues.
One is by Julinah Sulaiman (Chapter 4) that mentions 3 factors to poor academic performance (p 48):
1. Social-Economic Status (SES)
2. Intrinsic Factors (such as low self-motivation and low self-aspiration)
3. Effects of stereotyping by others.
Low SES is indeed a problem, but it is not exclusive to a particular ethnic group.
If the state is to provide a stimulus package to those in low SES, it cannot discriminate amongst low SES members of different races. (interestingly, I found HK’ers from low SES have very high motivations and aspirations to great success – they never thought they could not make it because they couldn’t get good education).
On the intrinsic factors, it is also recognised within the Malay community that low aspirations exist, so it is not rational to accuse any non-Malay who mentions aspirations as a factor to be racist or to say he accuse the Malays of being lazy.
On stereotypes, this is about image problem – and the solution is to change the image others have of the Malays, and the Malays have of themselves. But is it merely cosmetic change of mental images? If there is no improvement in results, it would not last.
Another interesting article is Chapter 10 by Mastura Manap who examined the political-economic history of Malays in Singapore for his explanation to Malay marginality in Singapore.
While much historical information not generally known are provided, his analysis and deduction suffered in two aspects.
First, he only compared the fate of Chinese in Singapore to Malays in Singapore, but omitted any similar comparison with the Indians in Singapore.
Second, he cited the exodus of the already tiny Malay intelligentsia from Singapore to Malaysia in the post-1965 years as one cause of deterioration of Malay education. Nevertheless, I observe that the educated Singapore Malays are not inferior, if not superior, to their counterparts across the Causeway.
Still, a brain drain is a brain drain and on a small island like SIngapore, any brain drain would be disastrous. This is probably the only uniquely Malay factor in Singapore that is not experienced by the other races.
Eddy,
TCHS = The Chinese High school. I was told by alumnus from there that the school was pretty much way below its current status, until SAP scheme came along.
I like the article you provided. Thanks! It was pretty informative. However, I would like to address some of the points you’ve mentioned:
“On the intrinsic factors, it is also recognised within the Malay community that low aspirations exist, ”
Just because it is recognised doesn’t mean it is true. Just because some are more vocal about it, doesn’t mean that it is the voice of the whole community. Mahathiar, in his “The Malay Dilemma” blamed the Malays for being lazy that led to their their current economic status. Does that make it true, when it has been proven to be a myth that was constructed by the colonial masters, and that the colonial masters have systematically excluded the Malays from the economy while importing Indians and Chinese to fill that gap. There are Chinese who believe that their community is full of gamblers, does that means that it is true? There are Indians who believe that their community is full of drunks. Does that make it true?
So what is it that makes the Malay community have “low aspirations”? Is it in the culture? Is it in their biology that there is “low aspiration”? If so, where? There are quite a number of sayings and idoms in Malay culture that advocated for and stated the virtues of striving and hardwork, while warning against laziness. If it is that they are “preparing for their afterlife more than their life now”, which is a common reason I hear, Islam advocates for hardwork and striving too. Thus, if it is not in the culture, and “race” as a biological differentiation has been proven to be a myth, how does one justify any accusations about Malays being lazy then? Since it is not justified, isn’t that irrational to cling on to these accusations, and nothing short of being a racist or a bigot already?
So what is responsible for this apparent lack of aspiration? I would say that it is SES. I don’t deny that there are people who have low SES but high aspirations, but I think you need to factor in “family environment” as well. From the low SES people(including students) I have interacted, those who have high aspirations tend to be from stable families, while those who are not, tend to be from broken ones. This observation spans across all races. And yes, even Chinese from broken homes and low SES are accused to be not aspiring and lazy in schools. Given how the Malay communities are over represented to have low SES and broken families, and that we can’t find a cultural nor religious nor biological explanation for their “lack of aspiration”, isn’t this the factor then?
There is also a need to see how all 3 factors come together and affect each other. Stereotyping, as the Rosentalle effect has shown, can affect one’s aspirations and intrinsic factors. Not sure how representatives it is, but I have seen quite a few bright students who didn’t believe that they will do well academically and attributed bumps in their academic achievements to their race, when they are among the best in the class in terms of effort and intelligence. A lot of times, extremely low SES sets boundaries that effort alone can’t overcome. For example, as reported in the papers, when NorthLight school started, a disproportionate of students were found to have poor eyesight, but did not receive corrective treatment as they can’t afford it. You can imagine how destructive it was to their studies, and how they have been accused of not paying attention in class, which led to low intrinsic factor etc…..That’s one boundary that no amount of effort or aspirations could cross easily, right?
Another reason why SES came to be the underlying factor for me stems from my discussion with other foreigners. After talking to Canadians, Americans and Thais, we found that races who are disproportionately at the bottom of the society (First nationals for Canadians, Blacks and Latinos for the Americans, Northeastern Thais for the Thais, Malays for SG and Malaysia) all share the same stereotype – lazy, don’t strive hard, and it is all attributed to the race’s culture. Given this cross-cultural diagnosis, how can we attribute the lack of aspiration to culture then? Also, don’t forget that the Chinese were thought to be lazy and stupid during the end of the Qing Dynasty, that led to their downfall. This was even written by Chinese intellects!
As for Mastura Manap’s study, I think it is a fair criticism. But you could refer to Syed Hussain Alatas’s “The Myth of the Lazy Native” to see how the Malays, Javanese and Filipinos are marginalised and constructed to be lazy during the colonial era, while the Indians and Chinese are being promoted. I think that might fill the gap you’re seeking quite well.
This is a fascinating discussion. Unfortunately I don’t have the time (exam marking is slowly but surely killing me) to actually consider all this.
Eddy,
Even if a number of Malays are lazy, it is still stereotyping and racism if you immediately decide that means all Malays are lazy until they prove otherwise.
Low SES is a problem and yes, it is not limited to any ethnic group BUT the Malays are more likely to have low SES than other ethnic groups.
Personally, I think that it is quite offensive to dismiss people’s concerns about racism and discrimination by merely claiming it to be an “image problem”. It is a lot deeper and runs not just through individuals but groups and institutions as well.
That’s all I have right now. Back to marking. :(
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Sorry if this is repost – encountered problems replying earlier.
Yanjie, Piper – do reflect that lazy was not even the word used in the ST Forum letter.
You may have heard it from many others who did use it, but then you should not take it out on someone who did not use it.
IMO, laziness is not even the right word to use when students don’t perform well. If someone only want to eat and sleep, okay, call him lazy. But many underachievers are not lazy, they are just interested (and very energetic) in other things that got nothing to do with schooling.
Secondly, saying that certain problem exist in a community does not mean saying it applies to all members of the community.
The anti-gambling advertisement uses a Chinese man and his family, but there is no need for the Chinese to get touchy about it, even if a vast majority of Chinese don’t have gambling problems.
Never did I or anyone else say that all Malays who don’t do well are lazy unless proven otherwise. Low aspiration is not the same as laziness.
In fact, it is actually misleading to classify aspirations as high or low, though I used the quote from Mendaki Policy Digest to make a point, taking it in its context.
Strictly speaking, racism and discrimination is about an image problem – an image problem between groups of people, or to be specific, the guilty party having a wrong image of the party being discriminated against. That is what is meant by image problem.
And the problem lies with the guilty party, and hence that is where the solution should be applied.
Yanjie – yes, most cultures around the world have traditional wisdom about working hard. There are no lazy races, only lazy people.
Again, I don’t think laziness is actually the issue here.
I have tutored many poor performing students, who IMO, got it even worse than being stereotyped as being lazy. These students are deaf.
Deaf students in Singapore got it bad. Many of their families never even attempted to give them any hope, reserving it for their children who are not deaf.
While there is a special school for deaf at Primary level, the deaf students are expected to keep up with the rest in mainstream schools from secondary school onwards.
Many adults thought that these deaf would be living on charity anyway and would not amount to much.
As I tutored these deaf students and saw them “progress” from Primary school to secondary school, to ITE, Poly and work, with many dropping out along the way, I can honestly say that none of them are lazy, but few are interested in academics.
In the end, the only student of mine who was less intelligent than others made it ahead of the rest because he was more determined. He is now gainfully employed and had just had his second son.
If many employers are unfair towards Malays, then the deaf got it worst.
Today, KFC is a sort of “ambassador”, employing deaf staff, especially the outlet at Toa Payoh Lorong 1. But in the early 1990s, they won’t employ any deaf.
One deaf guy was so upset that he wanted to start a petition to government to disallow prospective employers from refusing to hire deaf people.
I got no issue if an employer can’t employ a deaf for a position where the staff needs to be able to hear.
It is discrimination if the employer refuse to employ a deaf when deafness is non-job-related. But that means it is the employer who needs to be reeduated, not the deaf person who is actually qualified for the job.
Ok Eddy, I was willing to have a discussion with you about this issue despite our differing views. Also, perhaps you had some points of merit (but I need to think a bit more about that). Perhaps I was too harsh in my reading of the forum writer’s letter and inserting my own terms (lazy) into the conversation although I still think he was implying that the Malays simply didn’t want success enough.
However, the moment you decided to derail this argument by playing the “my oppression is worse than your oppression” card, I think that any sort of engagement would be quite pointless.
Thank you for the interesting thoughts which I will ponder over once my workload decreases.
Should you be interested, here’s a link to derailing for dummies.
on the contrary, the reason why I used the termed lazy, is because the people I’ve encountered used ‘lazy’ as a conflation with actual laziness or lack of aspiration or lack of effort. Thus, I apologise for the lack of clarification of the terms used.
Piper,
Sorry that you feel that way. You seemed to think that I know little of discrimination, and that’s why I shared my experiences.
But it is your prerogative to interprete it any way you want – after all, we don’t see things as they are but as we are (i.e., according to our own mindset).
I have no use for discrimination, be it against deaf or against races.
All the best with your work and your life.
And upon further reflection, I do admit that my communication is not empathic, in this case, to the Malays.
In that light, I would agree that it is similar to the coldly efficient but un-empathic official stance adopted by the powers-that-be on this island state.
For that, I apologise.
Arghh ok. I do not think you do not know what discrimination is. Everyone of us has likely to have been discriminated against in one way or another. The thing is, when you brought up discrimination of the deaf, the tone (if not the words) came across as “why are you complaining when the deaf have it so much worse” which really isn’t useful in any sort of conversation.Because when we talk about one group being discriminated, we are not saying that other groups are not and it is not a competition to see which group is more oppressed than the other. And when you bring in a different group as a form of comparison, the message put across is that you are dismissive of the concerns of the first group. Of course, in an ideal world, no one would be oppressed.
It is clear that we have different views about what discrimination is and how it should be tackled. I do not disagree that the prejudiced are those who need to be educated but at the same time, I don’t think that is enough. The discriminated group too needs some form of help. We cannot give help by ignoring ethnicity because then we ignore the history and the social forces that shaped the community and that may have contributed to the situation that they are in now.
Naturally, discrimination against the Malays is a sensitive topic for me – perhaps because of the guilt that I feel. If you have not guessed, I am Malay but I look Chinese, can speak Mandarin and went to SAP schools. And for a long time, I felt myself superior to the others of my race and willingly bought into the idea that they didn’t want success as much as I did – something that I have since learnt was wrong. Perhaps I do get somewhat trigger happy when it comes to this topic.
Anyway, it is always good to read what others think and although I may not have accepted your point of view at the moment, it is food for thought and maybe it will help me develop a better and more coherent stance towards this topic.
All that being said, I agree that being physically or mentally disabled in Singapore is very difficult. I see my students with learning disabilities and I am very sad that most of them will never get the help or the support they need to fully develop. It is always so much easier to help those we know will succeed than to help those whom we think do not have so much of a chance. Unfortunately, the disabled (and several other groups of people) fall in the latter category.
One thing I do not apologise is for having differing views, and talking and discussing with people whose views differ greatly from me.
I often find I learn the most that way rather than confining my discussions with people who seem to share my views.
I find it enlightening to hear about the experiences, views and mindsets of those who are different.
WRT ethnicity, after nearly 4 decades of existence, living in different countries, having been part of majority and also part of minority, blah blah blah, I personally conclude that ethnic identity is as much as what we make of it ourselves as what our predecessors have defined for us, but never what others outside the group dictate to us.
I was tanned enough when I was younger that people couldn’t tell what ethnicity I was supposed to be. I also had a name unusual enough (until I shortened it) that different people thought I was, variously, a Thai, an Indian, amongst other things, especially when I interacted with them over Internet.
The greatest lesson in humility I learned though was from a black staff at San Francisco YMCA who asked me if I spoke Japanese (I was fairer at that stage in my life). Having been presumed for one too many times in Western countries, I denied indignantly I was one. Then the staff politely and patiently explained he was merely asking if I *spoke* Japanese, as he was looking for help to communicate with a Japanese guest who did not speak much English.
In the recent MT weightage debate, I had fellow members of a club approaching me for support against any changes and asked me to join their petition. While I am also against any such changes in principle, I rejected joining their petition because I did not believe in their reasonings – such as Chinese must be Chinese and not lose Chinese-ness etc. But that’s another issue.
What I do always overlook is that taking a very objective and practical and rational approach where issues concerning identity and values are concerned will not be as helpful because such we are human beings and emotions are just a natural part of our make-up.
“What I do always overlook is that taking a very objective and practical and rational approach where issues concerning identity and values are concerned will not be as helpful because such we are human beings and emotions are just a natural part of our make-up.”
On the contrary, I disagree with you.
Although yes, emotions are part of our make-up, but using emotions to to counter emotions doesn’t make it more convincing or effective. If it is not better, we just have to stick to the not-totally-effective-but-more-effective method, which is being objective, practical and rational.
The reason why I’m calling for an objective and rational angle towards issues on values and identity, is because if they are not question and challenged in a critical, objective and rational manner, it can move us to do very inhuman things to others. After all, one way of defining your identity is to define the others – what you are not. This is the beginning of dehumanising others to justify your supposed superiority. For example, how Hitler defined the Aryans by dehumanising Jews as rats and stir up emotions by blaming them for economic problems. How the Tutsies and Hutus hate each other and think that the other is more inferior, which cumulated into a genocide, when there is no cultural or genetic difference at all. In fact, it was simply categories created by the colonial government. We could see how Bangkokians are defining the Red Shirts as ignorant, violent and terrorists to justify a call for violent crackdown on them. Although it may not be as effective as we want it to be, it is being objective and rational with these emotional issues that shakes us up from the slope down inhumanity sometimes.
We must also recognise that society changes over time. Mindsets change. It takes my parents’ generation to my generation for different races to sit at the same table. Perhaps it takes the next generation to take a more objective view of these issues and abandon the irrationalities that came from the stereotypes. In that case, it is even more so that we should hold on to an objective rationale critic for the future generations. We may not change the current generations, but we can change the thinking of the future generations.
After all, as I was told by the professor, colonialism has been around for 100+ years to propagate these stereotypes. It’s barely 50 years since we gained independence. Give ourselves time to change these myths. As much as I wish for it to be faster, I guess we can’t save the world.
Eddy, Piper, I truly enjoyed having this discussion with you all. The points are well thought out with good ideas that I’ve never thought of and shared in a very civic and objective manner. :)
It was an interesting discussion and I did indeed get many ideas and POV that I need to think about. In fact, the whole thing turned out a lot more educational and civil than I thought it would. It would have been better if the 400 over people who came by contributed something though.
You know what is funny, it’s that while on one hand I think we need to have more such discussions in Singapore about such issues, I get somewhat nervous when it takes place – perhaps I am too entrenched in the Singapore’s authority’s philosophy.
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Hi, interesting post..
I am a malay myself, and i do feel that there is racism in singapore. However, i think those are somethat justified. Most of my malay friends are lazy, and do not have the sheer desire to suceed in life. I think to blame it on their parents is partially correct but personally, i’ve seen some of my malay peers who has managed to get out of poverty, and they are from low income families.
Here’s what i observe. How often do you see a 12 year old malay kid loitering outside after school hours playing soccer? does that ring a bell ? its so prevalent. the parents are to be blame, not because they are economically disadvantaged, but rather they fail to instill the importance of hard work and seriouness of getting a good qualification, something which is so important here in singapore.
and btw it sucks being a malay here in singapore. I get looked down at several times in school eventhough i have topped the country once for a national exam. Its rather hard to find a group to work with be it, in projects or study groups. One will only know how it feels like being a minority here in singapore if they have experienced it themself -.-
good article, very insightful
I have served in the army and something interesting that i have observed is many malays have little sense of money management. They can spend that little allowance we get in a few nights on drinks at pubs, etc….so the question now is whose fault is it?? its not a matter of race or religion, it is the failure of ones family to instill the importance of discipline and money management since young. Sadly, the malays are the ones that makes up the majority of the statistics. This is a sad thing as in singapore no one owns u a living. Our government unliked the malaysian govt advocates meritocracy.
I run my own business and employ staff of all races. I realise Malay in general tend to lack motivation to excel even when presented with the opportunity. I ask many of my Malay staff if they would like to lead as supervisor and I would give them a 50% pay rise. All declined saying that they would like to “be happy, don’t want responsibilities”. Wherease, for Chinese, Filipino or Malaysian, they jump at the offer, even willing to do extra hours per day. Talk to them, motivate them with story of a better future, they also declined. My experience tell me not hire Malay unless I have no choice.
Am not mean to be discriminate malays but in the real working world. if your working buddy are malay and you are chinese then the chinese will die. Chances are the chinese will be working 70% – 90% of the work.
From my experience from working. most malay colleague always MC, on leaves. work min. every week confirm one day MC or leaves. in the end the chinese buddy have to absorb all the work.
If two malay are buddy in a team. one buddy on take urgent leaves the other will be on MC. then the other team ppl die. have to do their work. If the other team all malay, they will disappear too as there’s too much work. no sense of responsibility at all. they don’t care what happen to the company.
This is what happen in my previous company. there’s 3 invoicing team. two malay and one chinese team total 6 ppl, 4 malay 2 chinese. the malay team always disappear and the chinese team have to work till very last almost every day. in the end both chinese resign as they cannot cope the workload. And I never see the other 4 malay gal stay back. not even once.
frankly speaking, I only saw one malay gal in my present company who is willing to stay back and finish her work throughout the years or working. all the others either MIA after 2nd day of work or plain lazy.
not saying that all malay is like that, but most. chinese do have lazy ppl too but not many. so when come to employment. employing Chinese have much higher chance that the person have the sense of responsible for his work. and more hardworking. naturally as a boss I prefer employing chinese as my chance are much higher to get a good if not average worker.
there’s no reason for me to take such high risk to waste my time/money and employ a good for nothing staff without production.
I am in recruitment for the last 14 years.
Its clear to see who works harder, who does more, who is absent and who is on MC, has plenty of family drama/soap opera at home and lots of funerals to attend to!!!
Sad but all true, nothing to joke about.
No need to malign. No need to make up stories.
I can relate many cases, many names and even their own institutions are hopeless and unhelpful. No one knows why but lying is a common trait. This is fact, people!
so..you want said all malay people lazy? not all malay people lazy actually.
Well actually not all malays are lazy, only majority of them like not all malays are terrorists.
ps. Why should we help them? Its their own problem.
actually i donno what the malaysians want the malays to do…
if malays are lazy, they will be called lazy forever…
if they were hardworking n became rich then the cainis will say malays got rich bcos of rasuah n crony…
so malays lazy or hardworking also makes no difference for the cainis…
good or bad oso the same…
why not just leave it as it is so the malays can continue to be lazy n dependent on government forever…
isn’t it good for the cainis?
if cainis are so pleased with the laid back attitude of malays then why keep harping on the same old complaint?
I like what you said here:
“So yes, the Malays are not doing as well as the other races but this is only going to continue if no one is willing to help them and instead conveniently lay the blame at their feet, claiming they are a group of lazy people. ”
Besides being lazy, the Malays LOVE to blame everyone else for their problem and we have to help them? That is exactly the point i get from your post and it really does not help put the Malay race in a better light.
Your article is skewed and your mind is narrow. Why don’t you put yourself in the shoes of the non-Malays and see for yourself how we succeed academically and financially and perhaps you will then understand the Malays are just essentially lazy and stupid.
TO PIPER/THE PERSON WHO “WROTE” THIS ARTICLE:
I’m laughing as i read, really. Are you a malay yourself? Why did you steal Emy Lomazzo’s blog content and publish it here as your own? Are you just too LAZY to write?
Mr Eddy Tan, I’m totally with you (:
Ooh I’ve not actually touched my blog in eons and also, I’ve been avoiding getting involved in responses to this blog post for a while for certain reasons. But, I do remember spending quite a bit of time writing this post and while I must have referenced other people’s work as I formed my thoughts on this, I am quite sure I did not plagiarise anybody’s work. So if you could point me in the direction of the work I plagiarised, I would be most thankful.