Sunday, March 12, 2006,
Will it ever end?Singapore is a multi-racial and harmonious country.Wait a minute, how many of you all read that line and thought otherwise?
Its true, our country is made up of primary 4 races, namely Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian.
Do we co-exist really? Yes, perhaps. You go to anywhere in Singapore, you will find a mix of Malays and chinese talking together.
I do have Indian, Malays friends. Not so much of Eurasians, because i haven't met one so far.
I play soccer with them, go out to sentosa to play with them. AND share jokes with them. However, when we joke about each other, it is in a most appropriate form. We know we don't mean to insult one another.
What i just said, is just the superficial side of us. I am aged 17, reaching 18 in a couple of days. However, As Singapore seeks to prevent her racial riots of the past, i doubt most of the young minds would seek to agree. Everywhere i go, i see signs of racial tensions. Even my friends.
One said, "You don't see he malay, he got eat pork one."
I was so taken aback by this statement.
Sometimes, it is the simple things we say that nobody notices that will cause the most tension.
As the saying goes, it only takes a spark to get the fire going.
How true.
I was in a Dota match yesterday. around 2am to 3am. Just because our team, had an indonesian, studying in Singapore. The opposition team took turns to insult him of his country. You know what i mean, the maids, the mother/father insults.
The Indonesian retaliated back in anger. This is what i call racial tension. If you are not careful, you end up offending someone. If i had to look back at the chat log, it will be in disgust. Strong words were use, often vulgarities and profanities. Even challenging to each other to fight. I told them to mind their words, yet they shot at me.
Singaporean teenagers or even younger, nowadays, are rapidly going to the darkside. They believe that hiding behind the computers, to talk about bad things, will not lead them to be caught. However, the recent cases of the racist bloggers had us think otherwise. Yes, we are taking action, but how effective it deems?
Young ones continue to defy and abuse. This is an increasingly bothering problem that we face. I remember in Secondary 3, Haris, my malay classmate, and me, were studying at this Kopitiam. Then, we saw a group of severely underaged muslims drinking beer. And it was no small amounts. It was cartons and cartons. My muslim friend saw justice, and we went to the police station to tip off. He is prepared to turn on "his people".
True justice seems to evade everyone. Even now, we young ones, turn a cold shoulder on the elderly that needs help. My friends just brushed aside an eldery who obviously had trouble with his wheelchair. Unable to be nonchalant about their attitude, i helped the old man, and received a "Gam Sia", which means "Thank You" in hokkien.
The world is rapidly changing, but so are the people. The problem will only get bigger. Everywhere in the world, there is problem, the wars, the conflicts. There are still people out there in pursuit for freedom. Yet , a lot of us allow ourselves to be pulled into this dark black hole.
To defeat this, we need to get to the root and eliminate the source of the problem. Right now it seems not to be working. But i still hope for the future to become the past again. If only...
Yong Hock
12:16 PM
