These comments appeared on the article: Race-Bias Discriminatory Hiring Practices Exist In Singapore?
Ada Style: New Temasek Review
I fully agree with Gre’s comment that Gilbert’s analysis is based upon him coming from the majority race (Chinese) in Singapore. So perhaps he may not appreciate the difficulties that the minority races face in Singapore.
I belong to a minority race and used to practice as a advocate and solicitor in Singapore (I have since left Singapore). I remember going for my first few interviews in several law firms only to be told that they prefer someone who could speak Mandarin. I told them that the position was for a legal assistant to do adversarial work and all proceedings in the courts were conducted in ENGLISH!! I remember one interview where, when the interviewer asked me whether I could speak Mandarin, I replied “What do you think?” I started packing my things to leave and he became very apologetic.
I think he didn’t realise that these questions and attitude are very sensitive, especially to an eager new lawyer who wants to make his contribution to society and help the underprivileged regardless of race and colour.
I can vouch for a fact that my of my friends who belong to the minority races have had similar experiences.
So to conclude, of course race-bias discriminatory hiring exists in Singapore!
***************
i am not a Chinese: New Temasek Review
I was a senior in a head hunting firm.- as usual we advertised in the newspaper for appointments. As a good ethical practice, it is usual that sensitive criterias such as race are never mentioned.
Because of that, the advertisement attracted many non Chinese who applied for the job position. And it is our customary practice to call them for interviews to show our clients the number of people we have interviewed. Invariably, all non Chinese interviewed are always rejected by our clients.
We know that beforehand and sometimes informed the non Chinese candidates not to expect too much. I have interviewed many Indian and Malay candidates who were more than qualified for the job and are willing to take half the salary offered but they were never selected by our clients or even short-listed.
The local banks are worst of the lot – have you ever seen a non-Chinese working as a teller in any of our banks except DBS and POSB?
Some Indian and Malay candidates have broken down and cried in front of me when asked why their pay is so low after working for such a long period as indicated on their resumes. This was the reality fifteen years ago.
Today, ironically, there are more foreign Indians employed as executives in many banks - jobs that were denied to our local Indians.
A lot of Malays were senior and able administrative officers working in our civil service during the 60s but not anymore now.
To date, even our Malay ministers do not go further than a minister in charge of sewerage and drains. If Malays are that bad how could they govern democracies 10 or 100 times bigger than Singapore?
Racism in Singapore begins the moment PAP came to power.
************
Sharky says: Transitioning.org
October 23, 2010 at 9:38 am (Edit)
Hi Gilbert,
I have to comment from the viewpoint of a Malay.
Though the Chinese majority will deny it, in Singapore we have institutionalised marginalisation of the minorities, such as the SAP schools, housing racial quota, CDAC, SINDA and Mendaki on top of no equal opportunities at certain jobs, to name a few. And it was only in the 80s, Malays who once served in for the British army but eventually kicked out in favour of Chinese recruits, were allowed to serve their country again.
Everytime, when such matter is brought up, the Chinese majority will compare abuses and discrimination their brethen faces in Malaysia and Indonesia. Or if we bring up the matter of the rights of the Malays as an indigenous people in our constitution, the Chinese majority will claim the Malays are not the true natives of Singapore.
So I guess, with such emotional baggage that the Chinese majority in Singapore carries, the victims have become the abusers.
It does not help when our government. plays the racial card during election. And keep questioning the loyalty of the Singaporean Malays.
So, you should not be surprised when the minorities employ their own kind, because they know, they would not be given an equal opportunity by most of the ‘Chinese-minded’ companies in Singapore.
As long as the Chinese majority and the current ruling party carries that emotional baggage and live in fear of the Malays, on top of feeling okay as long as their bread and butter is not affected, the minorities will continue to be marginalised and discriminated with the shadow support of the current ruling party.
I hope the articles link below will enlighten you more:
1. http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3336-lee-kuan-yews-remarks-deeply-offensive-to-malays
2. http://yoursdp.org/index.php/the-party/young-democrats/3691-how-pap-policies-affected-malay-singaporeans
3. http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3644-discrimination-in-singapore-is-institutionalised
*********
willow: New Temasek Review
I am a Malay Singaporean. I have face the same discriminatory experiences while out job searching. I was asked many times whether I spoke Mandarin during interviews. The companies that I selected to send in my resume were mostly foreign and international companies, not typical Chinese companies where you know that they would ask whether you speak Chinese or not. And I thought I would have a better chance due to the English Language…but boy, I was in for a shock as the HR Managers were normally Chinese…if you were/are not of the same colour or race, out you go!
Once, I was working in a travel agency (well my immediate boss was a different type of Chinese, real different mindset, that was why I got the job), I encountered Chinese colleagues who were outrightly racist towards me. I complained to my boss and she told me, ‘Now you know what they are and what they are capable of’. I won’t tell you all in detail what these racist pigs did. Just enough to say that they tried to smear my good name and work ethics due to their jealousy and prejudice.
Well, I did complained to my few Chinese friends. They thought it was nothing. They even denied any racism against Malays (or Indians) in Singapore.
In conclusion, I think the Chinese Singaporeans were/are having what we call the Denial Syndrome. They are the majority and they refuse to even think about the hardship of their fellow citizens. But God is Great, now is their turn to face what we, the minorities were/are facing and still suffering. Another thing, if the Malays have to resort to living in tents or even commit suicide (which is taboo in their religion), please do not be surprised. PAP won’t even bother, their motto is: you die your business!
To expect nil discrimination in job application is as good as to want every employer to be fair and kind(pays well).
It’s too idealistic a wish making it a natural wishful thinking.
Just do ones’ best to prove ones’ worth, no use crying foul when others get the job.
Claim of discrimination stands only when an employer pays new employee(s) higher salary than older staff doing the same job or a beautiful staff gets to do lot less work than another of the same appointment. Both examples are quite common in workplaces
patriot
Hi;
forgot to mention that if one is a Union Member, do talk to them about You being unfairly treated.
Union Members do have avenue to air their grievances, don’t they? Failing which, there’s still Ministry Of
Manpower, right?
patriot
What’s the point of having GRC – to protect the interests of the minority?
Patriot,
Wrong, Min of Manpower are nice to look at, but white collar issues, they are powerless, just going through motions only.
Agree that there is discrimination everywhere. Ang Mohs will always want fellow ang mohs, same for Chinese, indians, Malays. Unfortunately, Singaporeans, our leaders, collectively, are not united and non singaporeans take advantage of it.
Me am not surprise to be informed that me am wrong with regard MOM. Heard about workers seeking it’s services but gave up pursuing their cases after meeting MOM Officials. They had more problems dealing with them(MOM Staff) than with their(workers) employers and superiors. Lucky thing me had no serious dispute in my working life to have to see them. However, this does not mean that me was trouble free in my working life, just that me was always doing menial jobs.
BUT and nevertheless, It is still the Official Department for workers to seek helps and justice. How the staff in MOM behaved and attired themselves, me has only the Minister Of Manpower Gan Kim Yong as a guide. Got to pardon me for not having much of an impression.
Thank You for the interaction.
patriot
Sinkapore… Supposedly there is racial harmony and its a global city.. Frankly its a first world city buildings with third world mentality..There is institutional favouritism shown towards chinese majority and vilifying minorities … Good luck if you can survive and work in servitude.
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I am surprised to hear Sg Malays and Indians
Feel discriminated if they do not get the interviews or
Jobs. Have they deduced that the companies’ bosses
were chinese race?
Let’s have some examples,
If a law firm has many clients who are malay speaking,
Will the firm prefer to employ one whO speaks malay or even
Better practises malay culture..
So on… For Indians, chinese, etc
Haha.. What is argument about Sinda , cdac, merdeki,
They are to help individual ethnic group,
I am shocked to hear all these!
I was born in 195x, from a very, very poor family,
My neighbour was the landlord bullied my family when
I was a teenager, I grew up anyway, Iater, i found
Out malays have some privileges, free education,
Etc.
Never mind i said when i went to do my NS,
My family managed to send me overseas after my NS,
Fast forward, At no time have i am against any race
In Sg, yes I am chinese, I am against non-Sg taking
Away Sg jobs, as I feel the present govt policy is not
Protecting us , sg citizens.
I did not take up AUstRalian citizenship in 199x because
Sg is my country where I was born. The government or
Private companies did not give me a job, i found my own recourse
To make an honest living.
My God, i do not believe what is happening to Sg
I am now in UK with my family,, left again a few mnths ago,
Maybe Sg is lost!
I am now age 55, maybe I should not have gone back
Again and again and again!
Yes, I am convinced now, are foreigners destroying
Sg (regardless of our race).
I feel sad to hear from my indian n malays sg that they
Feel discriminated, . I know what it is like as a minority race.
I have always thought we are All Sg regardless of race!!!
I have lived in USA,UK,Australia. Looks like
I will go to China to retire, where my parents came from.
My parents gave me Sg , born in Sg and I now feel is taken
Over by foreigners and fellow Sg have racial issues.
Very very sad! Sg cannot even survive a person’s lifetime!
This a very interesting post. I am a foreigner, an Ang Moh, as many in Singapore like to say.
Discrimination certainly abounds at just about every turn in this country and it is highly reflective in the job markets, in particular when HR is staffed only with Chinese, that should speak in and of itself. HR predominately holds the power to hiring and even promoting in most companies here. What does that tell you when the majority are the only ones that hold those important positions?
When you open a newspaper and despite English being the official language of exchange in Singapore, a significant portion of jobs demand Mandarin speaking applicants.
Now children learn English from the time they enter school. Very few people in Singapore cannot converse in English. Usually, the ones that can’t are foreigners or from a much older generation.
Then, I notice now that at all these Indian coffee shops I walk by, there is now this one odd Chinese person working there? Yet, it appears there is no law the HR departments need to hire more minorities? Yet now, minority owned business MUST hire a certain ratio from the majority.
When I look around at housing policies, how life is structured here and even something as simple as the provision of social services, society is very-much ethnically motivated. That is, most important decisions are made in the context of race.
For a society that is supposed to be so forward thinking, I see just the opposite in all of these policies, both written and unspoken, but drawn upon what is already codified in the law.
Personally, I find such policies and ways of conducting business counter-productive. I don’t buy the lame excuse of Singapore “needing” racial policies to mitigate potential unrest. Singapore passed that danger long ago, but, the longer these policies stay in effect, the better the chances of that unrest actually resurfacing at some point in the future, particularly, in the likely event of a major, global market correction that causes unemployment to approach double digits. And yes, that is an eventuality, regardless of domestic government policy.
Therefore, no matter what race you are, if you are Singaporean, I would recommend everyone getting on the same page and demanding the dispensing of racial based policies, both codified and unspoken, in order to preserve the future of the nation.
Singapore is a democracy and, citizens have the ability to change things at the voting box. If you can’t reason with the ruling parties and get them to realize the grave error of these policies, or even considering alternative point-of-view, then fire those officials at the next election and replace them with officials who have a better insight into the future of Singapore, one that offers a truly inclusive, integrated society.
After-all, regardless of ethnicity, human beings are far more alike than different. As a matter-of-fact, the differences between race is so trivial that over time, those differences will disappear. As much as Singapore prides itself on the secular and scientific, it seems that many here do not understand that from a biological perspective, race simply does not exist. Instead, it is a sociocultural construct. With globalization, these constructs are merging at a lightening pace.
The question should be: “Does Singapore want to be left behind?”
If not, then the nation, ALL its people and its leaders have a lot of work to do in this area.
S’pore has many strange policies.
National language is malay,even the national anthem & military drill commands are in malay. But as a S’pore chinese, i don’t really understand malay language.
Unless you are a malay or you insist to learn malay, if not you must learn chinese as your mother tongue in school if you are a chinese. But our so-call first lanuage is english. Almost all the offical documents is require to be written in english.
In S’pore, we are left with few or maybe only one kampong. We are surrounded with tall concrete buildings but gov wants us to have kampong spirit.
S’pore gov declared S’pore is a developed country & first class country but gov doesn’t want to implement minimum wage system to help the poor.
S’pore is a small tiny island but its gov likes to increase the population & turn it into a congested tiny island.
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