Sorry Minister, but your explanation just doesn’t cut it at all.
Yesterday, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan came under fire for posting on Facebook about a joint simulation exercise with the Singapore Police Force (SPF), the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and ‘foreign worker ambassadors’. Basically, the SPF and the SCDF played the good guys and the migrant workers took the role of, well, the security threat.
Obviously, netizens and non-governmental organisations got raised their collective pitchforks and criticised the training exercise, and Khaw for endorsing such a dehumanising event. The general consensus is this — riots and large-scale altercations can be started by anyone regardless of ethnicity, and the Little India Riots shouldn’t be an excuse to permanently categorise foreign workers as provocateurs.
Khaw in turn has responded to the allegations of racial insensitivity in a typically deflective fashion, by saying that the exercise was found to be “a meaningful collaboration which bonded the residents and foreign workers”, and that past efforts with transient workers have included lessons in first aid, dengue prevention and local culture. As if the deeply embedded issues facing migrant workers in Singapore could be easily swept aside, he assures that they were all treated to a buffet lunch after the exercise. Wow.
With that comment, Khaw has effectively dug a deeper hole for himself as even more netizens expressed their disappointment over his unsatisfactory answers, pointing out that it doesn’t actually address the main concerns among the public.
“Rather than promoting mutual understanding, this can easily foster increased suspicion of foreign workers, who are still largely unintegrated into society,” comments Michael Cyssel Wee. “The SPF can easily get either members of the public or other servicemen to volunteer as mock rioters. That way, there would be no racial stereotyping or singling out of a particular group as potential rioters.”
“And giving them a buffet lunch doesn’t retrospectively justify things, either”, he concludes.
Photo: Khaw Boon Wan Facebook page
Sorry Minister, but your explanation just doesn’t cut it at all.
Yesterday, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan came under fire for posting on Facebook about a joint simulation exercise with the Singapore Police Force (SPF), the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and ‘foreign worker ambassadors’. Basically, the SPF and the SCDF played the good guys and the migrant workers took the role of, well, the security threat.
Obviously, netizens and non-governmental organisations got raised their collective pitchforks and criticised the training exercise, and Khaw for endorsing such a dehumanising event. The general consensus is this — riots and large-scale altercations can be started by anyone regardless of ethnicity, and the Little India Riots shouldn’t be an excuse to permanently categorise foreign workers as provocateurs.
Khaw in turn has responded to the allegations of racial insensitivity in a typically deflective fashion, by saying that the exercise was found to be “a meaningful collaboration which bonded the residents and foreign workers”, and that past efforts with transient workers have included lessons in first aid, dengue prevention and local culture. As if the deeply embedded issues facing migrant workers in Singapore could be easily swept aside, he assures that they were all treated to a buffet lunch after the exercise. Wow.
With that comment, Khaw has effectively dug a deeper hole for himself as even more netizens expressed their disappointment over his unsatisfactory answers, pointing out that it doesn’t actually address the main concerns among the public.
“Rather than promoting mutual understanding, this can easily foster increased suspicion of foreign workers, who are still largely unintegrated into society,” comments Michael Cyssel Wee. “The SPF can easily get either members of the public or other servicemen to volunteer as mock rioters. That way, there would be no racial stereotyping or singling out of a particular group as potential rioters.”
“And giving them a buffet lunch doesn’t retrospectively justify things, either”, he concludes.
Photo: Khaw Boon Wan Facebook page