7/07/2009
A little bit history
Many of you may not remember the days when the majority in this island was discriminated. Yes it happened. It was an anomaly of history which escaped the notice of many, and many today took it for granted that the majority in power is a norm and will be here to stay, forever.
During the colonial days, the masters called the tune. The ruling class and its coterie of officers monopolized all the govt offices, including big western corporations and banks. Key appointments were held by the British and the English speaking elite comprising mainly the Eurasians and those imported from the East India Company. Forget about the Chinamen, they could not speak English and looked funny with their slant eyes. Or maybe it was the British form of meritocracy and the Chinamen were not meritorious enough.
When self govt was returned to the locals, all the high offices were naturally taken over by those from Her Majesty Services, filling the positions vacated by the British. The majority Chinese were in the peripheral of the govt. They were either in commerce for the richer ones, semi skilled craftsmen or small time hawkers, and the rest odd job labourers. They were thus grossly under represented in high govt offices.
When the PAP govt took over, this state of affair continued for several years with key govt appointments continued to be dominated by the minorities. It took several decades to moderate this historical discrimination and a more representative govt service based on the population profile. But in so doing, many of the Eurasians who were favoured by the colonial govt left for Australia.
That was how things were then. Would the majority be discriminated against one day? Given the twist and turn of history, anything is possible.
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22 comments:
In the colonial days, the Ang Moh and their sidekick, the Eurasians were the masters. The Chinese, Malays and Indians were the masses. Victimized and discriminated against, these three races rebel in their own unique way. Clans and secret societies were formed for self protection. Today, the Ang Moh returns but as servants of the Chinese being employed as managers or CEOs of companies owned by their erstwhile servants.
Every dog has its DAY.
The Eurasians are mostly long gone. As you said, to Australia, tending to their little orchard, pets and reminiscing the glory days of Empire.
Just the other day, I was driving my jalopy past Geylang when a crazy PRC was riding his bicycle way off the side of the road, with a woman on pillion, onto my path. I horned and he was shocked. If he could read my lips, I said, "Get off the road, country bumpkin". That was in June 2009. Come June, 2019 or thereabouts, the guy sitting in the Lexus would be a PRC and the one riding the bicycle would be a Singaporean. Mark my words. This is not fanciful imagination. This is the stark reality of who our new masters will be.
Is it really long gone? I would say it is still happening now. The asian are still worshipping the ang moh. They are easily forgiven. Don't ask me why. The other day, an ang moh make a mistake in the office and the management said, " oh, they are ang moh, they worked like that." They got over it. But if its an asian, I bet it will not be easily forgiven.
Some Eurasians flied from Australia and interviewed my friend for a job the other day. They used the intimidating tone and even wore dark shades throughout the process and keeping mentioning they are very tired. What is this, man?!
Is it going to be a reality on who our new master will be? Not unless the victimized know how to respect themselves. We shall find out
During the colonial days we had the ang moh as our masters. Now we have another set of masters, only they are with same colour skin as us.
> Would the majority be discriminated against one day? <
Depends what the underlying idea of "majority" is.
Race? Culture? Religion? Sexual orientation? Those with little dicks?
Anon 338
> Now we have another set of masters, only they are with same colour skin as us.<
I think anon hit it on the head.
Power over the disarmed can come because of any collective idea — race, religion, educational level etc. — all of which seem to the observer as objective but are actually quite arbitrary.
What you guys are forgetting:
The state and its government is always the minority. For them to have that "power", they must be first agreed to and then continually supported by a majority — in every case in the realm of politics, this majority is the people.
The majority people (or sheeple if you prefer) always get the minority government they fucking deserve, and they the sheeple deserve a good fucking.
I think the white supremacy midset is slowing disintegrating.
Let me illustrate. In the early sixties if you worked in any large European firm, the boss and heads of departments (always Europeans) really show their arrogance towards all the Asian staff. I worked in one such large conglomerate owned by the Danish Government and it was intimidating facing the head of our department.
By the mid-seventies, after joining another Dutch company, things were different and I remember my collegues and me often could not agree with the boss and we used to have heated arguments with our Dutch boss. No longer were they as domineering as before.
Now, the situation is changing even faster with China and India on the rise and Japan already having dominated the Global economy for many years. Europeans now work for Asian bosses and the respect is on an equal footing.
I won't be surprised if by the next decade or two, most of our children would all be working for PRC or Indian bosses.
It really is going to come full circle.
Lost Citizen
Well it's nice to notice the little racists coming out of people's consciousness.
> THE CHINESE ARE DISCRIMINATING AGAINST THEIR FELLOW ASIAN BROTHERS HERE. <
Has it never occurred to you that the fact that they are Chinese (or Martian or from Alpha Centuri) has nothing to do with "discrimination"?
redbean:
> It took several decades to moderate this historical discrimination and a more representative govt service based on the population profile. <
Logical fallacy: confirmation bias
As erudite as redbean considers himself to be, he never offers any proof of his conjecture about a govt based on "population profile" (whatever the fuck that means — redbean doesn't define the term).
Dare I assume by "population profile" redbean means "racial mix" or some pie-chart of racial percentages representing groups of various races? OK, I will for argument's sake. If what redbean say's is "true", then it would be wise for every rational person to make plans to emigrate.
PROPER representative government is comprised of people who can do the job, not to satisfy some arbitrary standard redbean simply conjured up in is (occasionally) fertile mind — like some "mix" or "equality" of races.
It is true that many Eurasians fucked off not only to Australia, but to the UK, USA, Canada and some even to Malaysia when the PAP came in.
However S'pore is a melting pot of races. That is a euphemistic way of saying people of many races come to Singapore — for generations — and fuck each other, and in doing so producing — in this present day — an increasing number of mixed offspring. (fondly known by locals as chap cheng kias).
In fact, this mixing up of the gene pool has led to more exciting "people watching" in recent times, as the girls (and boys, but especially the girls) are more jambu mow than before, because their fathers and mothers have different racial genes (the last set of genes to be selected in evolution), and we can thank almighty god, satan and all the angels and demons that these mum's and dad's are fucking more and more so as to produce more chap cheng kias.
Mixing up the racial gene pool has other advantages, because the delightful fucking process doesn't simply result in a bunch of cute (eurasian?)kids. When you mix genes, you don't just mix up the race genes, but also all the other genes. This produces genetic diversity which aids a species survival, adaptation and evolution.
ok, the political minority ruling over the political majority. this is another perspective that we have to live with.
let me welcome SADSACK here.
i will like to disagree with your perception of the Chinese. if you are referring to the mainland Chinese, as individuals, they are just like anyone. as a national, the mainland Chinese is the best thing that can happen to the world right now. they are the one that is providing an alternative to the western dominance of power and allow the rest of the world more room to manouvre, more freedom to carve a neutral path.
if you are referring to the Chinese here, i agree that there are some discriminations as in all societies or countries. but you don't get the kind of arrogant, brutal and take it or leave it discrimination like our northern neighbour, or southern one at one time when killing the minority Chinese was a past time or an excuse for their political manouvres. there were suppression of culture and beliefs and total discrimination in the govt services.
here the Chinese were apologetic and are trying their best to accommodate the minorities and give it as equal a share as possible. the key issue of discrimination in military appointment as racial discrimination is a myth. there were enough security incidents to justify the policies then. but these are dirty linens that should not be washed openly.
other than this, any minority that is able and talented will be able to find his place under the sun. ask this simple question, why are the talented Indians in high places if there are discriminations against the minorities? The Eurasians gave up by default as many of their talents left for greener pastures.
the best vindication that minorities are treated fairly and equally is the abundance of applications by foreigners in neighbouring countries to want to live here.
let's be fair, under the Chinese majority, the minorities are treated better than any minorities in any other country anywhere in the world.
the reverse will be tragic if the Chinese were a minority. i don't think they can live in peace or allow to make a decent living without facing the heavy hand of discrimination.
matilah,
why must you always be so crude? we are a melting pot, and there are many inter racial marriages which says a lot about racial prejudices. we have grown increasingly colour blind and we are still a very young country. we will develop a people that will have its own characteristics in time. the chinese here will be different from the chinese elsewhere. so will be the indians, malays and eurasians.
we can all do ourselves a great favour by allowing time to mix everyone up, particularly in the mindset and emotional attachment to this place which we all called our home. but this cannot happen overnight.
i think we are doing very well in this area. in fact too well that soon we would not know who we are. and my fear is that the next generation may just sell out this place to anyone for money, to the highest bidder.
If you believe what you are doing is logically correct. Never give up no matter how tough the going is.
45 years ago, the Family Planning Policy was implemented to prevent too many people from producing too many children. THE Policy became so successful - thanks to LKY and PAP - that today the birth rate has become 1.35 per couple.
With the increased demand for more workers and talents, the Foreign Talon Policy and Citizen Import Policy have been implemented. In It will become so successful that we have to thank the PAP, LKY, LHL and company again. In another 45 years time, the imported foreigners will be the power that be. They will run the country.
Singaporeans will become antiques and a rare species which would require UN protection.
Mark my words, if you can live that long to see it happens.
To Anon 2:23pm:
Singapore has no natural resources, why do you want so many illiterates and uneducateds around for?? When a place has a big population of illiterates and uneducateds, it will give rise to many social problems. Upping the education levels of kids and adults is one solution. Trying to be nostalgic about the past won't help very much.
To Anon 2:23pm:
To keep blaming LKY and LHL in public won't help either as it is not their fault. In fact, they are helping to solve the social problems arising from many factors in a logical way. What has it got to do with the two of them?
would we wake up one day and say, shit, there are too many people in this island. we must stop the population from growing. no one is allow to have babies any more.
redbean commits the Hasty Generalization logical fallacy ( wikipedia entry ) by saying:
> matilah,
why must you always be so crude? <
Always ? Are you sure? Can you make such a sweeping claim without providing any motherfucking evidence?
Oh, I get it. You - i.e. your personal bias - indicates that you judge my use of profanity (my use of "fucking" for instance) as "crude". By doing so youv'e committed one or a few of the Red Herring logical fallacies, or perhaps the Psychologist's fallacy. Take your pick.
Just to recap: in the vernacular the word "fuck" has a myriad of meanings. It is important to use the word and it's derivatives to convey the intended meaning and framed in the intended context.
In my post, the word "fuck" or "fucking" was use to connote sexual union, which results in fertilization and consequently the birth of new human beings. Over time - repeating the process of fucking - probably preceded and succeded associated activities like cock sucking and pussy eating, for the purposes of increasing the passion in the experience - the gene pool of the original population is mixed up, diversified and thereby strengthened.
The Guys who are logically defined as "motherfuckers" are those males who fuck women, who then get pregnant and pump out babies, making these women "mothers".
For fucks sake redbean, attack my ideas - occasionally you do this well. When you attack speech by trying to impose your standards of "speech norality" on to others, it makes you look like a schoolyard cry-baby, which makes you as a fully grown adult look ridiculous.
matilah, you and your drunken self again. too much toddy is bad, bad, just the way michael jackson said it.
i have got used to the word 'fuck'. so don't be presumptious again. but for goodness sake, don't go around calling people 'chap cheng kia' for fun. this is bad upbringing and uncalled for. if you don't respect others, have a little self respect for yourself.
the only reason to excuse you for saying such things to people whom you don't even know is to pronounced you a DRUNK.
you see how elegantly i scolded you without resorting to a single vulgarity? this is class man.
now i know that you are hopping mad. cool baby, cool.
To Anon 2:23pm:
Having said the above, there is no reason to ill-treat or take advantage of the illiterates and uneducateds.
This is a consolation for those lamenting on the low birth rates of locals in Singapore at the moment. I predict that once the number of educated Singaporeans have reached a critical mass and at an economically sustainable plane, they will be able to afford to have more offsprings to continue the family line, who will continue to be as educated and economically sustainable as their parents, and so on and so forth. Hopefully, the birth rate will go upwards to expand an educated and economically sustainable community. And with such community, many opportunities will open up. This is a positive vision to look forward to in this economic downturn.
anon,3.21PM
Nothing to do with the two LEES?
Then why the hell are they taking all credits for everything under the sun that happens to be GOOD?
Am I so stupid?perhaps I am,hehehe-a little lack of helicopter vision,I suppose
It doesn't matter what skin colour is the master. As long as he takes care of his servant, he's a good master. What's the point of having master of the same race when all he wants to do is screw you into the ground. Personally, I don't think it is better to be ruled by my own kind when life is so hard. I'd rather be ruled by another race when I can have a better life. You may say I have no pride but you can't eat pride.
It doesn't matter what skin colour is the master. As long as he takes care of his servant, he's a good master. What's the point of having master of the same race when all he wants to do is screw you into the ground. Personally, I don't think it is better to be ruled by my own kind when life is so hard. I'd rather be ruled by another race when I can have a better life. You may say I have no pride but you can't eat pride.
hi Ah Tong, welcome to the blog.
what you said is also true. another perspective of being screwed on the wall.
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