After The Riot We Must Reflect On Our Clueless Selves

I was watching TV, We Bought A Zoo just ended and I was channel surfing before thinking about going to bed. A Whatsapp message came in "Riot in Little India". My reaction was whattt?! I flipped channels to Channel News Asia, perhaps the only other time I tuned to CNA after the local elections reports that I had done so. Lo and behold, pictures of Indian men whacking a bus, vehicles on fire, people running helter skelter. This can't be right, this is Singapore. But there it was, bedlam in the middle of town. 

I never really used the term "Little India" except to refer to the train station there. It's always been Tekka. I never saw the words "Little India" used so often before last Sunday night. 

Twitter and Facebook bore the brunt of the corresponding Internet frenzy and videos were simultaneously going up on YouTube as we gawked dismayed at the barebone news trickling from the TV. In fact, CNA was used the social media reports for their coverage because it hard to get someone close to the ground. 

The videos were frightening by Singapore standards. Come on, these things are enjoyed on the big screen, not in real life, for us sheltered folks. A mob flipped a police car over. An ambulance sped of. Then a fire engine sped off. The same mob tried to flip another police car. Another car or bus was on fire. An ambulance was set ablaze. Projectiles were being thrown. It was hard to fathom this reality. Video

At about half past midnight I decided to turn in. I hoped no one died. There were unconfirmed news that policemen were seriously hurt. 

Details were clearer the next day. A foreign worker was run over by a bus and his friends turned fiends and wrecked the place. People were likely drunk. It seemed that the police weren't that prepared because it took them a while to quell the violence. 

What was more interesting was the online reaction. There were comments of shock, some of hope, others praising the police and civil defence workers, and some just racist with lots of finger pointing. Then there was reaction to the xenophobia, condemning the shallow and narrow minded points of view. With some expressions of disappointment and outrage. 

It all goes to show some Singaporeans don't quite get the reality of our situation. We need these foreign workers. That's bluntly it. How else are the nice buildings we live and work in going to get built? How else are they going to get cleaned? Singaporeans eagerly shun these low-pay high-risk poor-image jobs. These guys work 12 hour days to make sure Singapore runs like clockwork. There isn't any cause to malign them collectively. The riot was one incident fuelled by rage and alcohol. That's about it. These foreign workers don't deserve a blanket expression of disgust. There are always some black sheep. Every society has them. I bet that the drunk teens on Read Bridge at Clarke Quay could in no time ignite ferocious violence given suitable circumstances.

Another problem some Singaporeans have to defining racism. Some people think that mentioning a race in a negative situation constitutes racist commentary. No it does not. “The Chinese man broke a window”. That isn’t racist right? “The fat Chinese man broke a Malay barber’s window” is also not racist. It is a statement of fact. The action of the Chinese man may have had racist connotations or he just got a really bad haircut but we have no way of knowing that from this statement. Now this is a racist statement - "The yellow pig threw a brick at the lazy brown monkey barber shop." That's is a contribution from a Malay friend. When a race is described in derogatory terms, that's racism. So people were mixing up messages they read. There were of course arseholes who were out to blame Indians and foreign workers for this incident. The Real Singaporean website even published an article which I brand as borderline Nazi. It was extremely offensive but not profane. It would have been easy to be swayed by the arguments there and anyone with some sense who decry it as rubbish and incendiary filth. 

The other elephant in the room is the great divide Singaporeans, especially the youth, have created between themselves and the foreign working class. We are superior because we employ them. We tell them what to do and they do what they are told. We do not mingle, we do not share. We are better than they are because we have money and iPhones and take taxis. Sigh. Our prosperity has made us selfish. Our pride has made us uncaring. Our narrow-mindedness has prevented us from seeing foreign workers as people. There's no need to repeat the reasons why they are here. There are many reasons to talk about how detached we have become from reality, head buried in our mobiles, Facebooking and Candy Crushing. 

If these overseas foreign workers were to disappear now, Singapore would grind to a halt, our rubbish will pile up, our half finished buildings would stay uncompleted, people would not be able to go to work because they'd have to look after their kids, more hospital patients would die because there half our nurses would be gone. We are so reliant on them yet so distant and apathetic. 

A little respect, that's what everyone deserves. 

Violence is inexcusable. And those who were arrested will bear the consequences. 

Our apathy and detachment isn't excusable. We need to embrace overseas foreign workers as part and parcel of our Singapore way of life. 

#littleindiariot