Seeing increasing incidents of racial discrimination being brought to light lately, the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) have had enough of it all and suggested a possible solution to the issue.
Noting the lack of a publicly available database that tracks such appalling incidents and the reparative actions taken afterwards, AMP called for the formation of a central body to address discriminatory practices. Not just limited to Malay-Muslims too — discriminatory practices carried out by individuals, companies or employers against the minority and foreign communities in Singapore.
The purpose of the central body would be to provide resolution or mediation in such incidents, record and review the occurrence, as well as collect data to be used to develop strategies to reduce or eliminate similar happenings in the future. That’d be an impossible task though — we’ve been putting each other in pigeonholes since the beginning of time
AMP also suggested that in the meantime, the government could enhance the power existing organisations such as the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP), Inter Religious Organisation (IRO) and OnePeople.sg.
“It is critical for the issue of discrimination to be swiftly managed and for preventive strategies to be developed,” AMP wrote. “This will ensure that the racial and religious harmony we have so carefully preserved over the last five decades will not be disrupted, which may otherwise cause long-term concerns for our society.”
Open displays of prejudice and bigotry have been a hot topic in recent months, with the latest major one being PrimaDeli dismissing one of their heads for being an openly prejudiced twit. Before that, there was the incident in which Tampines Mall rejected a request by a Malay businesswoman to set up a fair due to a “mainly Chinese” target audience. The issue of race was also picked up by popular YouTubers MunahHirzi in their latest parody music video.
