It doesn’t matter if you’re Malay, Chinese, Indian, Eurasian or if you subscribe to religion or not — we all know the importance of respecting the deceased.
In a touching moment of virtue in Pasir Ris, Maidin Packer related a scene that could only be seen in Singapore — a Chinese funeral procession passing by a Malay wedding held at an HDB void deck. The celebrations were put on hold for a while, as wedding guests stood alongside the street to pay their respects to the van that was transporting the deceased in an unspoken collective agreement of deference.
Though Maidin may have been a wee bit dramatic about the whole thing (“CLEARLY, WE HAVE GROWN TO RESPECT EACH OTHER,” he wrote), it actually speaks more to common courtesy rather than evidence that racial harmony is achieved. Why would anyone continue to revel loudly while others are grieving for the dead? That’s just plain disrespectful. It’s not the first time this happened, really:
