No surprise at all for minority races in Singapore — a new survey done up by Channel NewsAsia and the Institute of Policy Studies has found that racism remains a huge problem faced by them.
Two-thirds of the minority respondents (Malays and Indians) in their survey expressed that they experienced differential treatment, with race as the basis of such treatment. More than half of them agreed with statements such as “people have acted as if they are better than you”.
More uncomfortable truths include the fact that nearly half of the Malay respondents who admitted to experiencing differential treatment said that they perceived this difference was due to religion, income or education. Among Indians, 62 percent said they were treated differently due to their skin colour.
60 percent of all the people surveyed had also heard racist comments (either directed at them or others), with the bulk of them made by friends or workplace colleagues. Even sadder — 65 percent who faced such comments would prefer to avoid confrontation and ignore them.
Though many minority respondents attributed negative experiences to race, only 30 percent felt they had actually been racially discriminated against. “This could be because the notion of ‘racial discrimination’ connotes a much more negative experience which surpasses the types of differential treatment they perceived,” said IPS senior research fellow Dr Mathew Mathews.
The illuminating survey conducted between June and July this year polled 2,000 Singapore citizens and permanent residents aged 21 and above, with the appropriate volume of oversampling to ensure sufficient minority representation. You really should check out the rest of the results on Channel NewsAsia — there are some interesting facets about the current social construct in Singapore like racial preferences for Presidents and Prime Ministers, as well as multiracial interactions.
