While Beow Tan and Tan Boon Lee might be in the public zeitgeist for the moment, many may not remember that Singapore’s current bout of weird racism crap started last year, with Siti Ai’sha.
September 3 2020 to be exact.
On that day, a racist incident flared up when a Malay woman berated and hurled racial slurs at an Indian lady on bus service 183.
According to reports, the victim was apparently minding her own business, listening to music when the Malay lady started on her tirade. The Malay woman, Siti Ai’sha, allegedly started to stare and point and talk loudly at the Indian woman.
Apparently, Siti Ai’sha wasn’t having a seizure but was actually cussing the Indian lady out for being…well, Indian.
Thankfully, while there were no other witnesses (the bus was empty save for the two and the driver up front), the Indian lady (who is weirdly unnamed in the reports) managed to record bits and pieces of Siti Ai’sha and her gonzo tirade.
It was enough to land Ai’sha an all expense-paid vacation at Changi Prison.
When Netizens heard about Ai’sha’s sentence, reactions were on par of what’s expected…with a few surprises.
Most however, agree with the sentencing. Hell, they’re even arguing that the punishment should’ve been harsher.
4 weeks is a bit too lenient, they argue.
I have to say, I kind of agree with them. If this is the benchmark for future racist punishment, a month is nowhere near enough for rehabilitation.
Come on, racism is going against one of the fundamentals of our society. That alone deserves at least a year in prison, plus a couple of strokes of the cane for good measure.
But I digress…
There’s actually somebody out there who thinks this is racially motivated and unfair.
According to Ilhami Marlia, Siti Ai’sha’s name is revealed only because she’s a Malay.
Holy crap, it takes a special kind of delusion to build that fantasy for yourself and then be brave enough to air your thoughts out on social media!
Dear Ilhami, how then do we know the names of Beow Tan and Tan Boon Lee? Are they Malay too?
Thank God that Illhami isn’t representative of Singaporean Malay Netizens. Most of the Malays online support the punishment meted out.
It’s not surprising in the least.
Malays, like all other races in Singapore, are as law abiding as anybody else. Doesn’t matter if you’re a Malay and you do stupid shit like this. The community will not put up with it.
Other races too are happy with the verdict.
That’s a given though.
Nobody should tolerate racism in any shape or form. While expected, it’s still heartening to see that support for punishing racists is still strong among Singaporeans.
Some though, choose to wonder whether there were contributing factors to Siti Ai’sha’s antics.
They give a ton of reasons for why she might have acted that way.
While racism is inexcusable, finding the root of the issue should also be given some thought. After all, if some factors are contributing to her issues, wouldn’t it be good to address them?
From that line of thinking, Netizens are wondering whether Siti is mentally unsound.
Or rather, why she wasn’t sent to IMH for evaluation first before sentencing?
It is a valid question.
Nowhere in the reports from the media does it say that Siti’s mental condition has been evaluated by the people at the Institute of Mental Health. Conversely, other racists charged (such as Beow Tan) have been referred to them already.
Some have pointed out that it doesn’t need to be said out loud, it’s part of Singapore’s judicial process to send cases like this to IMH for evaluation as it’s a matter of procedure.
Since there’s no definitive answer (and I’m no lawyer), many are scratching their noggins over this point.
There’s also another question that’s at the top of the charts; when will it be Beow Tan and Tan Boon Lee’s turns?
With the public’s appetite for justice whetted, it doesn’t take much for them to turn to the more prominent racists in our midst.
Unfortunately, their court dates are still quite a ways off (and sentencing even more so), so it looks like everybody’s going to need to wait a few more months. Hopefully we’ll get a satisfying result in those cases.
Now, while the public is focused on Siti and her act of racism, another closet racist has made himself known.
I present to you, Jason Kim.
Just one look at his profile and you can tell, Jason is an asshole.
He’s proud to be a CHINESE Singaporean. The fact that he needs to highlight he’s Chinese is a clue to his racist tendencies. Have you EVER heard of anybody referring themselves as <insert race here> Singaporean?
Hell no.
The real Singaporeans refer to ourselves ONLY as Singaporeans. That’s all that’s needed to show your loyalty as a Singaporean because race only matters to racists!
So now that we’ve established Jason is a racist, did you also know he’s an unapologetic PRC suck up?
I bet you this, if Jason is not a plant and/or fake account, he’s got to have a Winnie the Pooh shrine in his closet, right beside a pristine, signed copy of Mao’s little red book.
His posts (what little there are) are exactly like what you’d expect. The highlights being stupid propaganda glorifying the PRC…
…and a tabloid post regarding Malaysian Malays.
I wonder…why is he claiming to be a proud Chinese Singaporean yet obviously in love with China?
Obviously because he’s a Chinese racist.
A stupid one at that.
Here’s proof of him trying to troll with his racist views but getting his ass handed to him.
In one of his many, many, many inept attempts to incite a flame war (and more), he got hit by a burn so bad that it shut him up. He never returned to reply to Rafizah’s awesome reply. Probably because he was too busy kowtowing to his PRC handlers.
Rafizah AR, I salute you!
Oh, you want more proof that Jason’s an idiot asshole AND a racist?
Here you go.
This isn’t just from one Facebook post, but multiple different pages. He literally went to each and tried his luck.
To our local Netizens’ credit, each and every time Jason reared his slimy head, he got shutdown as NOBODY was willing to engage his insightful discourse.
Somebody should really report him to the police though; he’s just as racist as Beow Tan, Tan Boon Lee and Siti Ai’sha.
In fact, people, scum like Jason is a prime reason why I’ve argued that Internet anonymity has got to go.
Oh yeah, in the course of looking through hundreds of comments for this article, I also found this gem.
Harassment? Online stalking?
Perhaps we’ll see Edwin in a court case soon too!