Limpeh on the series of letters between Singaporeans and expatriates

Okay there has been a series of letters between Singaporeans and an expatriate on TRS and I want to offer my unique perspective as the guy who spent the first half of my life as Ah Beng from Ang Mo Kio and the second half of my life in Europe. Thus I can see both sides of the equation, understanding the both the frustration of the Singaporeans with the influx of the foreigners in their country and also the indignation of the expatriates who are faced with racist and xenophobic Singaporeans. Let's start with the first letter from Junjie in Serangoon North.

Junjie, stop being such a whiny pathetic wimp. You're clearly not an Ah Beng like Limpeh. In Ang Mo Kio where I grew up, it doesn't matter if you're Chinese, Malay, Angmoh or Indian, if you behaved in a rude manner towards us Ang Mo Kio Ah Bengs, we would give you an earful in Hokkien, Mandarin and Singlish on the spot. It was just a couple of kids Junjie, get real. If you were really that pissed off with their behaviour, then speak up like a man and tell them off. Are you afraid of a bunch of kids? For fuck's sake, are you a man or a mouse? Have you got a set of balls you loser?

Spotted any French people here recently?

If I was in your position, I would have two choices - I could either dismiss them as being silly kids and ignore them or I could stand up, raise my voice and told them off. There isn't a third option of fuming silently and suffering in silence and then being a whiny bitch online - for crying out aloud, what good would whining online achieve? All you will get is a bunch of other racist and xenophobic Singaporeans agree with you and post some equally dumbass racist and xenophobic comments - but would that make you feel better? I doubt it - you had the chance to deal with those rude kids there and then, but no, you didn't. That's your fault and I hope you will learn from this mistake - next time, grow a pair of balls and find your voice.

Singapore is one of the world's most vibrant, exciting and cosmopolitan cities with 5.3 million people - it is not some small isolated kampong in the middle of rural Johor where the local kopitiam will remain unchanged for decades and you will never meet foreigners or expatriates who will come into your local hangouts. Such is the nature of living in Singapore, what were you expecting? Maybe you're not that well traveled and not used to meeting people from other cultures or countries - but it's really no big deal to meet people from other cultures. You don't have to like them but then again, why do you act as if your little world should be protected from change? Open your eyes Junjie - it's a big, fascinating world out there on planet earth, you should venture out more. Go travelling, leave Serangoon North and get out of your comfort zone. You may actually like it.

There is a world outside Serangoon North you know...

I have lived in France as a student and have worked for a French company. I am fluent in French of course and have made a genuine effort to assimilate when I lived in France.  A mon avis, the French are hospitable and friendly, they welcomed me with opened arms as the guy from Singapore who has made an effort to master their language. I am appalled at the racist way Singaporeans just assume so many horrible things about the French people - many such Singaporeans have never ever met a real French person before, but have only gleamed second-hand hearsay from people like Junjie, they form their impression of the French based on selective pieces of evidence that only serve to reinforce long-held racist views about the French. Are there rude people in France? Sure there are, but they are no more rude than the Singaporeans who are certainly not polite, hell no.

Singaporeans can be shockingly rude - but never mind that, they can scarily xenophobic and racist towards anyone from white expats to the Bangladeshis to the Filipinos to the Indians. Chinese Singaporeans are the worst offenders of the lot and are ironically blissfully aware of just how racist they can be towards foreigners and somehow, that doesn't make them rude as long as they are reasonably nice to their fellow Chinese Singaporeans? Oh the irony. You can't be xenophobic and claim to be polite at the same time - hell no. You can't have your cake and eat it (I prefer the French version of that phrase which translates to 'you can't have butter and the money for the butter'.)

And Junjie, if you're not happy with the 'invasion of the Caucasians' who do you think opened the floodgates in the first place? If you're seiously buay song, then blame the PAP, they let in all these FTs in the first place. Blame them. Don't become xenophobic and racist - because firstly, that's morally wrong and secondly, you're treating these French kids as the scapegoats of a much bigger problem caused by the PAP. You are being very shortsighted by looking at the symptom of the problem rather than the cause of the problem: the fucking PAP. Open your eyes and see the big picture Junjie - who should you ultimately blame for this situation?

Now I move on to the letter written by Brit In Singapore. What can I say, I am appalled and ashamed by the fact that she has encountered so many xenophobic and racist rants by idiotic Singaporeans who are blaming the foreigners rather than the PAP for the problem. When will these stupid Singaporeans finally wake the fuck up and realize that the PAP are to be blamed for all these problems? Seriously, sometimes I can only smirk and say, "well these Singaporeans got exactly what they voted for, what are they complaining about?"  Duh. If you didn't want the influx of foreigners, then why the fuck did 60.14% of you vote for the PAP? I thought at least 60.14% of you loved the idea of being this cosmopolitan, international city full of foreigners, as per the PAP's grand design. Double duh.

I also agree with this Brit that it is ridiculous to single out white people as rude - when really, the rudest people in Singapore are undoubtedly the PRCs. But then again, having worked in China with a large number of PRCs, I have also found that to be a rather unfair assumption because even in China, there are a range of people - some extremely pleasant and polite, some downright rude and everything in between. By that token, that makes China no different from France, America, Singapore or any other country. Anyone who assumes that Singaporeans are polite haven't seen the worst of Singaporeans in the army - come on you Singaporean men, I ask you to cast your mind back to your NS days and tell me how polite the people were then.

There is one thing I would like to point out to this Brit in Singapore though - expatriates in Singapore tend to assimilate very poorly. I am sure there are exceptions, but how many white expatriates in Singapore actually make any attempt to learn conversational Mandarin or Malay? Oh I know most Singaporeans speak English reasonably well, but assimilating means a lot more than going to a hawker centre and knowing the difference between char kway teow and fried hokkien mee. It doesn't mean going native and trying to be Singaporean but the litmus test is to develop a very keen understanding of local cultures and language to the point where you can easily blend in - not as guests dependent on the hospitality of the locals, but someone the locals wouldn't hesitate to embrace as one of their own. Check out this American dude Tyler - talk about assimilating eh?

Any kind of integration is pretty much a two way process, once you show an active effort to assimilate (for example, by speaking Mandarin when ordering your food at a hawker centre), then the local is more than likely to reciprocate with friendliness to reward you for that effort. The harder you try, the more friendly the locals will be. The French kids were singled out because they were probably in a group of their own, with this siege mentality - us vs them (or should I say nous contre eux) and that was why they were sending out all the wrong vibes. I see the same thing happen in the UK as well where so many Singaporean/ Malaysian/ Chinese foreign students stick in their little Asian cliques and barely make any white friends through their time at university - it's wrong in both cases.

I have recently talked about the time I worked in Turkey and I speak some Turkish (it's extremely rusty now, since I have no one to practice it with in London), but I always, always spoke Turkish when I was in Turkey - it was only when I got really desperate and I would apologize for being a foreigner who has yet to master Turkish and ask to speak Ingilizce instead. The locals loved the fact that I was so obviously a foreigner but was trying so hard to learn and speak their language rather than defaulting to English (which many younger, well educated Turks do speak very well). How many British expats in Singapore have made any effort to speak Chinese or Malay in Singapore? I think the expatriate community in Singapore can try a lot harder. I have learnt languages as diverse as Arabic, Russian, Turkish, Czech, Slovakian, Dutch, Greek and German to help me integrate and assimilate when working abroad - I never became truly fluent in any of these languages but was always handsomely rewarded for trying very hard.

Limpeh in Istanbul.

Now let's move on to the next article by A Simple Singaporean. Let's deal with the incident in London when you were standing on the wrong side of the escalator. I would tell you off if you were standing on the wrong side. There are clear signs around those escalators informing passengers to stand to the right to allow those who are in a hurry to walk on the left. Granted if you were a tourist, you may not have noticed or read all the signs along the way - but still, I would always tell someone who was clearly a visitor unfamiliar with the local culture to stand to the right. I wouldn't go as far as to 'scold' them, but I would be firm and I would not go into a long speech. I'd probably just say, "stand to the right, you're blocking the way for others." I would of course point out the signs to them - so it's not some unwritten code only known to the locals, the signs are everywhere. (See the photo below.)

That's just me, unlike Junjie, I actually know how to speak up and deal with a situation there and then and hopefully get it resolved. Perhaps that's a British thing, to be bold enough to speak up rather than suffer in silence like Junjie (who is intimidated by a bunch of kids? LMFAO.) It's a different culture - we deal with the situation on the spot, get it over and done with, then move on. I do take serious issue with the way she suggested, "As a Foreigner in this foreign land, I am sorry on behalf of their misbehaviour attitudes ... and cautioning other Foreigners to behave appropriately with much consideration etc. to the locals" ?

OMFG. WTF. Seriously, what the fuck? Listen, this British expatriate who wrote the letter is only accountable for her own actions, she isn't responsible for the actions of that bunch of French students or any of the other foreigners in Singapore. I am currently living in London and I see so many PRCs in London behaving so badly in public. Yes I feel ashamed when I see Chinese people behaving like that because I am ultimately Singaporean-Chinese (a few generations removed from China via Malaysia and Singapore but still Chinese nonetheless, well mostly anyway). But why should I feel the need to apologize on their behalf?

Should we ever apologize 'on behalf' of someone else we don't even know?

Now put yourselves in my shoes for a moment, imagine you're on a train in England and a bunch of PRC students are loud, obnoxious and cause such a nuisance. When they finally get off the train, a white person turns to you and say to you, "hey you, yes you there. Miss, as a foreigner in my country, you should apologize on behalf of their misbehaviour and attitude. You should have cautioned them to behave appropriate with much more consideration to the others on the train. Why didn't you do anything? You're Chinese like them, aren't you?"

I bet you would turn to this white person and say, "Huh? I don't even know that group of Chinese students! Why are you picking on me just because I am Chinese? I have never seen them before I got on this train, how can you hold me responsible for their behaviour? And even if I did apologize to you for what they did, why would that apology mean anything when it wasn't me who disturbed you? It was them, not me! Why are you treating me like a scapegoat just because some other Chinese people behaved badly? Why are you picking on me?"

What is sauce for the goose...

So why are you asking this British expatriate to apologize on behalf of those French kids? Get real, even if you bullied her into apologizing, that apology is meaningless as she wasn't part of that group of French kids who behaved in a rude manner. If you really want an apology, then go contact the principal at the French school in Serangoon North. Limpeh has found their address and contact details just for you:

Lycée Français de Singapour © - 3000 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, Singapore 569928
Tel : (65) 6488 1160 - Fax : (65) 6487 2821 - Email : administration@lfs.edu.sg
Principal: Patrick Sucur
Deputy Principal: Cyril Oucham
CEO: Sophie Jancourt

Get in touch with the school and make a formal complaint about the behaviour of their students if you are really that buay song with those French students. Go on, I have just given you all the details of the right people to complain to if you have the balls to make a complaint - why are you picking on some random British expatriate and demanding an apology from someone who wasn't even involved in the incident that happened in Serangoon North? Be reasonable!

Get in touch with LFS and tell them how you feel, go on.

This British expatriate has the right to get defensive the same way Junjie has the right to speak up, everyone has the right to speak up and express themselves. I am speaking up the same way you spoke up - let's all speak up and have a conversation. What truly pisses me off is the way Singaporeans think that foreign expatriates have no right to say anything or to respond to a letter like the one Junjie has written - WTF? Anyone and everyone has the right to speak up in the name of free speech - if they are unreasonable or misleading, then others will respond and attack them for having the audacity to write something so stupid and putting it out there in blogosphere.

Yes a guest should be humble and make an effort to assimilate, I have said that and I have always done that in the many countries where I have worked. But the locals also have got to allow them to speak up and express themselves - it is unreasonable and ludicrous to expect the expatriates just sit back and let the locals insult them like that. You should be grateful that this British expatriate has made an effort to reach out to Singaporeans by offering her point of view - I can imagine many expatriates who would simply read something like that, shrug their shoulders and ignore it. At least this expatriate has made an effort to reach out to you guys and you respond like that? That's a very immature and childish respond but having had a look at the way Singaporeans behave on forums like EDMW and AsiaOne, I have seen far worse responses - at least this wasn't downright racist. It sounds like A Simple Singaporean was asking this expatriate to 'shut up and sit down' rather than trying to engage her. Hmmm, does that sound familiar?

I am posting this on the 8th June - the day of #FreeMyInternet. Today should be all about the freedom of speech, the freedom of us to claim cyberspace as our own and not a place where we should be told where to 'read the right thing'. This whole letters episode just leaves me deeply disappointed in Singaporeans not just because they are xenophobic and racist - but because they just don't freaking get it. No where in any of these letters were the words PAP mentioned - who do you think opened the doors to let in all these FTs in the first place? Why are you unable to see the big picture and realize what the root cause of the problems are? The problem is not with the foreigners in Singapore - they are but a symptom of the problem. The problem lies with the PAP and the 60.14% of Singaporean voters who voted for the PAP. So the enemy is not foreign, but they are as local as they come. It is time you Singaporeans woke up and stopped using foreigners as scapegoats. Look at the big picture people, open your eyes.

Do let me know how the #FreeMyInternet event goes, leave a message below if you have been there. You may like what I say, you may disagree with me, you may even hate me - but my door is always open for engagement and feel free to speak to me and let me know what you think. Cheers and thanks for reading everyone!