I've just read Singapore Straits Time Online and I found out that 3 bloggers have been nabbed because of being racist. That's crude. If you're telling me that I should watch out what I'm blogging here, be damn. How can the government interfere with someone's personal thoughts and rants? They even have the cheek to read blogs and nab the writers. Already in Singapore we have limited access to voice out our opinion. We even have to apply for a license just to hold a strike/rally/demonstration on the street. Isn't that dumb?

Now back to the topic. Being a racist is almost part and parcel of life even here in Dubai. Almost everyone of us has the instinct of being a racist no matter who you are unless you're a Saint, Pope or the Dalai Lama. Living in multi cultural society in Singapore allows us Singaporeans to understand and value the presence of other races. It's great that 4 different races can live in harmony in one small tiny island. But because of our small teeny weenie island, dispute may or could happen almost everyday. Imagine this situation where a Chinese and a Malay family family stay in the same HDB block. Both families has been neighbours for almost 5 years. During festive occasions they visit one another to celebrate. So one fine day the Chinese family found their plants pot located along the corridor broken to pieces. They assume that the children in the Malay family have broken them because the children are always playing along the corridor. So the Chinese family went to confront the Malay family if they have broken the pots. Of cause the Malay family would deny it because it's not their children who have broken them. In truth their pots have been broken by the strong winds. The Chinese family not satisfied with the answer has forbidden their children from mixing around with the family. And from that day onwards the feeling of hatred towards the Malay family evolves. And just from this small problem the Chinese family begins to hate other Malays too. This is just one small isolated case out of thousands.

If you asked any adult Singaporeans if they have the notion of being a racist, most of them would say, "No, I'm not a racist and I think racism is bad... blah blah blah...". That is a major lie. But if you asked primary school kids, most of them would likely to tell the truth that they do have the sentiments of being a racist cause kids don't lie even though how immature they can be...

A Chinese boy may say this about Malay boys, "They always bully us and steal our erasers and pencils"

A Malay boy may say this about Chinese Boys, "They so smelly, never bathe in the morning"

A Chinese boy may also say this about Indian Boys, "They so smelly, smell like curry, apuneh-neh"

I'm sure most of you would have probably made the following remarks when you were in primary school. Racism has been nurtured ever since we are in primary schools and we can't escape from it no matter how we tried.

Infact the Singapore Government themselves has been bias/racist towards certain races. Have you wonder why you don't see any Malays in the Navy or the Air Force. The Government gave excuses like such, " In a case of war between Singapore and Malaysia, the Malays in Singapore probably would not fight because many have relatives in Malaysia and few might be in the Malaysian Arm Forces". I would say that's bull shit, if we have to fight for Singapore, we'll defend it like any other Singaporeans would provided the reason we have war is concrete enough. Don't tell me that the Chinese or the Indians do not have relatives in Malaysia. I can bet my $0.02 that there are more Chinese than Malays who has relatives in Malaysia.

You also can see the marks of racism in the Media. It's just right in front of your eyes but some of you may have not notice it. Few years back in the mid 90s, there was this Speak Mandarin campaign. The reason the Government held this campaign is because the majority of the Chinese can't or refuse to speak/learn Mandarin. Duh... It's like as if the Malays and Indians didn't face such problems. We do have problems where our own races are not keen to learn our own Mother Tongue. But we don't go as far to hold a nationwide campaign saying "Learn Malay or Tamil, it's good for you". And you see advertisements in the newspapers, you will see that some companies will state in bold "CHINESE PREFERED" or "ONLY MALAYS NEED TO APPLY" etc etc; . Ain't that racist too if you only prefer certain races? It's an exception if the company has strong relations dealing with one race like example a food stall selling Bak Kut Teh and they only need Chinese stall helper or an Indian Prata stall that needs only Tamil speaking stall operator.

So I guess. The issue of arresting bloggers who rant about their thoughts is totally unfair and unjustified. Blog space is one of the few places where we can say what we want. Most of the issues we rant happen to us daily and its base of fact. By arresting and eliminating our blogs shows that some people just do not want the truth to be heard. I wish such intimidating action stopped immediately. If there is no such people like us, I'm sure there won't be future Journalists to pen down articles in the newspaper. Journalist and Bloggers are the same bunch. We pen down events, happenings that happened in real life except that Bloggers do not make such big fuss as Journalists do. Bloggers do not report on cases such as "Cat Stuck On Tree" and print it out for the whole nation to see.

As for the issue of being a racist, I wish the Government understands that it's not totally our fault. Part of it has to be blamed on you guys. As the saying goes "You Reap What You Sow"