If you go to TRE, there are plenty of postings claiming that our S’porean Tamils are being oppressed and bullied by FT Indians who claim that they are higher caste than our true-blue S’porean Tamils:expecting them to look up to and respect the FTs. I don’t know the truth of these allegations (as there is plenty of “noise’ and wind on TRE*). And it is a fact (not a Hard Truth) that most of the Indian FTs who come to work in the IT industry are ethnic Tamils.
The number of non-Tamil, “whiter”** Indians are “peanuts”.
But before we dismiss these comments as xenophobic comments:
– There was a Nepalese lady who joined SPH in the early noughties. She went to a senior SPH editor (Tamil Indian by origin) and said to him, “I’m a high caste Brahmin. What caste are you?” And this guy was more senior than her! Everyone in the newsroom was stunned because caste had never ever been an issue.
– Caste discrimination is to be outlawed in the UK, Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced in what is a U-turn on previous government policy.
Campaigners had said legislation was needed because thousands of people suffered abuse and prejudice because they were considered low caste.
They said existing laws offered no protection and said caste divided society unfairly, with those at the bottom expected to do dirty, poorly paid work while also being expected to – and forced to – look up to and respect higher castes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22267147
“Caste discrimination has been going on for decades (in Britain). What we have found is that it has actually increased over the last decade or so because of social media and people have gone back to their previous caste identities.”
So it does exist in the UK, a very liberal society. What are the odds of it happening here where there is a wide spread perception among locals and FTs that the govt prefers FTs to locals?
When true blue Singaporeans complained (and produced evidence) that they were being discriminated by employers who wanted FTs, the govt treated these complaints as “noise”. Well post 2011 elections, things are different. Recently MoM Tan has implicitly admitted that there is problem when he said MoM had taken action against such employers. And PM just on May Day said that, companies must have a S’porean core. Would he have said if he didn’t accept that there are employers who discriminate against locals, preferring FTs?
Hopefully our govt will be more pro-active and vigilant in combating caste discrimination should there be evidence of it here. The issue of job discrimination against locals was allowed to fester because the govt behaved like blind and deaf frogs. It only got real after losing votes for itself and Tony Tan in 2011.
For the sake of social harmony (and the self-interest of the PAP), let’s hope the govt is alert to the possibility and evidence of caste discrimination.
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*My pieces get republished there.
**My Tamil and Indian Muslim friends tell me that the “whiter” ethnic Indians are usually high caste. The darker one is, is usually taken as a mark of coming from a lower caste.
Cynical Investor
[Source]: Thoughts of a Cynical Investor (http://atans1.wordpress.com).