Blown Out of Proportion

We have all read about Amy Cheong saga over her 'racist' remarks about void deck weddings, that are, incidentally, synonymous with one of Singapore's major races' tradition. 

In brief, she had written two posts about void deck weddings on her personal Facebook and peppered one of them with the 'F' word, supposedly to demonstrate her exasperation at the noise generated by a wedding near her house or flat. A police report was lodged against her by a member of public and she was fired from her assistant director post with immediate effect within less than 24 hours after her last post went up. She posted it on Sunday evening, by 12 noon the next day, her service was terminated and her post was advertised on her ex-employer's website in the afternoon just a day after the Facebook post went up.

I honestly feel that things were blown out of proportion.

I seriously don't think that she had maliciously meant for her remarks to be 'racist'. It was just a demonstration of frustration about what she could not stop. Don't we complain about the ge-tai and auction noise during the Lunar Seventh Month too? Why isn't there anyone who lodge a police report about people who speak out against 'Chinese noise'? To get fired just because she had posted her feelings about some noise - that to me seems really narrow-minded. Wouldn't counselling do fine? I am aware that she had made reference to the particular race's wedding practice and dissed them for spending 'only $50' on a wedding and suggested that divorce rate is high because of such, but that was said in a moment of angst. To say that she was at risk of creating social unrest or divide or racial disharmony is over the board.

Furthermore, the posts were done on her personal Facebook. I wonder who she had added to land her in such trouble.

I think it would be naive to think that Singapore is racism-free. We have to admit that there are underlying currents of racism - from race to race. Even within our own race, we discriminate different dialect groups mentally, but that doesn't mean we are unkind to one another. Isn't that what tolerance is all about?

Perhaps she should have kept her thoughts to herself, but losing her job and getting lambasted publicly, with her picture splashed all over the internet, is too severe a punishment.

I am not sure if it shows that we are too uptight a people. It reminds me of the time an expat friend asked me why the locals looked at him with a weird look while other foreigners could chuckle at his joke. I told him,"Next time, end your joke with 'Just kidding' so that the locals know that you are just joking."

Honestly, even typing this post makes me feel apprehensive. Would it result in a public backlash at me just because I hold different, 'weird' opinion about the matter? Perhaps it's precisely I know my opinions are 'weird' that I prefer my thoughts to be kept in an attic.