On his own Facebook page, your comrade and the honourable Member of Parliament, Seng Han Thong has reportedly said: “The staff are not trained for this emergency preparedness, they know how to prevent terrorist but even this one, they are not prepared so they follow a very strict kind of SOP, so they have to be flexible, and especially to deal with different kind of emergency whether it is terrorist attack or internal, system flaw. They are not ready. I notice that the PR mention that, some of the staff, because they are Malay, they are Indian, they can’t converse in English good, well enough, so that also deters them, from but I think we accept broken English.” (emphasis mine)
I am reminded of the time when another comrade of your political party, the dishonoured Choo Wee Kiang, abused the privileges of his august office to make similar remarks in Parliament.
Your party leaders at that time were happy to be indulgent and to condone such insensitivity, which strikes at the fabric of what it means to be Singaporean. Choo remained in office, and went on to be a criminal.
Seng has suggested that his comments “were mis-interpreted”. I am not sure how. Whatever way you construe it, his remarks are downright racist.
I still take the MRT. The lack of communication skills is an observation that cannot be limited to particular races within the workforce.
Seng is a highly-ranked member of the labour movement. I am concerned that his remarks will have an adverse effect on the inclusive work policies of a listed company like SMRT.
Seng should resign from his position in Parliament and the labour movement, notwithstanding his constructive contributions to date. These should be no places for harbouring a racist.
I hope, as my Member of Parliament, you will stand up and make this request, rather than follow the example of your predecessors to tolerate such insensitive leaders.
Happiness,
Dharmendra Yadav
Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this? Feel free to react below or leave a comment.
9 comments:
My New Year wish: SHT should step down.
Are you for real?
"the PR mention that, some of the staff, because they are Malay, they are Indian, they can’t converse in English good, well enough, so that also deters them, from but I think we accept broken English.”
He was merely quoting what the SMRT PR allegedly said.
I am surprised that you cannot distinguish a remark made by him or in this case a quotation, politically incorrect to quote(would concur).
Further, the context if you were to hear the whole video as per Cherian George, you would have seen that he was highlighting the faults of SMRT SOP itself.
Frankly, hope that the headlines can be corrected.
Firstly, it is yet to be verified that SMRT made such remarks.
Secondly, even having claimed so, he neither came out to say he finds it racist and disagrees with it nor apologised for his dire imbecility in giving such racist views the benefit of whatever little credence he has left.
Thirdly, it took an uproar to bring him to his senses, and I am given to understand he will be offering his apologies unreservedly.
Finally, I still think Parliament and NTUC should not be conduits of racism, and leaders like him should resign when incidents like this occur.
well written and agreed to his resignation , i seen the video of him dealing with the press, he should be very very tactful, the way he said and handle the interview i was surprise that he was headhunted by the ruling party for the job????
First, SMRT vice president Goh Chee Kong had claimed that he had not highlighted any particular race in his remarks. SMRT had sent an email to The Online Citizen.
see link - http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/12/mp-seng-han-thong-malay-indian-english-inefficiency/
In the same website, TOC had also published Seng Han Thong's apology made in his Facebook. In SHT's apology, he mentioned that he comes from a Chinese -educated background.
Judging his comments on BlogTV and the subsequent apology in his Facebook, it appeared to me that someone had made the apology for him because the style and standard of English used is not consistent with the remarks spoken on BlogTV.
Anyway, in his Facebook, he received more attacks than sympathies for his remarks and subsequent apology.
Please also visit another blog, Feed Me To The Fish, for his comments on Seng Han Thong - http://feedmetothefish.blogspot.com/2011/12/why-sometimes-i-feel-bad-being-born-and.html to confirm and verify my references.
This is the comment that SHT was referring to when he said that it came from SMRT. The spokesman did not single out any particular race.
SMRT’s Senior Vice President for Communication and Services Goh Chee Kong. This was broadcast over the radio:
“What we’re mindful of is that our people, our staff at the stations and in the trains may not be making sufficient announcements and also good enough announcements. And that’s because our staff of different races, it could be Malay, Chinese, or Indians or any other race, they sometimes find it difficult to speak in English. However we’ve encouraged them to make the announcements and not to worry about that...................”
Please check your sources carefully. SMRT specifically mentioned "Malays", "Indians", "Chinese" in the said statement with an amorphous "other races" at the end. Why did SMRT do that?
Is there anything wrong with Malays, Indians, Chinese and some vague unknown "other races"? Are there some other race here in Singapore with superior command of English?
Seng indeed was quoting from SMRT. He was careless to make an incomplete disjointed quote. It was probably the result of nerves too. Anyone watching the telecast can tell you that he seems nervous and uncomfortable on live tv.
Obviously, Seng isn't a racist. He was just too nervous and uncomfortable. This is a stupid non-incident milked for its political agenda.
There are other real hardcore racists out there. Do you see anyone hitting at them big time like this? Does TOC single out the real racist out there? Hypocrite is the word.
Please check your sources carefully. SMRT specifically mentioned "Malays", "Indians", "Chinese" in the said statement with an amorphous "other races" at the end. Why did SMRT do that?
Is there anything wrong with Malays, Indians, Chinese and some vague unknown "other races"? Are there some other race here in Singapore with superior command of English?
Seng indeed was quoting from SMRT. He was careless to make an incomplete disjointed quote. It was probably the result of nerves too. Anyone watching the telecast can tell you that he seems nervous and uncomfortable on live tv.
Obviously, Seng isn't a racist. He was just too nervous and uncomfortable. This is a stupid non-incident milked for its political agenda.
There are other real hardcore racists out there. Do you see anyone hitting at them big time like this? Does TOC single out the real racist out there? Hypocrite is the word.
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