Let them have their day

To be in all honesty, I have some bad experiences with Filipinos in my workplace.
The same apply to Indian nationals, Chinese from China, Malaysians and Singaporeans.

So, I will not be quick and brand all Filipinos as bad people or scums of the earth. I believe that there are scums on earth no matter where you are, which is why no country is without Police and jails.

Now, neither am I entirely against the idea of having the Filipinos celebrating their independence day in Ngee Ann City, but I do appreciate that they could have been less creative in the use of the Singapore skyline and that if they can use Embassy ground to have it done.

While some of my detractors can say that we celebrate Singapore days in other country, let me clear this up by stating that, no, they are not celebrated on National day. And if you must know, Bastile Day is celebrated in the French residence in Singapore and the Independence day are celebrated in Singapore American School.

I guess what is eating at Singaporeans or rather, those who are vocal against it are not so much a feeling of Xenophobia or bigotry. To put it in a simpler term, there is a feeling that the city is under siege and that there are no longer anybody except them to defend it, if not to the bitter end.

I do not, for once, condone the name calling and that calling the organisers vermin is not helping the cause. But one must looking beyond the name calling to understand where this siege mentality comes from.

To look back, we recently saw us up in spade to have 2 foreign vessels named after armed personnel in the acts of terrorism set up and bombed Mcdonald house, which is somewhere along the shopping belt, far away any military installation. In olden days, that is called asymmetrical warfare, to quote some american, that is an act of terrorism in modern context. and after all the posturing, our minister of defence decided to take the apologies which was later being retracted as it was allegedly taken out of context, at face value.

Coming back to where we are, we are seeing spades of advertisement, first from STB, which was being pulled off air after criticism, and after which, another from Singtel which seems to be pandering to a certain demographics, and with the recent act, seems to have up the ante.

And this is the time, where people would have look to the leaders for leadership, and the leaders; chided the people and brushed away the concern, shaming those who raised the concern.

And if this does not put one into a state of Siege mentality, I am not sure what will.