Search the Community

COMMENT Member of Parliament for Tampines group representation constituency Baey Yam Keng recently had to apologise for his comments with regards to Chinese scholar Sun Xu's remarks that "there are more dogs than humans in Singapore." Sun studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His remarks set off a storm of protests among Singaporeans, especially online. Baey added to the controversy when he said in a New Paper report that Singaporeans also "need to reflect" on their own behaviour. The paper reported: "Mr Baey weighed in on the issue during an interview with The New Paper published last Wednesday. He said people should not jump to the conclusion that all foreign students are like Mr Sun and that Singaporeans also 'need to reflect' and ask whether 'we (have behaved) the way they described'." It was like throwing a matchstick into a tinderbox, and Singaporeans turned their anger to Baey. The MP later issued an apology, in Parliament, for his remarks. "I do not think that we can just treat all the negative sentiments towards foreigners as noise," he said. Ng Bin Hong, in a letter to the Today newspaper on 5 March, expressed disappointment at Baey's apology. "Mr Baey, in urging us to examine if our society is walking in a healthy direction, was one of the few voices acknowledging the social problem we face today," Ng said. "His comments did not undermine Singaporeans but, rather, cautioned against discrimination and bigoted behaviour. It is unfortunate that he ultimately apologised because of irrational, populist sentiments." One would suspect that few Singaporeans would agree with Ng, especially given the prevailing sentiments on the issue of foreigners in our midst. Acknowledge sentiments towards foreigners What the government should realise, however, is that such sentiments towards foreigners are real. More importantly, these should be addressed more thoroughly and effectively. And to be fair, the government has tried to do so