'For those who believe, no proof is needed. For those who do not believe, no proof is ever enough.'

---Author unknown.

Prejudice.

Prejudice is thinking all black men take joy in raping people. That people from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the people who work at construction sites, who build our homes, our buildings, steal.

That every worker taking a walk along the same path as you is trying to kidnap you, rob you of your valuables, or somehow follow you back to your house and burgle it.

Today, my parents and I were taking a walk along the streets in our estate after dinner. Two workers were also walking behind us. After some time, my father commented that perhaps they were surveying the houses to see which one was the easiest to break into.

I haven't a clue as to how he could come up with a notion like that. Well, perhaps workers are infamous for breaking the law, but that doesn't mean every one is them is bad! That doesn't mean every one of them who walks around your estate is rotten to the core!

In Singapore, the Government is constantly preaching about racial harmony, about treating the members of each race with equal terms. How is this ever going to be possible if people like my parents are constantly thinking every Indian who takes a walk is looking for a chance to free someone of his valuable assets?

Every time, and I'm not proud to admit this, every time my parents see someone in a tudung, they begin to, rather matter-of-factly, denounce Malaysia.

Yeah, I would love to see the state of Singapore in a war, when everyone, whether you are Malay, Muslim or Chinese, has to participate and work together.

I wonder if this feat is even possible!

It's odd, maybe I just haven't seen any Indians 'in action' yet, but, we had a minor argument over the possible goals of them. I discovered that my parents were set in the thought that they were looking to burgle a house or kidnap someone. Maybe their countrymen have done so in the past, but I wish my parents didn't have to be so dead-set in their thinking; even before they see these two Indians in action. It is as if they need a permit to walk along the same road!

Imagine if every Chinese Singaporean believed that every Muslim woman who wore a tudung was protesting against the Government's decisions, what racial harmony would there be then?

I have the oddest feeling that most Singaporeans do think like that. In a recent poll conducted, only a few people had Malay friends, about less than ten, I believe. A wonderful world we live in, isn't it?

We do have racial harmony, just that, we don't make an effort to greet members of the other races, or even get to know them. It is as if we live in separate compounds; the Chinese on one side, the Malays and Indians on the other.

I shudder to think of the state that this country will be in if war ever broke out.

last - next