“Where were the Farid Khans and the Salleh Maricans in Presidential Election 2011?”
Speaking to his PAP grassroots leaders today (Sep 29) at the People’s Association, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong charged that Singaporeans are racist when it comes to voting and that Malays feel inferior to Chinese which is why they do not contest in an election with majority Chinese candidates. Quoting a survey conducted by the government university named after his father, Lee Kuan Yew Institute of Public Policy, the dictator claimed that Singaporeans will not vote for a candidate from a different race:
“IPS did a different survey with CNA and asked: ‘Are you okay with a person of a different race being President?’ The answer was: ‘I have to be more careful than having my colleague at the next desk work with me, but it is a bit easier than having a son-in-law or a daughter-in-law’. I think that is an honest answer. We are not completely colour-blind, and this makes a difference. It will influence our thinking and choices, either consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, it is harder for a minority – a Malay or Indian or Eurasian – to win an open election for president, than it is for a Chinese.”
Lee Hsien Loong claimed that it is “reality” that Malays would not contest the election because they feel inferior to Chinese:
“This time we had a reserved election. There were three Malay candidates who came forward, of whom two did not qualify – but they came forward. Then you look the presidential election in 2011. It was hotly contested. A lot of people thought the Government needed to be checked. Was there a Malay candidate? Where were the Farid Khans and the Salleh Maricans? Why didn’t they come? It did not cross their minds? No. So why didn’t they come? Because they knew that in an open election – all things being equal – a non-Chinese candidate would have no chance. So you had Tan Kin Lian, Tan Cheng Bock, and Tan Jee Say. But you did not have a Marican, nor a Khan or any other Malay candidate. It is a reality. We have to know this, we have to manage this.”
The dictator PM continued in his speech claiming Singaporean Chinese are racist and that they have to go to America, Australia and Europe to feel racism:
“These are the realities we have to manage. The Chinese in Singapore may not realise it, because the Chinese are the majority race. They may think that Singapore has “arrived” as a multiracial society. You only get small reminders from time to time, when you go to a different country, and there you encounter racism. If you go to America or Australia or somewhere in Europe, you may know what it feels like to be treated as a minority. The younger ones have only known peace and harmony in Singapore, and it is very easy to believe that race does not matter anymore. But this is not so. ”
You may read the rest of Lee Hsien Loong’s racist speech here.