Can you imagine being invited to take part in a dialogue forum by the largest Chinese newspaper and the government's own public outreach organization - and rejecting the opportunity because an Indian minister you don't like was one of the guests too?
And then proceed to both talk about Chinese privilege AND accuse the Indian minister of building a police state in Singapore at the same time?
How does that work, exactly? Is a Chinese newspaper inviting a Malay trying to oppress him? Is Min Shan a face of this Chinese privilege? Is he, representing the smallest of three ethnic groups, somehow serving Chinese overlords and their racist oppression of the minorities? I'd like to see this theory glued together.
I would also love for Alfian Sa'at to give us some examples of other "police states", dominated by any ethnic majority, where public authorities and the largest media invite the very critics of the government to a public dialogue session.
The reason Singapore's "loving critic" rejected the invite is not his disgust at a government official but rather his lack of tolerance for any disagreement with his poorly constructed worldview.
Why do you think he doesn't allow public comments on his wall, instantly bans any detractors and even went as far as to block people who like posts and comment on my page here (and publicized their names too! trying to publicly shame them for daring to read Critical Spectator)?
People like Alfian are never interested in any dialogue - to the point they are actually afraid of it, probably sensing the flimsiness of their views, masking their insecurity by blaming their counterparts without even engaging them (they all do that, just look at each and every one - Cherian, Sudhir etc.).
This behaviour is deeply rooted in another - this time "cultural" - the incarnation of Marxist beliefs, where everything is expressed by a dichotomy between the "oppressed" and the "oppressors".
The struggle between social classes has now been replaced by a conflict between ethnic groups - or, for that matter, any majority vs. any minority that you can conceive.
The most ridiculous thing about it all is that there's nothing in between - you're either privileged or underprivileged. The bad guy or the good guy - based on little else other than your association (sometimes by as little as your birth).
Martin Luther King dreamt of a world where people would be judged by the content of their character, not skin colour - and here we are in 2021 when "progressives" talk about ethnic privilege.
This is by far the biggest problem to social cohesion - particularly in a diverse country like Singapore.
Minorities can do no wrong - and even when they do, it's often framed as the fault of the majority. When you're "privileged", you're responsible for everything. When you're "underprivileged," you're responsible for nothing.
It doesn't take long to realize that it's impossible to build a healthy society on this basis.
When you reject dialogue or debate and lock yourself in an ivory tower, pontificating from it how the evil majority is guilty of everything you can imagine, you add nothing constructive - you're only deepening the divisions.
The Olympics in Tokyo have just ended, and Alfian is revelling in the defeats of PRC's athletes. Now, I'm not necessarily unsympathetic to this (at least when it comes to politics), but one is asking how much it was about the bad, evil China and how much was it about a major Chinese power? (of course, he did rejoice about the "oppressed" Taiwan winning gold in one of the disciplines instead).
Regarding the KTV Covid-19 outbreak saga, he immediately went on to point out how nobody is blaming the predominantly Chinese patrons (or even mention their race), but the media gave coverage to Vietnamese hostesses - and how that is another form of majority "privilege" and minority discrimination.
Somehow the fact that hostesses were working in Singapore illegally and compassionate regulations allowing boyfriends/girlfriends of residents access to the country during the pandemic were abused was not mentioned. The fact that they were foreign was important to highlight that A. they were likely to have been unvaccinated, and B. many of them were not allowed to work in Singapore.
This is what contributed to the severity of the outbreak and was, thus, a critical piece of information, providing context as to how it has grown so quickly.
Alas, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
When you view everything in terms of race, anything you disapprove of becomes racist.
And when you popularize this narrative, you're basically propagating racism against the majority you label as guilty of everything - even if it's just a figment of your imagination.
Everything is upside down in the left-wing world.
People who talk about "diversity" do not care about it when it comes to different opinions or even individual lives. Entire societies are divided into two groups on the basis of arbitrary factors like race, wealth, success or political affiliation.
People who talk about "free speech" and "dialogue" reject participation in it, refuse to engage their critics or go as far as to destroy their careers or lives.
People who lament racial discrimination then proceed to label and divide people... on the basis of nothing else but their race.
