Regardless of what kind of business you do or which career path you choose, your race shouldn’t determinate the quality of work your produce. However, according to an article published by Mothership on Thursday (14 March), that is not always the case in Singapore.
The article talks about a Malay entrepreneur named Imran Md Ali who shared his real-life experience of racism in the industry. He said that whenever he fakes his identity and sign off in emails with a non-Malay name, he yields more sales and receives “a profit advantages of 400%”.
In his post, he wrote:
When I started out in my arts business, I was delivering and closing my own art piece sales with offices and homes.
During my emails with a sales prospect, I did a Long term split test.
One would reply with Imran Ali.
One would reply with my pen name, Benjamin.
Over a Long period of time, I’ve ascertained that using the non Malay name yielded more sales.
Probably quadruple or so.
As a serial entrepreneur who runs five businesses like art gallery, tuition centre marketing consultancy, business coaching and more, there’s no doubt in Imran’s credibility and capability. However, he claimed that he “had to work harder than the typical local Chinese”.
God knows how much harder I have to work as a Malay in Singapore to do ok in this training seminar business and other businesses. There’s a LOT of judgement about race. I had to work harder than the typical local Chinese.
I’ve done ok in life. But sometimes I wonder- how are the other Malays faring in life with these prejudgements, and obstacles?
As a word of advice, Imran wrote, “To my Chinese brothers and sisters, keep hustling, and try to adjust our judgements of people based on race. To my Malay brothers and sisters, work HARD and prove yourself to be worthy. Not to others, but to yourself”.
After reading his post, over 70 comments were received with many netizens supporting Imran and said that they’ve experienced similar situation where they have to work a lot harder to prove their capabilities.
However, after Mothership’s article was uploaded on their Facebook page, some netizens opened a new can of worms.
A Facebook user called out Mothership for sharing Imran’s story. He noted that Imran has a bad reputation in the industry.
He shared an article by Redwire Singapore that explained how an individual spent S$5600 in Internet Marketing courses conducted by presumably Imran, based on the comment section of the article.
The writer of the article warned, “Be careful of these overhyped seminars full of promises and claims and boast how easy it is to make money. I should have left my wallet at home like a friend advised me. But it’s a lesson learnt that I will never forget. All in all, I wasted my time and money.”
Besides Chow, other netizens also questioned Imran’s credibility. They all wondered if he is a legit business coach or just another scammer.
In fact, a quick Google search also showed that Imran’s name appeared even on a Hardwarezone post which claimed that he is a scammer. Other netizens also revealed that he had to use another name because everyone knows the “real” him in the industry.
Looking at the comments, it does raise doubts about Imran’s credibility, but Mothership has not added any additional info to the article on their website, at the time of writing.
