• About Us
    • Fact Checking Policy
    • Ownership & funding information
    • Volunteer
  • Subscribe
  • Letter submission
    • Submissions Policy
  • Contact Us
The Online Citizen Asia
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
The Online Citizen Asia
No Result
View All Result

Nas Daily commends Singapore for its lack of segregation by virtue of its HDB housing

by Stephen Netto
17/06/2019
in Current Affairs, Opinion
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0

 

In a video posted on Friday (15 Jun), Nas Daily commended Singapore for its lack of segregation by virtue of its HDB housing.

In the video, Nas shared that he grew up not having a balanced view on diversity due to segregation in his country (Israel).

He noted that segregation is a problem in every country. Case in point, looking at London, “despite being one of the most diverse cities in the world, the different races live separately,” said Nas.

“In the US, entire neighbourhoods are dominated with a particular ethnicity,” he added.

Later on, he noted that segregation can be fixed, citing Singapore as an ideal example.

He said, “Just look at places like Singapore. They have a diverse population of Malays, Chinese, and Indians. And 81% of them live together in public housing. Out of every 100 apartment, there are about 74 Chinese families, 13 Indian families, and 13 Malay families. So, it is impossible to have only 100% of any race in a public housing. This isn’t just luck, this is the law.”

Nas then continued to say, “And if it worked in Singapore, then I’m pretty sure that it can work somewhere else – in your country and in my country. Governments need to do whatever it takes to encourage people of different races to live together. And if they don’t do it, then we should.”

However, an expat who has been living in Singapore for 20 years commented on Nas’ post, taking issue with what Nas is saying in the video. The expat, who goes by the name Bianca Polak, suggests that the CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others) is a racist construct.

“It is a big problem for some of my friends who are of a minority race and/or mixed race. They can buy only certain flats, they can resell only to those of the same (minority) race,” she added.

She went on to speak about the issue of “mother tongue” before saying, “Yes Singapore is integrated and mixed – but why still holding on to the racial segregation? A lot of my Singaporean friends think this is dated too.”

She later concluded with, “You might want to stay in a HDB flat here in Singapore for a while and truly experience life in the heartlands to appreciate that it’s way more complicated here than what appears on the surface.”

In fact, Prof Daniel Goh spoke about the CMIO construct back in 2016 during a presentation at the Projector in Singapore – which aligns with Ms Polak’s comment. In his speech, he pointed out that the CMIO is a construct applied by the British colonists to divide the population and strengthen their rule.

He also highlighted that it is a problem for the government to enforce it in this era, given that more and more families are of mixed races. As reported by Straits Times last year, 22.1% of marriages in Singapore in the year 2017 were between people of different races, a significant increase from the 16.4% in 2007.

Ultimately, taking the words of Ms Polak and Prof Daniel Goh’s into account, how exactly would the HDB racial restriction work – based on the husband or wife’s race?

Dear, Nas, you begin your video saying that you hope viewers would be angry after watching it, well, no doubt there will be Singaporeans who are angry right now.

For just US$7.50 a month, sign up as a subscriber on The Online Citizen Asia (and enjoy ads-free experience on our site) to support our mission to transform TOC into an alternative mainstream press.

Related Posts

Rescuers battle cold as Turkey-Syria quake toll hits 5,000
AFP

Rescuers battle cold as Turkey-Syria quake toll hits 5,000

07/02/2023
Hazel Poa proposes singles be allowed to buy 3-room HDB flats
Housing

Hazel Poa proposes singles be allowed to buy 3-room HDB flats

07/02/2023
Jamus Lim: House prices are too High
Politics

Jamus Lim: House prices are too High

07/02/2023
Ministers get away with excuses that ordinary citizens cannot hope to get away with
Opinion

Ministers get away with excuses that ordinary citizens cannot hope to get away with

07/02/2023
Commemorative coin, exhibitions and various activities to mark 100th anniversary of Lee Kuan Yew’s birth
Singapore

Commemorative coin, exhibitions and various activities to mark 100th anniversary of Lee Kuan Yew’s birth

07/02/2023
国会内庆妇女节 女议员获赠鲜花
Labour

15 companies barred from hiring new foreign employees after serious safety lapse found at worksite

07/02/2023
Subscribe
Connect withD
Login
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of
Connect withD
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest posts

Rescuers battle cold as Turkey-Syria quake toll hits 5,000

Rescuers battle cold as Turkey-Syria quake toll hits 5,000

07/02/2023
Hazel Poa proposes singles be allowed to buy 3-room HDB flats

Hazel Poa proposes singles be allowed to buy 3-room HDB flats

07/02/2023
Jamus Lim: House prices are too High

Jamus Lim: House prices are too High

07/02/2023
Ministers get away with excuses that ordinary citizens cannot hope to get away with

Ministers get away with excuses that ordinary citizens cannot hope to get away with

07/02/2023
Commemorative coin, exhibitions and various activities to mark 100th anniversary of Lee Kuan Yew’s birth

Commemorative coin, exhibitions and various activities to mark 100th anniversary of Lee Kuan Yew’s birth

07/02/2023
国会内庆妇女节 女议员获赠鲜花

15 companies barred from hiring new foreign employees after serious safety lapse found at worksite

07/02/2023
Why is Gautam Adani’s Indian empire in turmoil?

India’s Adani Enterprises shares rocket 20%, trading suspended

07/02/2023
China’s Baidu says developing AI chatbot

China’s Baidu says developing AI chatbot

07/02/2023

Trending posts

Cognizant India transfers staff to work in Singapore as recently as this year

Local IT grads can’t find jobs while engineers constantly transferred from India to work in SG under CECA

by Correspondent
05/02/2023
108

...

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

by Augustine Low
01/02/2023
48

...

Adani’s brother runs SG company and registers as director with local ID

Adani’s brother runs SG company and registers as director with local ID

by Correspondent
03/02/2023
26

...

No response from Josephine Teo on whether Mediacorp has been instructed to stop coverage of SMT circulation scandal

No response from Josephine Teo over alleged blackout of coverage by Mediacorp over SMT circulation scandal

by Terry Xu
06/02/2023
12

...

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

by Yee Loon
30/01/2023
25

...

Japanese-Canadian junior high school girl breaks national record with 3km in 9:02 mins

“I want my normal life back,” Sherry Drury withdraws from National Junior High School Tournament due to overheated public attention

by Yee Loon
06/02/2023
3

...

June 2019
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
« May   Jul »

The Online Citizen is a regional online publication based in Taiwan and formerly Singapore’s longest-running independent online media platform.

Navigation

  • Editorial
  • Commentaries
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Community

Support

  • Contact Us
  • Letter submission
  • Membership subscription

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Fact Checking Policy
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Civil Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
  • Politics
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Subscribers login

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

wpDiscuz