Six words are all that netizen Prakash Kumar needed to counter former twice premier-cum-Proklamasi Melayu chief advocate Tun Dr Mahatnir Mohamad who most recently claimed that migrants who wish to continue their linkage with their countries of origin “cannot claim ownership of this country”.
You listen to his rhetoric and it might at first strike you as different (because it’s not the same things) but he essentially harangues chinese Singaporeans for faults of character as well. This was especially since Singapore had a real contentious political scene then and he was frustrated that they didn’t see his point of view. If it helps he has a worse view of Malay and Indian Singaporeans? 😂
It’s actually pretty mainstream thinking for that era. We Malaysian Chinese school students studied Lu Xun’s True Story of Ah Q in Chinese literature class which was pretty much a book about all the racial faults of the Chinese people. The Japanese who invaded Malaya during Mahathir’s youth were even trying to “rise above” their shameful Asian heritage. Mahathir’s thinking was pretty normal for the era he was born in but the problem is he managed to stay in power & remained influential well into the modern era 🤣
Edit: and this kind of mindset is still present, though somewhat toned down & now with a lot more pride, in the Chinese community (both in China and elsewhere) who still believe in this race-based social Darwinism. This is coming from me having just read a China science fiction novel that’s really about how the Chinese people need to learn to be tough and manly again or risk being wiped out by western foes 😌
i only know Singaporeans like to say things such as : FroM zEro tO hErO… as if the 3 other Asian Tigers didn’t start from zero… Japan literally had two suns rising from two cities, Korea was dirt poor, Taiwan was under martial law and had a facist government for many decades.
Yea, their myth of being a poor kampung, a tiny red dot etc etc, totally depends on one having historical amnesia about their centrality as a trading port and eventually British colony as well as an important proxy in the Pacific theatre of the Cold War.