A stomper posted this onto the web to share with all netizens.
China celebrates their national day on 1st Oct, which is also our childrens day.
From the picture evidently, its a HDB block, with China's flag hanging outside the window, on the place reserved for Singapore's own flag.
Like erm, HELLO?
The artifact potrayed, in this case the PRC flag, is showing us that a Chinese National is showing the love for his country.
Being patriotic to your home country is GOOD. There is NOTHING wrong. But this is a very apparent non-verbal cue to Singaporeans to start voicing out even more of our displeasure towards PRC workers in Singapore. This act sparked off a heated debate on many online communities that this is a disrespectful act and strong actions should be taken.
Although this is somewhat a sensitive issue, we cannot deny that presence of certain foreign workers have made our lives much more comfortable. Eg, the Bangladeshi workers whom sweeps the road, built our high rise building etc.
Although this is somewhat a sensitive issue, we cannot deny that presence of certain foreign workers have made our lives much more comfortable. Eg, the Bangladeshi workers whom sweeps the road, built our high rise building etc.
The influx of PRC in our community had, on a personal level, made me feel uneasy. With an increasing PRC student population in local schools, it gives us Sg students an even more pressurised and competitive environment. Lower level student/part time jobs are also becoming increasingly hard to find as most employers would rather employ cheaper labour than us....
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Under NATIONAL EMBLEMS (CONTROL OF DISPLAY) ACT(CHAPTER 196)
Display of national emblems in public or at schools prohibited.
Display of national emblems in public or at schools prohibited.
3. —
(1) No person shall display in public or at or within any school any national emblem.
(2) For the purposes of this section, an emblem shall be deemed to be displayed in public if it is displayed in any road, street, bridge, passage, footway or place over which the public or any class of the public has a right of way or to which the public has access, whether on payment or otherwise, or if it is displayed in such manner as to be visible from any such road, street, bridge, passage, footway or place by any member of the public using the same or being thereinOffences and penalties.
8. —
(1) Any person who
— (a) displays any national emblem contrary to the provisions of this Act or of any condition of any order or permit made or given under section 5; or
— (b) being the owner, tenant, lessee, occupier or person in charge of any premises knowingly permits the display of any national emblem on or from those premises or within any school contrary to the provisions of this Act or of any condition of any order or permit made or given under section 5,shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction
— (i)in the case of a person other than a body corporate to a fine not exceeding $500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both; and(ii)in the case of a body corporate to a fine not exceeding $1,000.
Wow!~ This is serious.
ReplyDeleteThe patriotic person is perhaps clueless that his act was unlawful.
This is nevertheless a good remainder to the rest of the people that such act should not be committed, else actions will be taken against them.
Hi Gerald here.
ReplyDeleteI personally feel that the influx of foreign talent not only from PRC is actually good for the Singaporean community, contrary to your opinion. Only with more competion can your society improve for the better, if not, we'd all be laid back and complacent with everything that we have. BUT once our rice bowls are starting to be snatched up, thats where we get off our feet and actually come up with better ideas to ride over the tides of adversity that come with competition.
PRC nationals are actually encouraged by the government, to provide help in different sectors of our economy. Putting up the PRC flag during their country's 60th national day would not entirely be a bad thing. Yes, this is Singapore. But maybe we should make an exeception on this. Afterall, they are millions of miles away from their home country, cut them some slack, they are just being patriotic!
ReplyDeleteHello Charlene!
ReplyDeleteYou may be right. But hey, would you be displaying Singapore's flag in another country publicly? Or just celebrate(online?) by watching the live telecast of NDP?
Hello Gerald!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point only up to a certain extent.
For foreigners to come and compete with us, yes, it does have the effect on spurring Singaporeans on to work even harder for a better future.
However, I think there is a big difference between those who genuninely like Singapore and wishes to be part of our community and between those whom just wishes to use Singapore as a stepping stone to greener pastures elsewhr.
I personally don't have a really good impression of the Chinese Nationals in Singapore, but well, that's just me. But I do agree with Gerald that they help to motivate us to strive better by being a source of competition. Though sometimes, it does gives us too much stress in addition to our already hectic and stressful lives.
ReplyDeleteHello Priscilla.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree entirely with your view point. Imagine the uproar if we display the Singapore flag publicly outside an aprtment...lets say...Malaysia or Indonesia or even USA?
Hello NGJINYUAN.
ReplyDeleteYour last sentence totally nailed the point. Haha!
Weng Yew says:
ReplyDeleteI actually think its just an act of indiscretion. Whoever that person may be most probably is just being loyal and we cannot fault him for his over zealous actions
yingli goes:
ReplyDeletethe stomper himself/herself, probably don't have a good impression on PRCs either. The picture was posted probably to gather like-minded singaporeans who finds the hanging of China's flag in Singapore a disrespectful act.
However, truthfully speaking, how many of the stompers who commented on the website actually bothered hanging the Singapore flag during the National Day period?
Hello Weng.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a warning yeah?
It wouldnt be good if every foreigner starts doing this is Singapore though. Although yes, globalisation made Singapore a really diversified place, what really keeps us together is still our unwavering loyalty to the country (and putting out the flags during national day).
Hello Yingli
ReplyDeleteHaha. Your question is worth pondering.
This year's national day, the town council here had actually strung up the flags in early June. But when the flag came in the mailer I was pretty excited about it. Singapore flag woooooo~
Its interesting that this could be seen hung outside a HDB flat in Singapore. The resident was probably a PRC and wanted to show his love and loyalty for his country on its national day. He also probably did not know that what he did was wrong. But I find, that to show such loyalty to one's country is indeed admirable. How many of us Singaporeans would actually bother to hang a flag out our windows to celebrate national day?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I particularly dislike stomp. It is a gossip site for people who have nothing better to do. Why is there then an ultimate need to post things to disrepect, spite or even humiliate people? Sure, some issues on stomp are not all nonsense, but the majority of it is. Is this "Stomper" one who is against PRCs? Or is he/she just a random person who thought this was funny? Perceptions can certainly vary.
Although i do not really have any good impression of the PRCs here, but i think it is actually quite nice of the PRC to still remember and commemorate their own country's national day while in a foreign country. Yes, he/she probably do not know that it is against the law. This is my opinion regarding your issue.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do not really fancy the influx of PRCs in Singapore. It's like, THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. And some might not actually be very nice, and actually bad mouth Singapore when it is them who wanted to come to this country in the first place. It is probably of their "bad reputation" that probably made the posted post up the picture of this, and trying to tarnish them further.
Hello Audrey
ReplyDeleteI actually think that we Singaporeans loves our National Day. Most Singaporeans get very excited when National Day approaches and will fanatically bid for tickets to the National Day Parade.
We will see many patriotic Singaporeans and school children wearing red and white walking about Sg.
Pretty cool.
Hello Edwina
ReplyDeleteYES THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.
No matter of whether the PRC's image in Sg is bad or not, there are still PRCs whom are pretty nice and cool.
Audrey is right in this case, the STOMP is actually an avenue for people to bring gossips you share with friends and acquaintances to a even larger audience.
Meant for it as funny? Or for it to smear the PRCs already negative image in the minds of Singaporeans even further, only the poster will know.
All I can say is, Oh Gosh.
ReplyDeleteGlobalisation will not cause our loyalty to our country to diminish. But showing your loyalty to your country in another country...is it even a right thing to do?
Someone needs to interview the person who hanged that China flag. I believe serious actions need to be taken if the person did it with ill intent. It is a outright demonstration of unhappiness for someone who comes here to earn a living.
ReplyDeleteIt's like going to someone's house as a guest, and start saying everything bad about the house, compared to his own house. It's really rude.
My point of view is that i thank them for coming to Singapore to fill in the job vacancies that otherwise would not have been filled by Singaporeans who generally have higher expectations for jobs. But to hang their bational flag in Singapore seem really disrespectful. It is usually these group of people who don't really think before they act that get their fellow countrymen into trouble as locals view them in a more negative way when these kind of things happen. It is also a generalization that all of them behave the same way. We need to understand and respect each other more in order to live harmoniously together.
ReplyDelete