Curious about it (anything race and SES related is naturally juicy by my standards), I looked up and read the full story. It’s a pretty long read, made even longer by my frequent dramatic pauses and turning to my imaginary friend going, “The fuck?”
The original article, which appears in similar writing (minus the headers) on the writer’s Wix site, is called “Between Rich And Race”. Ironic that the writer calls himself rich but can’t buy his own domain name for his website. Check out his Wix account for more opinions about sexual harassment, NS and Transformers.
Right off, the writer prefaced: “This article is the equivalent of me wiping my tears with money. Well, I don’t literally do, but I might as well.” I read this and thought, what could go wrong?
The writer continued, “I will say, however, that any who judge you by your privilege is just as bad as any who judge the impoverished for being impoverished.” I can’t stand false equivalencies, and this stank doo doo (his words).
The writer also mentioned the idea of being judged for his privilege. Singapore has a pretty big middle class, so I was waiting to read of how rich he must be to have been judged so harshly for it:
Did he ever buy a private hotel after being denied access to the Lancaster Suite a la Michelle Yeoh in Crazy Rich Asians? Did he ever fly to Los Angeles to confess his love to his crush a la Sukki Singapora in Singapore Social? Did he ever feel thankful for losing his Dior Saddle Bag instead of his Hermes Birkin a la Jamie Chua in one of her recent YouTube videos?
No! The writer felt rich by seeing his poorer relatives “when they enter my spacious, fully-renovated and air-conditioned living room with wooden floors. What do they think when my parents bring out a pristine china set to serve expensive tea as they watch shows using our Netflix subscription on a big, 3D-ready borderless TV hung on a custom-built rack? What do they think leaning over our large balcony or using our toilets with bespoke glass doors and marble and ceramic detailing?”
*Cue rich people laughing*
It sounded more like big talk than richness to me. Which begged the question: Why were the pictures in his article illustrated and not real photographs? Hmmm…
It seemed like the writer wasn’t so much privileged as he was eager to put his relatives and friends down to feel better. Over coffee with a friend today we agreed he sounded insecure about not fitting in neither with his same-race, Malay counterparts, nor Chinese friends, who he appeared to want to become (hopefully not in a Rachel Dolezal way). But somehow he’d convinced himself it’s not him who didn’t fit in; it’s everyone else who wasn’t in his camp.
He didn’t say he spoke good English; he said he spoke “no-Malay accent English”. But we are to believe they mean the same thing, as though a Malay accent makes English wrong. He even attributed his flair for English as the reason why he couldn’t fully excel in Malay: “You want to get an A1 in O’ level English? Take this B4 for Malay.” That’s a stretch. Try applying for university with that in your personal statement.
Near the end the writer asked, “So if I’m not poor enough, and if I’m not Malay enough, and if I’m not Chinese enough, then what do I call home?” Anywhere except the article’s Facebook comments. All were pretty entertaining reinforcements of my opinions:
Ultimately, I missed out on what the writer suggests in his title, the part of “Taught Me About Being Malay”. While I do commend his writing, I think it actually backfired on him: now I’m SUPER clear about his biases.
I do hope we have more productive conversations about SES in Singapore (some have argued it’s our biggest divider, above racism and sexism). But I think if we look to this writer as a starter of the discussion, it would be because he is a symptom of the divide, rather than someone interested in fixing it.
I also briefly wondered if commenters’ accusations were valid: was Rice Media irresponsible for allowing this writer 3744 words on their platform? I decided: No! In fact, I want to give their editor a down-low high five. I’m sure they must be celebrating at their website’s page views. Although I do think they must have known what they were getting him into.
On another note, being on their website reminded of me another of their recent stories, “I Live in Jalan Kukoh, One of the Poorest Neighbourhoods in Singapore”. Notice the contrast in how the writer of this story handles herself versus how the writer above expresses himself.
And of course, the supportive comments she received:
I’d love to know what you think if you (managed to) read both articles. DM me on Instagram (@marcuzzzy) and let’s have a discussion about them!
