[pinkypanther]

In his annual National Day speech, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said claims that there is Chinese privilege in Singapore are entirely baseless.

This is important as the prime minister’s rally speech is keenly followed and the topic of Chinese privilege — which is effectively the idea that Chinese Singaporeans enjoy some benefits that minority Singaporeans do not — has been widely discussed for some years.

To make his point, PM Lee offered the fact that English (as opposed to Mandarin) is Singapore’s lingua franca as an example of a concession granted by the Chinese to the minorities.

But this makes very little sense as Mandarin was never the governing language of Singapore. The DNA of this country’s legal, business and education system has always been English.

It was also in English that many of Singapore’s founding ruling class — including the prime minister’s father and our modern nation’s founder Lee Kuan Yew — preferred to communicate

So, Chinese was never really on the table as a foundational lingua franca; so how can a concession ever have been given in this regard?

The very idea that this is a concession is also somewhat troubling. A concession is typically something that can be taken away – so does that mean Singapore might one day change course when the Chinese majority tires of its concession and we will become a Chinese-speaking nation?

Hard to imagine. Because of course, our extensive use of English has also proved to be hugely economically beneficial.

Secondly and even more confusingly, the prime minister in his own speech went on to state quite clearly that minorities in the country continue to face genuine instances of discrimination.

He gave the example of housing and employment where there is often a preference for Chinese over minorities. These are not minor issues; housing and employment are fundamental to virtually everyone’s life so if minorities face disadvantages in these areas, how can we say talk of Chinese privilege is baseless?

Perhaps, the prime minister meant to say that not all the Chinese in Singapore are privileged.

A lot more at https://tinyurl.com/ea35v752