When I Was Young

From TODAY, Voices
Friday September 5, 2008

SERANGOON GARDENS SAGA
blogged at www.singaporelifetimes.blogspot.com

(FOREIGNERS in our midst) appear to be haunting residents in Serangoon Gardens. The stated concern is that these people will probably clog up their roads.

Some view it as a security concern, as if the Government is moving a bunch of misfits and shady characters into their neighbourhood. These people have lost their sense of reality and are displaying prejudice and snobbery.

If these foreigners are not welcome in Serangoon Gardens, do residents then think somebody else’s neighbourhood is more suitable?

Are the residents worried that the value of their million-dollar properties will drop with the presence of these “foreign workers”? Are they worried that they will roam their neighbourhood, stealing and raping, swaggering around, drunk and noisy?

Well, yes, they are foreigners and may have habits that we are not used to. They may tend to congregate more and speak a decibel louder than us.

But these do not make them criminals. Our forefathers were once foreigners here, and they managed to rise up to own property and land, which they have passed down to us, their children. Truly, we have forgotten our roots.

We are talking about being a gracious society; here is an opportunity to show our graces. We should practice charity, for surely it must begin at home.

Otherwise, whatever civility we may have cultivated is only skin-deep, and that skin is particularly thin for people living in the private houses of Serangoon Gardens.