Singapore police are investigating the
former NTUC staff who was fired on Monday morning for her
profanity-laced post insulting traditional Malay void deck
weddings.
A police report was filed against Amy Cheong, assistant director,
membership department at labour movement NTUC, by a member of the
public, Lionel Jerome de Souza on Monday morning.
De Souza is the secretary of Hougang's Inter-Racial and Confidence
Circle (IRCC), which comes under the purview of the Ministry of
Community Development Youth and Sports. In his report, he urged the
police to take a serious view of Cheong's comments which
"inevitably hurt the feelings of the Malays".
In her post on Sunday evening, Cheong had put up a public status on
her personal Facebook timeline, complaining about a Malay wedding
that was being held at a void deck near her home.
Among other things, she related Malay weddings to high divorce
rates, and asked how society could “allow people to get married for
50 bucks”, peppering her post with vulgarities.
In a separate post,
she also allegedly wrote, “Void deck weddings should be banned. If
you can’t afford a proper wedding then you shouldn’t be getting
married. Full stop.”
She has since been fired from her job by NTUC and
also made multiple apologies after
her profanity-laced post went
viral online, triggering an angry backlash from both Malay and
non-Malay communities alike.
The issue has also sparked debate over the public versus private
nature of Facebook and her personal
thoughts.
While some argued that her Facebook profile was her "private" space
and that her own feelings were not reflective of her employers
NTUC, others felt as a former assistant director, she should have
known better.
Facebook user Surendren Karrupiah wrote on Yahoo! Singapore's Facebook page,
"Director?
How silly... Generally, director representing ntuc should be
unbiased in regards to her personal feeling about other minority
groups. She openly criticised minority group in the social media
shows clearly she is unfit to fill the position as
director."
However, another user Andreas von Lucius
says Cheong
should be forgiven.
He wrote, "Why spread the hate? She has apologised, what more do
you want her to do?... Humans are imperfect! I'm sure somewhere in
our lives we have made racist remarks some way or another but just
not made known in the public."
Meanwhile Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan Jin has also weighed in
on the issue. In a post on his Facebook page,
he said traditional Malay void deck weddings are as much a part of
the Singapore landscape as "burning of offerings, void deck
funerals... and increased parking during Friday prayers or Sunday
morning worship."
He reminded all Singaporeans to "give and take" and to be proud of
the diversity and "colourful tapestry" that makes up
Singapore.
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