Do you watch Channel 8 drama serials?
I don't know how many of you are even aware of this: There is a TV serial on Channel 8 called Daddy At Home. On Friday (6 November 2009), the episode featured a scene where the main character (played by Li Nanxing) signed on unknowingly to be a cleaner/manager of cleaning operations. At this, his friends/colleagues joked that they should start calling him either "manager" or "Aminah." Cue laughter.
'Aminah' is a Malay name for females, and it is not uncommon in Singapore at all, just like 'Siti', 'Farrah,' or 'Nurhaliza.'
I was alerted to this through Malay friends of mine, and I completely share their disgust and shock that such a clearly racist comment could have been made on national television in the guise of comedy and humour.
This is the letter I wrote to the Straits Times Forum editor, I hope it gets published!
I refer to the 6th November screening of the MediaCorp Channel 8 prime-time drama series, Daddy At Home. I am thoroughly appalled by the instance in which the colleagues of the title character (played by Li Nanxing) joked that they should begin calling him “Aminah” since his character now works as a cleaner.
The nonchalance with which the name of a Malay woman is used interchangeably with the role of a cleaner shocks me for it reeks of a subtle, yet severe, insensitivity on the part of the Mediacorp scriptwriters, actors, and on-site crew. What this instance has encouraged in the popular imagination is the equation of Malays to occupations of low income and menial labour. How is it that such a glaring comment could have passed the stages of re-writes and checks, if any? Would the actors and crew members on location not have realised this during the filmin g as well?
As a teacher, I am doubly outraged that “Singapore’s leading media company” (according to MediaCorp’s corporate website) could let such racist undertones seep through popular, mainstream ‘entertainment’ with a view to profit and gain from what might seem to the company and its scriptwriters as dialogue that reflects the quotidian Singapore experience. If so, then generations of children and young adults who watch these shows regularly have certainly been exposed to potentially racist sentiments that they could easily replicate in the classroom and in their interactions with children of different races.
I remind the Channel 8 directors and writers also, that their viewership extends well beyond the Mandarin-speaking population in Singapore. Surely it was a strategic decision on Channel 8‘s part that including English subtitles for these drama shows allows them to reach a non-Mandarin-speaking viewership. With this in mind, then, how can it come to pass that clearly racist comments are written into the script and uttered before the camera?
Even if this were an ‘oversight’ on the part of the writers, there is no excuse nor any place in Singapore for racism to even be acceptable whether in private or in the public sphere.
I have not been a regular viewer of Channel 8 programmes for several years now, but with this new knowledge of the kind of lax standards that local television possesses, I am undecided as to whether to ignore Channel 8 completely, or to be a more avid viewer and keep an eye out for any future attempts to disrupt the delicate fabric of our multi-racial society. I urge Singaporeans to consider this dilemma as well.
