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SINGAPORE: What can Singaporeans do to help bridge the gap between social classes? For Prime Minister Indranee Rajah, the answer is very simple: consider people as people.
She was answering a question posed by a participant during a dialogue and in-camera screening of Channel NewsAsia's documentary, "Regardless of Class," Monday, October 29. The documentary explores the class divide in Singapore and its impact on society.
In its race from the third world to the first, is Singapore still a society based on justice and equality, regardless of its class?
About 100 participants, including students, teachers, social workers, and social welfare organizations, attended the Channel NewsAsia screening.
"The intrinsic worth of a human being is not measured by the money you have or the type of house in which you live … it's the fact that you are a human being." said Ms. Indranee, second minister for education and finance.
"At the end of the day, it's like seeing people as people."
Ms. Indranee and the Minister of State for Transport, Communication and Information, Janil Puthucheary, who hosted the documentary, emphasized the importance of not thinking about people in terms of class, income or status to dialogue.
Dr. Puthucheary pointed out that the documentary reflected people's prejudices toward one another.
"The starting position is to recognize this bias and to recognize the ease with which we can belittle anyone, even using small words," he said.
He explained this point in response to questions from a member of the audience about whether the broadcast implied that academic streams were correlated with social class.
For this, Dr. Puthucheary replied "no", pointing out that the message of the series is that "all this is invented".
"As we prosper, we continue to find reasons to catalog people," he said. "Some people look at how others dress, or on the car you drive … or if you take public transportation. All of this is the result of stereotypes, prejudices and unconscious assumptions … and all that is wrong. "
"But it's very human," he added. "If we want to be the kind of society we imagine ourselves to be, we will have work to do to eliminate these biases."
Dr. Janil Puthucheary, Deputy Minister of Ministries of Transport and Communication and Information, speaking in front of a portal after a dialogue after the screening of the documentary "Independently of the class" of the channel NewAsia.
HELPING DEFENDING CHILDREN EXPLODE THEIR POTENTIAL
Ms. Indranee also elaborated on the new working group that she leads to strengthen support for students from disadvantaged families, noting that the working group will look at "real and practical issues".
"It's very difficult for a child to have a good foundation in English and reading if, at home, both parents do not speak, read or write English," she said. . "Then the child is at a disadvantage."
Ms. Indranee pointed out that there were existing assistance programs and that the working group could help coordinate and "tidy everything up".
"It's still a work in progress, but there will be things the government can do and volunteers can do, and we will work together to that end," she said.
The working group is also exploring ways to broaden a child's worldview. Ms. Indranee cited an example of a volunteer program in her neighborhood of Tiong Bahru. She had asked a bakery to organize a cooking program for children living in rental properties in her neighborhood.
The value of this program, she said, lies in giving children a different social exposure.
"It's an example of how you can try to create a different environment in which you can enable them to learn," she said. "You can step in and give them the opportunity to unleash that potential."
An audience member asks a question during a post-screening dialogue of Channel NewsAsia's "Independently Class" documentary.
RETURN TO DOCUMENTARY "INADEQUATE"
In the course of the dialogue, Mr. Puthucheary also pointed out that he maintained the editorial integrity of the documentary when asked about the online backlash related to the way some of the teenagers were portrayed in the documentary. # 39; s issued.
The adverse reaction was mainly centered on a segment of the program where students from different academic currents talked about their differences and how they rarely interact with those of other academic currents.
Dr. Puthucheary commented on various "blog sites" that had "decided to format" the trailer for the documentary. He said the full program was available online for more than a week and no one had criticized it.
"There was a short trailer that was made, and the purpose of the trailer is to make you watch the main show, right? The trailer for this segment has been cut in a slightly provocative way, "he said. "But the blog sites then talked about the trailer as if the trailer was the product."
"So you have the film, then the trailer, and then comments about the trailer," he said in response to a question about whether the backlash could have been avoided or anticipated. "What was shared and turned viral was the latter."
Most people who approached him about the violent reaction had not seen the entire documentary, he said, adding: "They were angry because someone was telling them to get angry … and I wish it did not happen. "
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