Cook it with Love, not Hate.

The act of cooking curry on National Curry Day is symbolic. Personally, it is a protest against the Community Mediation Centre's mismanagement of the issue than towards the PRC migrant family. To be honest, we can't totally blame the latter for thinking they had the right to ask their neighbours to stop cooking their food. Perhaps, a better question to ask would be, what made them feel that they had the right in the first place before they even approached CMC? 

Was it due to the failing multiracial image Singapore has been projecting--yes, this may be a multiracial country but if one belongs to the ethnic majority by virtue of skin colour, you can lay claim to some special right at the expense of minorities? Is the integration programme for migrants ineffective--newcomers are not properly briefed beforehand that they have to live with differences, and to live and let live? 

Note that the PRC migrant family actions were ultimately endorsed by CMC even though the mediator could have dealt with the situation differently. Doesn't mediation mean a compromise of sorts? Unfortunately, the mediator's solution seems to suggest that one's freedom has to be enjoyed at the expense of others. There can be no win-win situation. But doesn't mediation mean helping both parties to reach some consensus? The key word is facilitating, not instructing. The mediator has overstepped her boundaries. 

Worse still, the state, as represented by CMC in this context, has opened a can of worms. And the greatest irony? The Community Mediation Centre mediator's has given the meaning of "community" an ugly spin--it is about antagonism and resentment, not harmony and understanding.  

Curry has become the symbol of racial and cultural integration in Singapore. But integration in Singapore or anywhere else in the world should not only be about harmony. For me, it has more to do with compassion and empathy for people different from ourselves. So please, when you cook and enjoy your curry on National Curry Day, whether in Singapore or abroad, do it with LOVE, not HATE. Otherwise you might be no different from what CMC is promoting. 

Note: I thank Lin Shiyun for reminding me that the key word is love, not hate, in her response to my earlier wall post.