Think that while rules exist and should be enforced, there is enough bureaucracy in SG, do we really need more notices/fines? Instead, compassion and flexibility should be the new direction. In this case, not only should the Malay family have gotten free relocation, but also town council workers to usher guests to said location. Kudos for suggesting a alternative solution, rather than the average complaining Singaporean. Keep blogging!

I would presume that the Chinese will be extremely upset about the whole arrangement, and that will generate some ill-will towards the Malays in concern at the minimum. Worse, it will nest a prejudice in the hearts of the Chinese against the Malay race in general. This may turn out to be very bad for racial harmony (or at least racial tolerance) in Singapore.

So from a legal and ideological (first-come-first-serve) viewpoint, you’re right. But from a pragmatic perspective which most of our TCs operate with, this solution seems to be the best. Of course, there is a possibility that the Malays will, because of this decision, harbour some ill feeling towards Chinese, but from the TC/MP’s pragmatic perspective, this possibility ranks lower in terms of probability than the other case.

However, though, I’m not sure why the PM chose to raise this issue. Maybe it fits in into his point about racial harmony, but since I have yet to read his ND speech, I won’t know.

Every example of “religious or racial harmony” given is of a minority adapting to the majority culture – the Malay family giving up the right to their planned wedding (I am sure that anyone who has ever been to a Malay wedding and carried food up and down the stairs will know what a hassle it must have been to move to another block!), the non-Catholic student tolerating the Catholic school where 100% of the teacher’s salaries are paid by the secular government including 90% of tax payers who are not catholic etc etc

I guess that is what we have gotten used to the Singapore definition of harmony – do what the majority wants you to do!

老友万岁!

The banana skin (pardon my use of a translated Chinese phrase) here is the word “理亏”, which literally means “logic/reason loss/deficit” or more properly, “lacking in logic, reason”. The word 亏 also means “treat unfairly”, especially when used with the word “欠” to give “亏欠”. This makes the translation “weaker case” somewhat acceptable. I could have used the same translation if I were in a hurry and did not double check my work.

Personally, I’ll go with how Ci Ba defines “理亏”:
“be in the wrong”

which you can access via:
http://www.iciba.com/%E7%90%86%E4%BA%8F/

So it is 1-0 to Gerald.

For those of us who yearns for a lighter moment, try using Google translate. It translated the sentence “显然，理亏的是华族家庭” incorrectly (and made me smile), but used the word “wrong”.

Regards,
An Old Friend

Being in the wrong and having a weaker case is clearly not the same.

anon – The dead person hadn’t arrived yet. It was just the wake that had been set up.