With more than 900 dead and close to 4,000 people missing in floods along the Nepal-China border, the disaster has hit close to home as nine Singaporeans are among the missing.
But Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC MP Alex Yam has criticised those who chose to question the Singaporeans’ citizenship instead, describing their online comments as “downright heartless”.
Source: Alex Yam on Facebook
In a Facebook post on Monday (31 Aug), Mr Yam said the 26 Aug disaster was a “terrible tragedy”, with “nine of our own” missing.
He named the missing Singaporeans as:
But “equally difficult to stomach” were the comments Mr Yam saw while scrolling through news about the disaster, he said.
A “loud minority” had asked whether those missing were “really Singaporean” based on their names and faces, he noted.
He gave some examples of comments he saw that claimed they “don’t look Singaporean”, their names “don’t sound Singaporean” and that they were “new citizens”.
The MP was also left in disbelief at comments expressing a wish that they remained stranded or died, or those questioning why the Singapore authorities should help them, he added.
Source: Alex Yam on Facebook
Mr Yam, who is also the Mayor of the North West District, said there was “a time and place” to argue about immigration, citizenship policies and integration.
But this was not the time, when people are missing and may have lost their lives, and their families are waiting anxiously for news, he maintained, adding:
You do not have to know someone to have compassion for them. You do not have to share their ancestry to pray for their safety.
One also does not have to diminish someone else’s Singaporeanness to prove one’s own, he added.
Mr Yam decried how some comments were “not just racist”, but “downright heartless”, and hoped that they were made by trolls.
He hates to think that Singaporeans have become people who “cannot put aside race and resentment for one moment” even when lives may have been lost, urging citizens to remember the frightened families of those missing before race, nationality or politics.
He also said that we “can be better than this”, adding:
I pray we never become so angry with one another that we lose the ability to simply be human.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a statement last Thursday (27 Aug) that it is in touch with the families of affected Singaporeans.
The daughters of two of them, married couple Sumit and Shubakshi Rawla, have made an appeal on social media for information on their whereabouts.
Source: @srkuniversenp on Instagram
They said their parents’ last-known location was outside their hotel in Timure, a small town in northern Nepal, at about 7am local time on 26 Aug.
Almost 600 foreign nationals are among the missing as of the time of writing, according to the latest updates.
Also read: Singapore Red Cross pledges S$50K to support response efforts in Nepal, calls for public donations
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Featured image adapted from Alex Yam on Facebook and Facebook.