Opposition politician Lim Tean has been called out for making a Facebook post critical of a National Day banner.
His post was said to have caused a girl, who was featured on the banner, to receive “vile and hurtful comments”.
It all started when Mr Lim shared the girl’s post on Facebook on Friday (26 July) with the title, “The Girl in Your Roadside Poster Is Not a Singaporean”.
The girl’s post, since deleted, contained photos of her posing in Tiong Bahru next to a National Day banner that had her face on it.
Source: Facebook
She captioned her post, “Happy 59th birthday Singapore”, the same message written on the banner.
As he shared her post, Mr Lim said it was a “lovely picture” of the girl.
Source: Lim Tean on Facebook
However, he questioned why “a non-Singaporean (was) being featured” in a National Day banner, asking,
Shouldn’t National Day be a celebration of the Singapore Identity and Singaporeans????
He didn’t elaborate on how he knew that the girl was not a Singaporean.
On Saturday (27 July), Tanjong Pagar Town Council (TPTC) responded to Mr Lim’s polemic in a Facebook post.
It said 20 banners were put up for National Day this year and 18 featured Singaporeans. The other two featured a permanent resident and the girl in question.
Source: Our Tanjong Pagar on Facebook
But after Mr Lim shared her post, the girl received “vile and hurtful comments” on his page and elsewhere, TPTC said.
It described the situation as “sad and discouraging”, saying,
But this is not who we are as Singaporeans. We are a vibrant, cosmopolitan nation which welcomes friends from all over the world. They too, make up our Singapore history, tapestry and precious social fabric.
On Sunday (28 July), Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth and Trade and Industry Alvin Tan made a LinkedIn post calling out Mr Lim.
His post contained most of what TPTC wrote, but he also wrote,
We are better than this.
Mr Tan, who is an MP of Tanjong Pagar GRC, said these incidents happen in societies all around the world and “how we manage them matters”.
Source: Alvin Tan on Facebook
The authorities have been in touch with the girl and her family, he added. They appreciate the support and care and said it makes them happy to be here in Singapore.
In a subsequent Facebook post, he said the girl and her family “know that this isn’t representative of who we are as Singapore”, adding,
They have been participating in and will continue to join in our National Day celebrations to celebrate our nation’s birthday.
It was noted that this wasn’t the first time controversy erupted over National Day banners.
In August 2021, a banner featuring an Indian family, also put up in Tanjong Pagar, drew negative comments on social media.
It was later revealed that all the members of the family were Singapore citizens, and one of them was national athlete Thiruben Thana Rajan, who’d been representing Singapore in athletics since he was 15.
At the time, Mr Tan also came out to call out the comments, calling them “sickening” as at least one of them cast doubt on the nationality of the family.
He added that they “do not and should not represent who we are as a people”.
Also read: S’pore Athlete’s Family Is On Tanjong Pagar National Day Banner, They’re All Local Citizens
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Featured image from MS News and adapted from Our Tanjong Pagar on Facebook.
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