By Les Tan

Even writing the phrase, “pure Singaporean” makes me want to throw up.

A reader wrote about Ronald Susilo after the latter’s first round exit at the hands of Lee Chong Wei:

“In my opinion, after looking at the match this morning i wouldn't actually say he did his best. If you would look at his facial expressions and his moves closely you would have noticed he'd given up before the match had started. It is a waste of money to me to send him there, probably Kendrick Lee who's a pure Singaporean would have done better.”*

What on earth is a pure Singaporean? That you were born in Singapore? So if my parents weren’t born in Singapore and yours were, are you purer? If your mom was born here but your father was born in Penang, are you “impure”? If you were born here but grew up somewhere else but returned to Singapore, are you also “impure”?

Perhaps the reader did not intend it but to write “pure Singaporean” is just horrible. We are not describing dogs here. We are describing people who have feelings, of flesh and blood, and made in the image of the Divine.

All who come to Singapore, whether from India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia or any country in the world, do so to live in peace and make a living for themselves. If they happen to be good enough in sport that they want to play for us, then we should be so honoured. Because, for sure, there aren’t enough “pure” Singaporeans who can do it well enough for us to even send to the Beijing Olympics in some sports.

Of course some of them may be mercenary, but a mercenary only fills a place a “pure” Singaporean won’t fight for. So if we don’t want to fight for it, we “pure” Singaporeans only have ourselves to blame because we “pure” Singaporeans are too flabby in mind and body to keep up.

And before we even forget, us “pure” Singaporeans aren’t even replacing ourselves. We “pure” Singaporeans one day will be so rare they’ll have to recreate us in a test tube. But then again, what makes a “pure” Singaporean?

*The reader has since clarified that “pure” Singaporean referred to home-grown and developed talent. (Please see chain of comments below for further clarification.)

REDpoll

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