As much as I love to travel and experiencing different cultures, I would still love to return HOME and return to the culture and society that I grew up with. I'm a Malay Singaporean but I don't look Malay. My family categorized me as an "Indo-Extract" because of my mixed Indonesian heritage of Boyanese, Javanese, Bugis and Chinese.
I enjoyed the days when people were curious of my race. Cabbies would speak to me in Mandarin where I gallantly replied in Mandarin. Now those days are gone, with the influx of Foreign Talents especially the Filipinos. Cabbies now will asked me in English, even a Malay uncle greeted "Salamat". I furiously replied him "Terima Kasih" in a thick malay accent.
I still remember my first encounter way back in 2007 when I returned to Starbucks in the CBD. A "malay-looking" customer was waving at me while he's in queue, pointing towards the pastry case. In Starbucks, there is a practice of calling down the line where we'll get the order started before cashing out. As I came up to him, we started yapping something in a different language. I just gazed at him in bewilderment as he continued talking. It was a good 1 minute yap because there's no way for me to butt in "Excuse me". When I the opportunity came, he replied "Oh you're not Filipino?" in Tagalog. WTF!!! Both of us were embarrassed, him talking to me in Tagalog and me being a joke from then on.
Seriously, this incident has been going on till date. This people would blatantly communicate to me and most of my friends in Tagalog, and reply "Oh not Filipino" with majority change of enthusiasm when serving. Hello!!! Singapore not Manila!!! You guys have such obnoxious courage to try and see if we're one of you by speaking Tagalog. Most Singapore would still speak English when in doubt.
Recently, one of them managed to identify that I'm not one of them. But something ticked me off when he asked, "How often do you go back Malaysia?". I asked why go back and he asked me if I don't go back to my family. WTF!!! And the same "OH?" came out of his mouth when I said I'm born here. You're a freaking PR and don't you know that the Malays were the aboriginal and Indonesian, Chinese and Indians came to trade and build a society here. I hated him since, wait I hated him since the start (another story as you read on).
Singapore used to be litter-free. Now there's litters of them everywhere(Singapore is still clean). It used to be them clustered around Lucky Plaza and the park where Ion's was built over Sundays. Now they're everywhere on all days. They're packing the transportation which became a national issue. They're renting housing units which rises the cost of housing. So housing became another national issue because Singaporeans can't afford the price that was bench marked due to the foreigners. And lastly, they're taking over professional positions which also became a national issue.
And here's the last story I'm going to share about employment. I was initially employed as an executive but was pulled back the position before I started work due to no experience and the company do not want to create internal dispute for people who have been awaiting their promotion. I was fine with the decision as I require a job but a month after, my department hired a Filipino as an executive. Seriously??? As an employer before, I know foreign talents are cheaper, better qualification and they have a certain confidence that they are able to portray during interviews. They come in with degrees and experience but they're still doing shitty jobs. Local diplomas are worthless now, it's being graded similar to an ITE cert. We can't even get into the position that bench marked our qualifications, thanks to them and their degrees.
I'm fine if they can work based on their qualifications. They once show integrity because they were the minority before. Now that they became a common workforce, they tested the water and managed to skimmed through doing half-standard to shitty job. So this supervisor of mine produced shits that majority of the team are cleaning after. If my job offer is pulled because of him, I can take that position and do it better. If you can carry the balls of the boss, I know how to pull down your reputation which the team is doing currently. We had enough of clearing shits. Even the China employees are doing better than them.
I may have a few Philippines friends and they are somehow not the typical Filipinos. Heck, they're even against what had happened in Singapore. I'm became truly unhappy with the Filipinos ethics and it felt good that I managed to snapped at some of them. My patient tolerance is just not meant for them.
So please get this straight, I may be in an identity crisis but I sure am not a Filipino