Singapore - Beautiful on the outside, Ugly on the inside

I feel quite guilty saying this...

But a recent piece of news has plunged me into these sad thoughts once again.

Rumours are going around of a possible coverup of the hit-and-run accident involving 3 pedestrains, of whom 1 has been pronounced braindead.

The conspiracy involves the Romanian diplomat who reported his car (the one that hit the 3 people) stolen about an hour AFTER the accident occured. You can read more about this here and more about the rumoured conspiracy here.

The thing that stings me is:

Why are we always being made to feel like second-rate citizens in our own country?

I had wanted to blog about an experience at Changi Airport when we landed from Edinburgh. We were going through passport control. The expression on the officer who was flipping through our passports was as sour as lemon. After checking them, I said a "Thank you" as I would always do after being served (or in this case, "checked").

This officer didn't reply anything, nor was there even the slightest smile.

So we walked off and I can't help but feel slightly embarrassed by my unnecessary "enthusiasm" towards a piece of log.

But you know what happened later?

I couldn't help but turn back as we were walking to retreive our luggage, and guess what I saw?

This same officer had such a big smile plastered on his face when he was checking a Caucasian!

All smiles and lots of small talk too! Friendly gestures, nodding of head, bla bla bla bla bla.

I felt immensely angry, yet, I felt hugely disappointed and very sad too.

Compare this to the service onboard the KLM flight.

We had a couple from Amsterdam sitting beside us. They too have a young kid travelling with them.

The flight stewardess was very attentive to us and Sean. Yes, that impressed us.

But they were even MORE attentive to the couple beside us. Everytime they passed by the little girl, the flight stewardess(es) would make small talk with her in Dutch. I suppose that renders the service even more pally.

Why then is there such a difference in the way we are being treated compared to "outsiders"? And such biasness meted from our own people too???

Why are we treating our own people like this?

The Government has been pro-international relations all the time. Everytime we host an international convention, the citizens are being encouraged to be friendly, helpful and of course, subtedly told to put on our best manners - all in an effort to showcase to the world that "Hey, Singapore is an utterly friendly and beautiful place to be in! Everyone lives peacefully and happily together! Come on over (with your wallets) and see for yourselves!"

No mistakes in that one at all. I fully comprehend the rationale behind the countless campaigns to push Singapore into the limelight on the global stage.

But I think somewhere along the line, we have lost the plot.

It is so lost that we don't even know WHO WE ARE TO OURSELVES anymore.

Do we have to welcome outsiders on such a high pedestal that we can only look up to them from the ground?

Justice, in the case of the hit-and-run accident, will be a hard one to prevail.

Just what else must it take for us Singaporeans to feel ashamed of being its citizen?

Which other place in the world would a citizen of his own country being made to feel inferior to people from others?

Truly Uniquely Singapore.

I......can only sigh.