Amy Cheong sacked by NTUC over racist comment
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The police has confirmed that it has since contacted Amy Cheong and has sought her cooperation and assistance in the investigations on her racist comments. The former NTUC senior staffer was sacked after she posted about a noisy Malay void deck wedding online that went viral.
On Sunday, Oct 7, Ms Cheong had ranted on her facebook page about how Malay weddings are held at void decks for days, along with other racist remarks. Within hours, her public post went viral and drew responses from political leaders.
Many concerned STOMPers alerted STOMP to the facebook posting.
Police said in a statement:
"In response to media queries, police confirmed that investigations are under way and have since contacted Ms Cheong and sought her cooperation to assist us in the investigations.
"At the same time, police would also like to advise the public against spreading racially or religiously offensive materials as this may be seen as inciting enmity between the races or religions, which may constitute an offence."
In an interview, Ms Cheong said the outburst was due to her being cranky after facing noisy neighbours and noisy void deck functions for the past few weeks.
Amy Cheong, 37, left Singapore for Perth, Australia, on Monday night. She had studied in a university there and further revealed that she is an Australian citizen who was born in Malaysia.
NTUC secretary-general Lim Swee Say told the media yesterday that firing Ms Cheong was one of the hardest decisions he has ever had to make as labour chief, but it simply had to be done.
Mr Lim called it a "painful experience" for the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), and he was aware of the "tremendous impact" that losing her job within a 24-hour period would have on Ms Cheong.
HR experts and company bosses said the move to sack Amy Cheong over comments made in a personal capacity was generally uncommon. The usual steps would be appropriate counselling, discussions and warning letters, they said.
However, the sacking could be warranted under certain circumstances. Firstly, she was a senior NTUC staff member and her words carry more weight, one of the HR experts said. Secondly, racist comments would cross the line, said a company boss, who said he would have done the same.
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ntuc also needs FTs.
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she's international babeh
(from TNP)
Who would have thought that a Facebook status update would lead to one woman being talked about not just in Singapore but also outside our borders?
Ms Amy Cheong, who is now in Perth, Australia, has been hogging headlines in local media for the past few days for posting racist comments on Facebook.
Now, her case has piqued the interest of foreign media, with reports on the saga appearing in BBC News, Malaysia's The Star, India's The Times of India and Perth's West Australian. .
An expert said that one reason for such international interest is that other countries would find it unusual that Singapore places so much emphasis on racial harmony.
Read the full report in The New Paper on Thursday (Oct 11).
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
sry, i am only a mod in hw forum, can't help much.
So do you want Fifi to delete them?
Hi Summer Hill. Ok, please ask fifi to delete my topic of " High Living Cost & Cheap Labour In Singapore. What is that?". I hope the moderators of SG FORUMS should remind the sg members to maintain their ethics while in the forum. Thanks. -
Originally posted by FireIce:
she's international babeh
(from TNP)
Who would have thought that a Facebook status update would lead to one woman being talked about not just in Singapore but also outside our borders?
Ms Amy Cheong, who is now in Perth, Australia, has been hogging headlines in local media for the past few days for posting racist comments on Facebook.
Now, her case has piqued the interest of foreign media, with reports on the saga appearing in BBC News, Malaysia's The Star, India's The Times of India and Perth's West Australian. .
An expert said that one reason for such international interest is that other countries would find it unusual that Singapore places so much emphasis on racial harmony.
Read the full report in The New Paper on Thursday (Oct 11).
Of course, it is of international interest. When someone post a facebook comment for complaint and leisure. It is meant to be personal. It ended out losing a job and running for her life. On top of that, the PM and MP talks about it. It just warn us that how harmful a facebook is.
So Dangerous, Dangerous ...
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Originally posted by fudgester:
As the saying goes, freedom of speech does not give you the right to yell 'FIRE!' in a crowded theatre. Unless the theatre really is on fire, of course.
Yeah, sacking her is harsh, but this is not limited to Singapore. Recently in the UK, one fella was jailed for two months for a racist tweet.
By the way, for calling on people to riot, YOU can be arrested for inciting unrest.
I think its ridiculous. i am sure once in a while you may complain about other races. I even read postings here, people complaining about PRC people who are rude, cannot wait in line and describe them as uncivilised. Its very common to complain about a certain group of people - rich, race, managers, people from a certain place, etc. Somehow its taken out of context like the recent John Terry racist taunts at a certain QPR defender, suddenly it became a criminal case and he was hauled up to court.I have live in an under-develop country in northern part of south-eash asia, where they play stupid traditional wedding music from 5am to 12pm. I want to sleep early and wake up late but can't because of those people. Why can't I complain about their traditions? Is it racist? Hey, i happen to be the only chinese staying in the hotel in that country when they were having that stupid wedding for 7 days, blaring the music for hours.
By the way, her purpose for having her fb is to let her fb friends know how she feels. Unfortunately, it gotten out of hand, as other people were able to read her comments. So she never intended to insight a riot. Its only her personal view.
Yes, sacking her is harsh. TO make matters worse, the stupid PAP politicians have to jump into the bandwagon and politicise the issue for their own benefit.
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Honeybunz wrote: "food for thoughts - why NTUC needs to hire a foreigner instead of a Singaporean to become their Assistant Director in the membership department since any Singaporeans should be able to do the job too. Further, NTUC, being a national body fighting for Singaporean workers’ rights ought to lead by example to put Singaporeans first." I'm not surprised. There are many Malaysian PRs who are now Head of Departments or holding senior managerial/executive positions in Singapore national bodies or agencies. Most of them are long service staffs and were promoted to be where they are now. There also many Malaysian workers working in Administrations for Small and Medium Size Enterprises in Singapore. Their salaries are higher than Singaporean workers. Just to add further. Last year NTUC Fairprice had recruited many Chinese foreign workers and most of them could not even speak English when they were recruited. In this matter, I blame the employment agencies, which were mostly foreign employment agencies and of course some of the local employment agencies. I feel these rogue employment agencies had spoiled the job market in Singapore. They do not care the welfare of Singaporean job seekers. They are only interested in business and making profits on the foreign workers.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
The police has confirmed that it has since contacted Amy Cheong and has sought her cooperation and assistance in the investigations on her racist comments. The former NTUC senior staffer was sacked after she posted about a noisy Malay void deck wedding online that went viral.
On Sunday, Oct 7, Ms Cheong had ranted on her facebook page about how Malay weddings are held at void decks for days, along with other racist remarks. Within hours, her public post went viral and drew responses from political leaders.
Many concerned STOMPers alerted STOMP to the facebook posting.
Police said in a statement:
"In response to media queries, police confirmed that investigations are under way and have since contacted Ms Cheong and sought her cooperation to assist us in the investigations.
"At the same time, police would also like to advise the public against spreading racially or religiously offensive materials as this may be seen as inciting enmity between the races or religions, which may constitute an offence."
In an interview, Ms Cheong said the outburst was due to her being cranky after facing noisy neighbours and noisy void deck functions for the past few weeks.
Amy Cheong, 37, left Singapore for Perth, Australia, on Monday night. She had studied in a university there and further revealed that she is an Australian citizen who was born in Malaysia.
NTUC secretary-general Lim Swee Say told the media yesterday that firing Ms Cheong was one of the hardest decisions he has ever had to make as labour chief, but it simply had to be done.
Mr Lim called it a "painful experience" for the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), and he was aware of the "tremendous impact" that losing her job within a 24-hour period would have on Ms Cheong.
HR experts and company bosses said the move to sack Amy Cheong over comments made in a personal capacity was generally uncommon. The usual steps would be appropriate counselling, discussions and warning letters, they said.
However, the sacking could be warranted under certain circumstances. Firstly, she was a senior NTUC staff member and her words carry more weight, one of the HR experts said. Secondly, racist comments would cross the line, said a company boss, who said he would have done the same.
Maybe this was the reason why she could not tolerate void deck weddings. She's a foreigher ! She lived all her live in Australia, she doesn't understand asian values.
Fortunately for her, she has an escape route to australia, or else she would have to face racial abuse from the void deck people.
Besides, why is NTUC, hire a foreigner who is australian trained??????
The local singaporeans not skilled enough to helm her position meh?
Mr Lim Swee Say should sack himself for recruiting wrong personnel.
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Originally posted by zulkifli mahmood:
Honeybunz wrote:
“food for thoughts – why NTUC needs to hire a foreigner instead of a Singaporean to
become their Assistant Director in the membership department since any Singaporeans should be able to do the job too. Further, NTUC, being a national body fighting for Singaporean workers’ rights ought to lead by example to put Singaporeans first.”I’m not surprised. There are many Malaysian PRs who are now Head of Departments or holding senior managerial/executive positions in Singapore national bodies or agencies. Most of them are long service staffs and were promoted to be where they are now.
Just to add further. Last year NTUC Fairprice had recruited many Chinese foreign workers and most of them could not even speak English when they were recruited. In this matter, I blame the employment agencies, which were mostly foreign employment agencies and of course some of the local employment agencies. I feel these rogue employment agencies had spoiled the job market in Singapore. They do not care the welfare of Singaporean job seekers. They are only interested in business and making profits on the foreign workers.
Yes Amy Cheong maybe malaysian. But she likely spent most of her life in Australia. She was most likely brought up in malaysia as a small kids and her parents raised her most of her life in australia.
So I ask you, had NTUC hired asians who truly stayed in asia for most parts of their lifes, this problem wouldn't have surfaced. Because Amy Cheong demonstrated her lack of understanding for asian values by her criticism of void deck weddings. Why is NTUC hiring somebody who don't have any knowledge of asian values? Leave alone handle singaporean labour issues?
Is NTUC hiring foreigners for the sake of glamour?
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speakoutfor wrote: "Yes Amy Cheong maybe malaysian. But she likely spent most of her life in Australia. She was most likely brought up in malaysia as a small kids and her parents raised her most of her life in australia." Maybe now her parents are in Malaysia. Maybe she had chosen to work in Singapore because it is more convenient and cheaper for her to visit her parents in Malaysia. I heard that when an asian worker in Australia, they are treated like second class citizen or worker. It is different when you visit Australia as a tourist, The Australians will treat you nicely. So maybe, overthere while growing up she was also discriminated by the Australians. speakoutfor wrote: "So I ask you, had NTUC hired asians who truly stayed in asia for most parts of their lifes, this problem wouldn't have surfaced. Because Amy Cheong demonstrated her lack of understanding for asian values by her criticism of void deck weddings." I'm not sure but I agree with you. NTUC should look at the cultural background of the job applicant before hiring them. speakoutfor wrote: "Why is NTUC hiring somebody who don't have any knowledge of asian values? Leave alone handle singaporean labour issues?" Maybe she had worked for NTUC for 10 years and was promoted to be the assistant to NTUC Director. speakoutfor wrote: "Is NTUC hiring foreigners for the sake of glamour?" I think maybe they feel that Singaporeans doesn't like working long hours and as for NTUC Fairprice, it is because of long hours like shifts work and labour cost to keep the food prices down.
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all higher ranking position and in gahmen sectors should hire singaporeans.
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Ok, Amy was racist, very harsh in her comments. I read TNP and she said that people don't understand her enough to judge her. Well, she definately don't know Singapore cultural norms to judge us! I once saw a void deck wedding, it was beauitfully decorated and definately wouldn't lose to a ballroom wedding. What $50 wedding, tsk tsk tsk.
And also, about the noise, can't she buy a pair of ear plugs that cost only $2? Or is it she very poor, spent all her money on her ballroom wedding end up no money to buy ear plugs?
Tsk tsk tsk, don't push the blame to others. We may have reasons for our actions, but you cannot use them as excuse for the unintended consequences. You have to be responsible for your actions, even for the unintended consequences. Amy said something like "netizens shouldn't drag her family in", well it's expected.
I think Amy post online is to merely gain pity form her friends, and it went out of control.
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we are the only (?) country to have void decks holding weddings/funerals.
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eh... lao niang, take this to a broader view... ppl elsewhere do hold functions at their very own place...
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
Ok, Amy was racist, very harsh in her comments. I read TNP and she said that people don't understand her enough to judge her. Well, she definately don't know Singapore cultural norms to judge us! I once saw a void deck wedding, it was beauitfully decorated and definately wouldn't lose to a ballroom wedding. What $50 wedding, tsk tsk tsk.
And also, about the noise, can't she buy a pair of ear plugs that cost only $2? Or is it she very poor, spent all her money on her ballroom wedding end up no money to buy ear plugs?
Tsk tsk tsk, don't push the blame to others. We may have reasons for our actions, but you cannot use them as excuse for the unintended consequences. You have to be responsible for your actions, even for the unintended consequences. Amy said something like "netizens shouldn't drag her family in", well it's expected.
I think Amy post online is to merely gain pity form her friends, and it went out of control.
summer hill, the point about the noise i think if someone just need a good rest mayb before work or some things later should deserve it. but if the noise is not after night time i think its a grey area for discussion.
my take on having HDB build more open spaces for such events still is better. its public place but if any party needs some spaces for provate events or weddings can go pay and book it for the said period of time.
i agree with amy if its really casuing her the problem. but if she just write for the sake or writing, just choose to reboot herself so that she can quickly go back australia, then its another thing.
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Originally posted by sbst275:
eh… lao niang, take this to a broader view…
ppl elsewhere do hold functions at their very own place…
don;t worry, when we have lao niang, we also have lao cheekopeh -
Just for laughter.....
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I supposed muslim women don't scold expletive or profanity........ ekkekkeekeeekkke.......... i like this picture so much that I have downloaded a copy it....... now i know muslim women are not unlike other women after all.......eheheheheheheh....
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By the way, any wedding function that cost less than $10,000 is considered as very cheap. This is for the info of those 'kids' who are thinking that a wedding function that cost anywhere more than $50 (e.g $2000) is already a big deal.
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Originally posted by Just_do_it_lah:
Just for laughter.....
Epic photo...really epic
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Originally posted by Just_do_it_lah:
Just for laughter.....
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Originally posted by Just_do_it_lah:
Just for laughter.....
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I will do as instructed
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You better removed the photo before you get into trouble.
No funny photos.