Young mother complains about noise from Malay wedding

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Friday, Nov 15, 2013

SINGAPORE - Another Amy Cheong in the making? A young mother has been bombarded by netizens for racial discrimination after she complained about a Malay wedding at her void deck, reported Lianhe Wanbao. One netizen even allegedly made a police report.

According to the report, there was a Malay wedding at the block where 20-year-old Jacqueline Wong lives. The celebrations reportedly caused her new-born baby girl not to get any sleep, thus prompting her to rant on social media site Facebook on Thursday evening.

She wrote: 'Another malay wedding under my block againnnnn! all th knocking since early morning! now thy are setting up th scene. then thy gonna make sooooooo much noises cooking till midnight. then again sooooooo much noises on th wedding day. no peace for at least 3days! god damn it. even my baby can't haf her afternoon nap. i wonder who started th "malay wedding at hdb" thing. nv see other races doing so too? inconsiderate max.' (Note: This is from her original post)

After putting up the remark, Lianhe Wanbao said the post garnered much attention with netizens calling her disrespectful. The evening daily also said some people even reported her post to the police.

A member of the public Miss Chen told Lianhe Wanbao: 'How can she scold others for having weddings at the HDB block? When Chinese people have funerals, the events are even longer and noisier; and we don't see people complaining. The one who is inconsiderate is her!"

According to the Chinese daily, Miss Wong has since removed her post and has been constantly apologising for it after seeing the responses she was getting.

In a similar case in October 2012, former NTUC Membership Partnership & Alliance assistant director Amy Cheong posted an expletive-filled racist rant on Facebook about the noise coming from a Malay wedding held at her void deck, reported local news media.

The New Paper reported that netizens branded her a "racist" and even government ministers, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, condemned her post. Cheong was subsequently terminated from her company and the English daily said she moved to Perth, Australia, shortly after the incident.

Cheong, a Singapore permanent resident and Australian citizen, also received a stern warning from the police, reported The Straits Times in March 2013.

Young mother shows sincerity in changing

Even though Miss Wong, 20, has been apologising and asking for forgiveness for her post, said Lianhe Wanbao, there are still netizens who refuse to accept her apology.

After seeing the backlash she was getting from her post, the young mother immediately removed it from her Facebook page and issued an apology, hoping to gain forgiveness and a chance to explain her side of the story.

She said: "What I wanted to say was why can't HDB build a multi-purpose area for us to hold wedding activities?"

Despite apologising many times, Lianhe Wanbao said some netizens are still not satisfied, saying that she should have known that her post is wrong.

However, one netizen said: "Everyone makes mistakes. Since she has apologised, we should give her another chance."

This article was translated from Lianhe Wanbao (Nov 15, 2013).

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