A Facebook post by local theatre maven Ivan Heng, criticising MediaCorp Channel 5's countdown programme, is gaining a lot of traction online.
In the post shared around 9am on Wednesday, Heng criticised the national broadcaster for a show which he felt was not inclusive of Singaporeans from different races and cultures.
Describing the programme as ' 'cheena' ', Heng also said in the post that he 'kept flipping channels to double-check to see if I was watching Channel 8 or CTV [China Television]'.
He also mentioned that 'Malays, Indians, Eurasians, Peranakans and not to mention the dozens of other races and nationalities who today call Singapore their country and home' were left out.
In less than 48 hours, the status received over 8,000 likes and close to 3,000 shares. Hundreds also left comments on the post, lauding Heng for his observation.
Over a phone interview with Yahoo Singapore, Heng revealed that he wrote the post because he was angry about how the programme 'left people out'.
'I was angry when I saw it. Then I went to sleep, and when I woke up, I realised I was still angry. That was when I decided to share my thoughts online,' he said.
'The countdown programme is a public broadcasting service. Not everyone can afford cable or Apple TV, and others just want to tune in to Channel 5. To me, the focus (of the programme) should be on including everyone who may tune in, not simply on drawing eyeballs.'
'Our multi-cultural, multi-lingual society is what distinguishes us from other cities and countries, and the programme should have embraced that,' he added.
Facebook user Kenneth Shanghaiist Tan, whose profile states he is the managing editor of popular blog Shanghaiist, wrote, 'We need to wake up to the bulls*** our Malay and Indian friends deal with on a daily basis.' His comment received over 250 likes.
Another user, Florence Oh, said, 'Yes, I do agree that we should be including the other races and nationalities especially in MediaCorp Channel 5 programming where the common language used is English!!! This is not the Singapore I remembered nor grew up in!!' She received over 70 likes for the comment.
Childcare teacher Lynn Ee, 27, who watched the countdown special, said she found it inappropriate that Mandarin was spoken.
However, she added, many of the Channel 8 stars who were involved, such as Zoe Tay, are 'household names that even Malay and Indian Singaporeans know', and thus are good representatives of local culture.
Shakir Rahmat, 24, a fitness trainer, said Mediacorp should simply have ensured that only English was spoken, as Channel 5 was an English channel afterall.
'If the Chinese celebrities had spoken only English -- the main language in Singapore -- no one would care about their race. People are not unhappy about their race; people are unhappy because they spoke Mandarin and excluded people who cannot understand it,' he said.
Yahoo Singapore has contacted MediaCorp for comments.
Watch a clip of the programme here:
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