(Note: this is by no means meant to be taken sensitively, all of these are my personal humble 2 cents worth opinions.)
I don't know why but I actually see a reason for them doing that. I have always felt that Singaporeans treat foreigners as third class. They are seen differently, treated differently by some of us locals. Im saying this because as a Singaporean myself, I do hear about stereotypes comments, racist comments and all these are pretty negative and biased. I wouldnt name any because that would have been plain sensitive.
In additional, they have long manual working hours and they don't get paid as well as compared to the rest of us. Less say some Singaporeans not being able to cope with high cost of living, what about them who earn minimally?
So when the incident which sparked off the whole riot happened, I personally feel that it ignited the negative feelings the Indians have towards living in singapore. And of course the influence of alcoh. And hence, they translate these negative feelings into violence.
Despite saying so, before I continue, here are some points to take note of.
#1) of course I'm not saying that what they do is correct. No one should turn to violence because it solves no problem. And this is Singapore, we are a civilized nation
#2) before you think "what's there to empathize with the Indians about,they are the one who willingly come to singapore themselves. They should be the ones responsible for their own choices. How are their problems in singapore linked to us?" Yup definitely, but on our part, have we treated them right? Or had we if not some of us seen them with tinted narrow glasses?
So primarily from my humble opinion, what escalated into the whole riot was probably because of the deep rooted negative feelings they have towards Singapore generally(be it the way they are treated, their personal financial problems) and also cultural differences in such a way that in their hometown, maybe riots are common in voicing out their unhappiness.
So instead of giving racist comments which there are PLENTY at Sgag and stuff, why not we take a moment to empathize with them and look at what actually triggered instead of pin-pointing those who started it? I mean people are actually hurt and public property are damaged, it is not a chance for people to play clowns and try to be funny racist fellows.
After all, what kept singapore safe and in harmony was the understanding between different social and racial groups throughout the years. I mean if you recall, one of the most prominent riots in singapore's history was sparked off by upsets between different races and religions.
But all in all, this incident surprised me. I mean Singapore today is definitely one of the safest place in the world with low crime rate. This incident not only reflects unhappiness of the Indians on a local scale but on an international scale, consequences can be pretty serious.
Some consequences that I personally think might happen - bring down Singapore's international image of a safe and ordered country, rough up relations with our Indian neighbor countries, economically, tourists may delay holiday plans over to singapore.
I really do hope this whole incident can be solved asap and no further protests will happen........ But I don't think this incident is just a riot by surface, the problems are complex as it highlights problems of increasing foreign inputs, foreign labour's feelings etc etc.
Fingers crossed, no more violence at least. Serious mitigation and counseling is really required between all parties.
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