With Polling Day just around the corner, Singapore has seen no shortage of drama involving unfortunate electoral candidates who have fallen victim to election pressures, or whose mistakes of the past have come back to haunt them.
East Coast GRC’s Jessica Tan has already been in the spotlight once for a far-from-ideal reason—wearing her mask upside down on nomination day. This time, she’s once again in hot soup, albeit on different grounds.
“No need la, pretty already!”
jessica tan from east coast grc came over to my house while i was having a meeting and so my mum talked to her. after the talk, she insisted on taking a pic with my mum but my mum declined bc she wasnt wearing her scarf. to which jessica tan replied “No need la pretty already!”
— haliza 🌻 (@nothaliza) July 7, 2020
Allegedly, Tan had spoken to a lady from a Malay Muslim household. After the conversation, the lady declined a photograph as she was not wearing her headscarf, to which Tan replied, “no need la, pretty already!”
this politician really thinks that muslim women wear the headscarf just for beauty purposes???? my mum was wearing her baju batik and no scarf, declined to take a picture with her and she insisted??
— haliza 🌻 (@nothaliza) July 7, 2020
Twitter user Haliza was not having any of it, and took to twitter to air her grievances about the matter.
Jessica Tan responds
Hi everyone! This tweet blew up unexpectedly and Jessica Tan herself has reached out to me via DM. I think she has showed accountability to a certain extent. Do vote wisely this Friday! 😊 pic.twitter.com/urYwRCBK68
— haliza 🌻 (@nothaliza) July 7, 2020
Tan has sent a private message to Haliza, explaining that she had been mistaken, and that she “didn’t realise that [Haliza’s mother] was referring to her tudung”.
It’s about racial sensitivity and consent
Her response, however, didn’t seem to suffice. Haliza has shared her reply to Tan publicly for full transparency in this public conversation.
I’ll show my response to her message as well bc I believe this should be a public conversation considering how much my original tweet has garnered attention from SG netizens! pic.twitter.com/EIdywa1Nia
— haliza 🌻 (@nothaliza) July 7, 2020
The TL;DR of Haliza’s response was that the issue was centred more around the matters of consent and racial sensitivity.
“No means no,” wrote Haliza. “Is saying ‘pretty already la’ supposed persuade a woman to take a picture?”
Haliza also added that especially after serving as an MP for three terms, Tan should be more than well-versed in matters of social cohesion. She hopes that Tan will display a higher level of sensitivity towards such matters moving forward.
Below is the full response from Haliza.
The internet reacts
Wah very long reply. Very good 👍🏻
Also, notice that the MP never actually said ‘Sorry’
— Ben Chia (@BenChiaCars) July 7, 2020
Twitter user Ben Chia pointed out that Tan never actually included the words “sorry” in her so-called apology.
very good response! i totally agree w u. no excuse for her to be unaware of these things. thats literally part of her job, to know the residents needs, values and beliefs. the exchange shows that she doesnt care enough to know and doesnt respect peoples wishes. unacceptable.
— Nina (@ninanicks) July 7, 2020
Gurllll.. this Jessica tan say she didn’t realised that scarf is tudung.. i just can’t with the stupidity of that. She 3 term MP. Seriously they need a new PR person.. coz the press release and their tweets need help..
— Na’im (@Naim_broke) July 8, 2020
Other users agree that there is no excuse for an MP to be unaware of the needs, values, and beliefs of her residents.
Urgh east coast again .. some welfare workers doing rounds checking on my friend’s grandma few months back .. thats a good thing , but my friend chased them away when one of them commended her for taking care of grandma cos Malay usually dont take care of elderly .. really ?????
— Agus Siregar (@monojoee) July 7, 2020
Others took the opportunity to share their own negative experiences.
This makes me wonder what racial harmony and diversity means to the majority in Singapore, when something that is seemingly a basic understanding of differences in culture is considered an “oversight”. More can be done to foster that harmony we always claim to have. https://t.co/01swvDzNOd
— Shafique (@shaf1que) July 7, 2020
“Something that is seemingly a basic understanding of differences in culture is considered an ‘oversight’,” wrote user Shafique.
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