SINGAPOREANS START CURRY PROTEST ONLINE

Calling on all Singaporeans in Sydney to cook a pot of curry this coming Sunday, August 21st, in support of Cook a Pot of Curry Day!

It’s an event created by a group of Singaporeans on Facebook to peacefully protest against immigrants who demand that locals change their ways to fit theirs.

I would be cooking a pot of curry in Sydney as a show of solidarity with my fellow Singaporeans, who cherish the multi-ethnic Singapore that our forefathers have built with their hearts and sweat.

I was appalled to read online that a new citizen family in Singapore had insisted that their neighbour, a Singaporean Indian family, stop cooking curry because they cannot stand the smell. What disturbed me even more was that the Singaporean family had to subsequently agree not to cook curry when their neighbours are around, after the dispute was handled by the Community Mediation Centre.

The news story that generated so much “heat” online was “Number of Neighbour Disputes Hit High”. The TODAY story sparked off a flurry of activities with incensed Singaporeans posting hundreds of comments on the daily's website and thousands more on the Cook a Pot of Curry Facebook page, which attracted more than 40,000 supporters in less than a week.

The amount of User Generated Content (UGC) is amazing. From simple comments to lengthy blogs, humourous videos on Youtube to interesting posters on Facebook, Singaporeans dabbled creatively in various forms of media to get their voices heard. The power of social media in provoking thought, dialogue and action is at full play. So is citizen journalism.

Interestingly, the mainstream media had not carried any stories on the uproar in cyberspace, as of this post. My guess is that they are afraid it might open up a can of worms that might fuel tensions between different nationalities in Singapore.

Business writer David Kline once wrote that "not everyone is pleased that the untrained rabble now dares to speak in public". Other academics also argued that blogs are problematic because they encourage polarization of ideas, rather than debate and understanding.

I think that the Cook a Pot of Curry Day is a fine example of how bloggers can contribute to public debate by tackling issues that the mainstream media are afraid to take on. What do you think?