'Everyone in my family is Singaporean': Sprinter responds to racist comments on National Day banner in Tanjong Pagar

With National Day just around the corner, the lead-up to Singapore's 56th birthday should be filled with excitement. 

For Thiruben Thana Rajan and his family, however, it would be understandable should their feelings for the day be a little more mixed.

They were invited by Tanjong Pagar Town Council to be one of 20 families from different ethnic backgrounds and faiths featured on National Day banners that were recently put up around the neighbourhood. 

But when the banners made an appearance, some members of the public did not take too kindly to the one showing Thiruben's family and went on social media to air their grievances over the weekend.

 

These netizens questioned the nationality of Thiruben's family, wondering why Singapore appeared to be celebrating the National Day of another country. 

One netizen went a step further by spewing a hateful and tasteless comment referencing their dark skin tone.

The Facebook post containing these comments has since been deleted. However, it had already caught the attention of many, Thiruben included. 

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Thiruben, 20, addressed the issue in an Instagram post on Monday (Aug 2).

To put matters to bed, he said: "Everyone in my family is a Singapore citizen. My siblings and I were born and bred here."

His post, which has garnered over 21,000 likes at the time of writing, included screenshots of the racist and xenophobic comments hurled at him and his family.

On top of that, Thiruben shared a couple of photos of him at athletic events representing Singapore.

"I myself have been representing Singapore in athletics since I was 15 years old," Thiruben said.

In fact, he set a national Under-18 400m record when he was participating at the World U-18 Championships back in 2017. 

Thankfully, there were also plenty of netizens who highlighted the problem on social media and sent love and support to Thiruben and his family. 

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Tanjong Pagar MP Alvin Tan shared his thoughts on the incident in a Facebook post on Monday afternoon.

He mentioned that it was important to put up National Day banners featuring people from various walks of life, celebrating the rich multicultural diversity of the residents.

"Unfortunately, some groups and individuals have taken a photo of one banner featuring an Indian family, asking why the banner did not feature other races," he said.

These remarks "do not and should not represent who we are as a people," he wrote.

"Thankfully, many others are now speaking up against such comments and representing the multicultural and open Singapore that many of us are working towards. We can do better and we should continuously strive to do better." 

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amierul@asiaone.com