Friday, January 20, 2012

Kochie on Racism: Same Story Same Ignorance

David Koch's Angels panel discussed racism on Thursday this week on Seven's Sunrise.


It's not the first time that Kochie has run the line that we are less racist than other countries, in particular our neighbours:
"Every nation is racist. Every nation has an element of racism. We live in a region surrounded by mono-cultures. Talk about racism. Go to Japan. Go to Malaysia. Go to the Philippines. No comparison. We're pretty tolerant." When Ignorance Equals Racism.
He's even using the same songbook: "Every country's racist , Bec. It's just the degree. We're surrounded in this region by monocultures. Japan is way more racist than we are. The Indonesians are. That's not to say it doesn't happen here and it's still unacceptable."

The idea that we are surrounded is clearly emotive piffle. Images from the 1960s of the yellow hordes spring to mind. His definition of culture is unstated but if it includes ethnicity, language or religion then his ignorance of nations such as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines is astounding. If he is to judge Japan then Koch should also include India.

A few stats from the CIA World Factbook:

Ethnic Groups

Indonesia: Javanese 40.6%, Sundanese 15%, Madurese 3.3%, Minangkabau 2.7%, Betawi 2.4%, Bugis 2.4%, Banten 2%, Banjar 1.7%, other or unspecified 29.9% (2000 census)

Malaysia: Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others 7.8% (2004 est.)

Philippines: Tagalog 28.1%, Cebuano 13.1%, Ilocano 9%, Bisaya/Binisaya 7.6%, Hiligaynon Ilonggo 7.5%, Bikol 6%, Waray 3.4%, other 25.3% (2000 census)

Singapore: Chinese 76.8%, Malay 13.9%, Indian 7.9%, other 1.4% (2000 census)

India: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)

Religions

Indonesia: Muslim 86.1%, Protestant 5.7%, Roman Catholic 3%, Hindu 1.8%, other or unspecified 3.4% (2000 census)

Malaysia: Muslim (or Islam - official) 60.4%, Buddhist 19.2%, Christian 9.1%, Hindu 6.3%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 2.6%, other or unknown 1.5%, none 0.8% (2000 census)

Philippines: Catholic 82.9% (Roman Catholic 80.9%, Aglipayan 2%), Muslim 5%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo 2.3%, other Christian 4.5%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.6%, none 0.1% (2000 census)

Singapore: Buddhist 42.5%, Muslim 14.9%, Taoist 8.5%, Hindu 4%, Catholic 4.8%, other Christian 9.8%, other 0.7%, none 14.8% (2000 census)

India: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

Languages

Indonesia: Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay), English, Dutch, local dialects (of which the most widely spoken is Javanese)

Malaysia: Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai
note: in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan

Singapore: Mandarin (official) 35%, English (official) 23%, Malay (official) 14.1%, Hokkien 11.4%, Cantonese 5.7%, Teochew 4.9%, Tamil (official) 3.2%, other Chinese dialects 1.8%, other 0.9% (2000 census)

Philippines: Filipino (official; based on Tagalog) and English (official); eight major dialects - Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan

India: Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9%

Koch added that, "We have to work hard to get better at being more accepting." Part of getting better is to work at overcoming our ignorance of other countries, rather than just lumping them together as monocultures.

No comments:

Post a Comment