Singapore polytechnic to sack lecturer over racist remarks against Indian-Chinese descent couple

Singapore, June 17

A lecturer at a polytechnic in Singapore is being sacked for serious misconduct for allegedly making racist remarks against an Indian-Chinese descent couple, according to a media report on Thursday.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) said it is in the process of sacking senior lecturer Tan Boon Lee for serious misconduct.

This comes after a video posted on June 6 of Tan making racist remarks to an interracial couple in Orchard Road went viral online.

Tan was captured in a video arguing with Dave Parkash, a Singaporean who is half-Indian and half-Filipino, about dating a woman who is half-Chinese and half-Thai.

He also accused Parkash of being racist for not “marrying” an Indian girl.

This was followed by an Instagram post on June 9 by the NP (polytechnic) alumna Nurul Fatimah Iskandar, who alleged that Tan had made Islamophobic comments in a class in 2017.

The polytechnic said it decided to sack Tan after completing its internal investigations into both incidents.

It has charged Tan, a lecturer at the School of Engineering, with a serious breach of its staff code of conduct, and “is proceeding to terminate his service”.

"Our staff members are expected to respect cultural, ethnic and religious differences in our society. They must uphold secularity and impartiality at all times..." The Straits Times quoted NP's statement on Thursday.

"The disciplinary action meted out against the staff in question reflects our commitment to provide a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for our campus community," the statement said.

Police are investigating both incidents.

In her Instagram post, Nurul, now 22 and a student at the National University of Singapore, said she had reported Tan's insensitive comments to NP at the time.

NP also apologised for the distress that Tan's comments caused Nurul, and said it has offered her counselling support. — PTI 

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