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‘Cowardly act of hate’: Ho Ching slams social media doxxing of Temasek Holdings’ Indian employees

SINGAPORE — Temasek Holdings chief executive officer Ho Ching took to Facebook on Sunday (Aug 16) to call out social media posts which targeted the Indian employees of her firm and two banks, lambasting these acts of doxxing as “a cowardly act of hate”.

Mdm Ho Ching, the chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings, urged netizens not to dox individuals based on their race or nationality so as to “stir hate and hatred”.

Mdm Ho Ching, the chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings, urged netizens not to dox individuals based on their race or nationality so as to “stir hate and hatred”.

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  • Mdm Ho was responding to social media posts questioning why foreigners had been hired at three local firms
  • She urged netizens not to dox individuals based on their race or nationality
  • Those with a grievance should report the matter to relevant agencies or upgrade their skills, she said

 

SINGAPORE — Temasek Holdings chief executive officer Ho Ching took to Facebook on Sunday (Aug 16) to call out social media posts which targeted the Indian employees of her firm and two banks, lambasting these acts of doxxing as “a cowardly act of hate”.

“Is it acceptable to complain about unfair hiring practices? Sure it is, provided it is based on facts, and not hearsay and speculations. Is it acceptable to tarnish individuals, and dox them with photos and false claims? Nope, that’s a cowardly act of hate,” she said.

In the 438-word post, Mdm Ho, who is the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, also urged netizens not to dox individuals based on their race or nationality so as to “stir hate and hatred”.

Those with a grievance should report the matter to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), to the board of the company or to their regulator, or “better still… reskill, upskill, to remain relevant in a fast changing world”, she said.

Over the past week, the LinkedIn profiles of some Indian employees of Temasek, DBS Bank and Standard Chartered Bank were posted on social media by netizens questioning why these foreigners had been hired in these organisations instead of locals.

This came after MOM placed 47 employers on a watch list for potentially discriminatory hiring practices earlier this month. It was revealed that 30 of these companies were in the financial services and professional services sectors.

On Friday, Temasek issued a strongly worded statement to condemn the posts as “racist”, “false” and “divisive”. It also defended its hiring policies and called for more civility on social media.

“Some of our colleagues from India have been targeted recently on social media by a divisive, racist campaign. This makes us very angry at the false claims perpetuated. The Singaporeans among us are also ashamed at such hateful behaviour on the Singapore social media,” the investment company said.

Temasek said it had alerted Facebook about the posts, which were in clear breach of the platform’s own community guidelines on hate speech, adding that it “will continue to press them to be more active in stamping out such hate speech, wherever it occurs on their platforms.”

A spokesperson from Facebook told TODAY that the posts in question were reviewed and removed from Facebook “where we found content that violated our hate speech policies”. The company declined to reveal the number of posts that were reviewed and removed.

In addressing the make-up of its workforce, Temasek on Friday said Singaporeans form 60 per cent of those hired in its offices across eight countries. Of the remaining 40 per cent, 10 per cent of them are permanent residents here.

It also said that the top five countries that its staff come from, other than Singapore, are China (9 per cent), the United States (7 per cent), India (6 per cent), the United Kingdom (3 per cent) and Malaysia (3 per cent).

Temasek also revealed that among its 600-strong staff at its headquarters in Singapore, 90 per cent are Singapore citizens or permanent residents. This proportion remains “broadly the same” among senior leadership — those who are managing directors and above.

When chiming in on the saga on Sunday, Mdm Ho said: “Let’s not be fooled by anyone who tries to stir up racial biases that lurks beneath everyone of us. It is a very short distance between hating one’s nationality to one race and very soon, anyone who is different.”

She then stated that unfair practices can happen “anytime anywhere, regardless of race, language and religion”.

And while Singaporeans have an “ideal” of meritocracy regardless of race, language, or religion to uphold, they are not all “pure, innocent and just”, she said.

“We can be knowing or even unknowingly biased and prejudiced,” she said, pointing out that Singapore’s strength of diversity is also its weakness. “It takes work, effort, and self discipline to stay away from the emotional and divisive politics of hate.”

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Temasek Holdings Ho Ching Facebook doxxing

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