It was after 2100 when I was picked up by step-dad, Lawrence, from Changi Airport. Roaming charges in Singapore are quite reasonable and I was able to ring him from inside the plane before disembarking, so that I didn’t have to wait too long.
Back at Lawrence’s place, Mum had been out and was dropped back by Jacob (nephew of Lawrence) and his wife Janet. They had all been to church together.
Conversation with Jacob turned unpleasant rather quickly. He ripped in to Malaysia’s government’s policies and political situation. He hoped that the political battle between various parties will lead to self-destruction of the nation. Just because I’m of Chinese ethnicity, he expected me to be against my own country, Malaysia, and side with Chinese-majority Singapore. It doesn’t work that way for me. He also questioned New Zealand’s viability as a small country.
His true colours are really showing. Hateful and un-neighbourly, despite deeply Christian. I had sensed some hate towards Malaysia on an earlier visit when I talked about eating “Malaysian food” in New Zealand. I sensed objection to that term as he may have considered it “Singapore food”. And when I showed him my travel photos of Yemen, his comments were quite disparaging of the people too.
I was pleased to be rid of him and have my first night’s sleep in Singapore.