*[Update: Feb. 2]  In a Facebook post published this evening, Mr Tan has extended his sincerest apologies to local Indians. Mr Tan has also said that he did not mean to be racist, and did not mean any disrespect. 

Former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian published a somewhat racist post late last night. We say 'somewhat' because it is possible that people interpret the post as ignorant, or funny instead (who are we to tell you what to think?).

At least 100 people 'Liked' the post.

Anyway, here's the offending/quasi-offending Facebook post in the form of a screen capture, because Tan then proceeded to delete it.

Photo credit: Benjamin Lee

Here's an exhaustive number of reasons why people might find it offensive:

1. Tan's remarks may be interpreted as him suggesting that Indians can only reside in Mumbai, not Singapore.

2. It's hard to believe that Tan took the pictures of these fellas without asking for permission. That makes him a Stomper or a stalker. The Internet world detests both.

3. Tan's remarks may suggest that he believes all Indians come from Mumbai, India. That's not very wise considering the man once ran for president and taking into account Singapore's significant Indian population.

4. The "Hahaha." makes it seem that he is trivialising the whole matter.

And here are three reasons why it isn't: 

1. In 2011, PAP MP Seng Han Thong attracted controversy after netizens accused him of singling out SMRT staff of certain ethnicities for their supposedly poor English. This was later reported to be a result of less-than-stellar PR skills, or political naivety, rather than racism. (Seng also apologised thereafter.)

2. Various reasons, that I, as a Chinese Singaporean, am not qualified to mention.

3. Would you be offended if someone took a picture of a few Koreans and said, "Boarded SMRT 857 and found that I was in Seoul? Hahaha."

Here's what we advise him to do:

Come clean. Acknowledge that his post might have offended some people, and provide some reasons why he felt that it was justified. Failing which, make an apology on social media.

And here's what he shouldn't do:

1) Keep quiet. 2) Or even worse, take the stupid easy way out and say his account got hacked. It didn't turn out well for Ello Ed Mundsel Bello. 3) Or worse still, slam your critics who are uncomfortable with the post.  #justsaying #crisiscontrol

Here's his latest FB post.

I think he chose the third option.

Refer to update above.

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