The next person who says they’re not proud of the silver medal our table tennis girls got, I’m gonna whack the hell out of them.

We have to stop saying that the girls are from China and they’re not born and did not grow up in Singapore. Ronald Susilo studied in Singapore since he was young but still known as an Indonesian. WHEN WILL YOU GET THAT THEY ARE SINGAPOREANS NOW?

How can a foreigner-became-Singaporean athlete be proud to represent us if we don’t even give them support? If we only see them as “from China”, “from Indonesia”, “from wherever”… Some of my friends mention that it is because I’m not living in Singapore now, that I have this patriotism thing going on. WRONG. Even when I was still living in Singapore, I’ve always tried to participate in my local community events. But that’s not my point now.

Seriously, we have to start accepting that we are a small country that NEEDS FOREIGN TALENT. Especially in the area of sports, until parents allow their children to take part in sports seriously and train to be a future athlete to represent Singapore. But 98% of parents will never allow that, they would rather their son/daughter excel in languages, Mathematics, Science or music but never will they allow sports.

It is not easy to give up your citizenship. Whether you did it for career, fame or money, it is not easy. No doubt the money is tempting but please quit saying they’re here SOLELY for the money. Some of the retired athletes got married and settled down in Singapore. They could have gone back to their motherland, China since both husband and wife were born and grew up in China but they didn’t. Most of these athletes are adapting to the Singaporean lifestyle so why can’t we, as Singapore-born and bred, learn to accept them and to welcome them with open arms.