Tan Boon Lee. He’s educated. He’s a lecturer. He’s unrepentant. About one week ago, he told one Parkash off that he is preying on Chinese girls, and her parents are disgraced.
He lectured at Ngee Ann Poly. He is an engineer. Now, Tan has not only made racist insults, he is also against religion. And usually, students have fond memories of their teachers, but not for Tan.
After his public fiasco with Parkash and his girlfriend, his student, Ms Nurul Fatimah Iskandar, 22, came forward to tell ST that 4 years ago, Tan “opened websites about Islam and explained why he didn’t agree with certain Quranic verses. He then singled (Nurul) out, and tried to start a debate on the topic. It didn’t help that (Nurul) was the only Muslim student in class and (she) sat in the front row.”
Mm...there’s nothing wrong with an open and goodwill discussion, but Tan, who was Nurul’s lecturer and being much older than her (he’s 60 now), should have known that the context or setting is wholly inappropriate, and his tactics are underhanded and smacks of a bully, putting a minority lady sitting in front on the spot.
Mind you, Tan also made disparaging comments about Christianity in class, according to one Instagram user. That caused an outrage amongst the students.
Nurul said she didn’t speak up because he was her lecturer and he was the same person grading her. She didn’t want to jeopardise her chances of getting a scholarship. This was four years ago.
While Ngee Ann Poly had suspended Tan, and said that it has a zero tolerance approach on such racist conduct from their staff, Nurul said she “finally mustered the courage to send an e-mail to the school about what happened. She never got a response.”
Another former student was asked by Tan to take off her hijab in class. She said: “The hijab that I am proud of wearing became something that I felt ashamed of when he was around.”
Lesson? I guess there is no smoke without fire. Tan is basically hardcore, and he is proud about it. I would expect a person of such credentialed standing, teaching in a tertiary institution that aims to open hearts and minds, to not just teach with knowledge, but character, understanding and humility.
It is one thing to inspire your students, give them the tools to learn the trade, and prepare them for the world out there. It is another thing altogether for Tan to humiliate and degrade. As a senior person holding such revered authority, Tan had abused it because he cannot accept that he can be wrong. I believe being right for him is an obsession and a form of prided exhibitionism.
And although he is helping the police to investigate, which I felt was a clear-cut case as shown in the video, he never once came out to say that he is sorry. That is, sorry for accusing a stranger for being a predator and the girl for being a disgrace to her parents.
Tan in fact reminded me of the ebenezer scrooge who despises Christmas. However, in his case, he is a Scrooge who despises any alternative views that are against his own. He is so firmly entrenched in his high tower of confirmation bias that he has no patience for anyone who holds another view.
Maybe the many years of lecturing, being placed in a pedestal position where his young students are often made to submit to his warped ideas on race and religion, has made and defined the man for who he is today. It is either my way or the highway.
And of peculiar interest for me is that Nurul did complain four years ago. She did write the email to the school. But she said she did not get a reply from the school. I think Ngee Ann Poly will need to reply to that.
Let me just say here that I know it is difficult to ensure her many lecturers make a conscious effort to draw the line when it comes to race and religion. And it is expected that some of them may just cross the guarded threshold once in a while.
But for someone like Tan, it is much more than occasionally stealing away moments to cross the line. His conduct, in public and classrooms, was and is one where he openly crossed it, pitched a tent on the other side, and then proudly hurled stones at those who conscientiously abided by the respected line. Some of whom were even his vulnerable students.
Though we ought to give the respected institution a benefit of a doubt, there is always that lingering thought that at most times, they may feel that Tan is up to his antics again, and it’s thus better to just let dead dogs lie than to stir the hornet’s nest of negative publicity concerning the possible reality that amongst her stable of lecturers, they may have unwittingly allowed a self-smug, unyielding, and self-referential staff in her payroll, and freely roaming in her backyard.
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