So the public has voted … and the new Singapore Idol is Sezairi.

Male. Malay. For the third time in all three competitions.

“This competition is flawed! So sexist and racist!” Sentiments that are currently being echoed on Twitter. In fact, as we speak, singapore idol and sezairi are in the top 10 trending topics there.

For the record, I texted “2” to 43657 ie. I voted for Sezairi. No, I did that not because I am Malay.

But I voted for Sezairi solely because in my humble opinion, I felt that he displayed better musicality. And, quoting what I saw posted on a friend’s facebook status, “Sylvia should have had a yellow card based on her rendition of Coldplay’s Yellow!” I really liked Sezairi’s renditions of Jamiroquai’s Virtual Insanity and Aerosmith’s Crazy instead.

I think I adopt a rather pragmatic approach here: While I do believe that Singapore is ready for a female Idol, this opinion was not enough to induce me to text “1” (for Sylvia) to 43657 simply because I felt that I preferred Sezairi’s singing more to Sylvia’s. (But of course, I must give Sylvia her due credit - she does seem rather down-to-earth, can generally hold a tune and will most likely stay on our radar for quite some time to come)

If you recall, in the first season of Singapore Idol, there was also this uproar over one of the contestants, Jerry. He was criticised for his apparent lack of singing capabilities, but still stayed on for several rounds in the competition because of huge support from City Harvest Church, which he attended. And, because of that, City Harvest Church drew quite abit of flak, claiming that most of his voters came from those churchgoers and they were just being biased.

Jerry’s case runs along the same vein as Sezairi’s. And, I believe that Mediacorp probably pre-empted the possible public opinion of the show’s results being rigged, which was why Gurmit Singh made a disclaimer before announcing the results; that the results were audited externally by KPMG to ensure fairness.

It just goes to show that the various races and religions here in Singapore will never completely be homogenous. To think otherwise would merely be to adopt a Utopian mindset. Racial and religious tolerance are generally present, but not so much of homogenity. It takes a singing competition in multi-culti Singapore to surface whatever underlying racial tensions there are … when more often than not, us Singaporeans prefer to sweep that issue under the rug.

Another friend, N, said, “If only we can find out the demographics of the voters. People should be entitled to only one vote each if they really wanted to choose the rightful(which is rather subjective I know) Singapore Idol. But of course money matters more to the sponsors.”

That’s right. Going by the demographics of Singapore, the Malays form a minority of the population and by doing so, never would there ever be a Malay Singapore Idol again. Nor would there be an Indian / Eurasian Singapore Idol and the like. Only the Chinese will be able to win each and every competition if that was the case. Wouldn’t that then be another case for contention?

How will the government attempt to reconcile these differences? On an individual level, how will we strive towards racial and religious homogenity too? Or, should we just aim to maintain racial tolerance? Ie,  I know that a member of your community won the latest Singapore Idol competition yet again, I have a general understanding of your culture, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t criticize your community. Because, insofar as my criticisms are concerned, I have no wish to spark off a racial fight anyway. And once this issue dies down, I will keep up with my general tolerance.

But hey, at least in light of this whole hullaballoo, and also in light of an article published recently about the Malay community having the lowest passing rate for Mathematics at the PSLEs …

If we Malays cannot count, at least we can sing ;)