This entry in a textbook (supposedly named ATLAS - but nobody seems to know who is the publisher and where exactly is this book being used) has caused an uproar because of the offensive comment that 'Malays are generally the poorest group." A quick glance at comments left by angry Singaporeans in various websites reveals that in addition to the totally unnecessary comment about the Malay's economic condition (even if it can be supported by actual facts and statistics, as some people insisted), something else in that little bit of description has caught the attention of many Singaporeans. "the newer Mandarin-speakers are now well integrated". Every comment which referred to this line assumes that the 'newer Mandarin-speakers' refer to the PRC immigrants in recent years, and responded in disbelief that anyone could suggest that they are well integrated. 

The description is extremely misleading, but I am almost confident that the textbook wasn't referring to the PRC immigrants, but the Chinese immigrants who came to Singapore after the British founded modern Singapore (i.e. the forefathers of the vast majority of Singaporean Chinese). I say this because these 'newer Mandarin-speakers' are differentiated from the 'English-speaking Straits Chinese' who are obviously the Chinese who have assimilated into Southeast Asia long before (i.e. the Peranakans), hence it cannot be referring to the recent PRC immigrants. 

Why do I say that the description is misleading? Because many of these early immigrants are NOT 'Mandarin-speakers' - having come from the southern parts of China before Mandarin Chinese was established as the lingua franca when PRC was formally instilled as a country in 1949. The vast majority of these Chinese (my grandfather's generation) spoke little to no Mandarin. A very poorly written description indeed for what is supposed to be a textbook. 

But I am also alarmed at how the people who thought that the 'Mandarin-speakers' referred to the PRCs have such poor understanding of our country's history, and are so unacquainted with the idea of 'English-speaking Straits Chinese' versus the 'newer Chinese (NON-MANDARIN) immigrants'. We are a sad nation indeed.