• Highlights
- Dr Eric Tan has kept a bullet hole in his window glass as a souvenir of the history.
- Dr Tan promoted and helped pass The Criminal Code Amendment for anti-racism.
- The top medicine student says he felt discouraged on his first day at uni.
The election of Sam Lim as the second Malaysian-born member of Parliament highlights the cultural diversity of the Tangney division.
But when Mr Lim and his family landed in WA in 2005, their new life was not always good, he says.
“Someone poured water [on us] and asked us to go back home,” he said, “and sometimes you would be sworn at when you passed by someone’s window.”
Mr Lim was undisturbed when he was confronted by racism, “it was a piece of cake, I would say ‘thank you, bye bye’, ” he said, “those people are too bad, and we are much better.”
While Mr Lim could wave and ignore the racist actions, it was a real threat for Dr Eric Tan, former Chancellor of Curtin University and former SBS Board Member, who migrated from Malaysia as an overseas student to WA in the 1960s.
Dr Tan pointed to a hole on the window glass of his house to SBS Chinese: “If you have a look…there is a bullet hole shot from…there during that time.”
Dr Tan pointed to a bullet hole in the window glass to SBS Chinese.
“The Chinese community had already been keeping in very low profile, and they didn't want to even let people know there is a Chinese community here,” said Dr Tan.
"But these people went to schools, when mothers took their kids to school, they were waiting there, they cursed them, put stickers on their cars, and scolded the children, and terrified the housewives.”
The escalating violence culminated with the firebombing of a Chinese restaurant at night, Dr Tan recalled.
Between 1984 and 1989, tens of thousands of street posts across Perth were covered with neo-Nazi posters with slogans such as “No Asians”, “No coloureds”, “White revolution”, according to a about Perth’s 1980s ‘fascist revolution’.
'Society was boiling'
The most disturbing event in the campaign occurred when Malaysian Chinese taxi driver Peter Tan was murdered, Dr Tan said.
“So I went to (WA) parliament and spoke to the Premier and said, ‘this must stop, cannot continue, got to do something’,” said Dr Tan.
“So, the society was boiling.”
A group of Asians called themselves Ninjia and wanted to fight against the racism group.
As the president of the Chung Wah Association between 1986 and 1990, Dr Tan believed that “it would become more and more violent, that would be terrible”.
People from 30 different communities got together in a restaurant, and they all supported to end of this violence, Dr Tan recalled, “And then I was able to go to the government, I got these communities, they are all supporting something to be done.”
The Australian Press Council introduced a Criminal Code Amendment (incitement to racial hatred) Bill into the Legislative Assembly in October 1989.
“During that time, I organised a concert, and a lot of communities sent dancers and singers to come and join us. Even the Australian Nationalist Movement sent people to the concert,” said Dr Tan.
“That was a very unhappy episode for the Chinese community here,“ Dr Eric Tan said. Source: SBS
A public meeting was held to encourage wide-ranging public debate, and Dr Tan presented a speech at the meeting as a public member of the Press Council and a leading Perth surgeon.
The Bill was eventually passed. The Criminal Code Amendment (Racist Harassment and Incitement to Racial Hatred) Act 1990 (WA) received the Royal Assent on 9 October 1990, according to the .
New chapter for the new members of the community
“Perth now… you saw [it] nice and peaceful,” Dr Tan said, but the bullet hole remains “a souvenir” for him.
“You find that there are always barriers for those people who come from a different land or different extraction,” said Dr Tan.
When he just arrived in Australia, he worked hard to qualify himself for medical school, but he was called to the chancellor’s office on the first day when he went to university.
“I was one of the five Asians that qualified. And I was the only one who wasn’t government-sponsored,” Dr Tan said, and he was told that they didn’t think he would pass the medicine course. “They said… ‘why don’t you give the place to somebody we think will pass the course?’” he recalled.
“I said ‘I’ve come a long way, and I should at least try’.”
And six years later, Dr Tan not only finished the course but also graduated as the top student for that year in medicine.
He tried to find the chancellor. “I went to find him and tried to tell him that he hadn’t wasted the opportunity on me. But he had gone already,” Dr Tan said.
“I think I learnt one thing in this lesson, that you’ve got to try to find opportunities for yourself.”
Speaking of Mr Lim’s success in the recent federal election, Dr Tan said he “is the person of the time”.
Sam Lim MP Source: SBS / SBS/ Ranky Law
When Mr Lim joined the Western Australian Police Force, “you can say 95 per cent [of my colleagues] are white,” he said. But the different livelihoods interweaved in their working and daily lives.
“Everyone knew that Sam didn’t drink, but they did take me with them every week when they drank,” Mr Lim told SBS Chinese, and he would go fishing, barbeque, and camping with his colleagues even though he never tried those activities.
On the other hand, his colleagues got used to the strong smell of nasi lemak, Malay cuisine. “After the first day I left, they (former colleagues) told me ‘Sam, we don’t smell that smell’, they missed that smell,” he said.
Ning Lai, a Malaysian Chinese migrant who completed high school and university in Perth, said the city was totally different from 18 years ago when she had just arrived.
Ning Lai believes WA has the best product in Australia. Source: SBS
As a Malaysian Chinese, she transferred her passion for food and wine to build up Project Women to support local charities that assisted victims of domestic violence.
Through her work and Project WOMN, she said she had built up strong connections with local Asian communities, local suppliers, and friends from diverse backgrounds.
She couldn’t stop emphasising how much she loved Perth and her life there.“WA is full of culture and the best fresh produce,” Ms Lai said.
“I think I will stay in Perth for a very long time.”
