Subana Hall
Racial unity is often one of the highlights of ministerial speeches here in Singapore. Singapore is after all a manufactured society of different races.
No one racial or religious community can claim to be the natives of this land because every race and religion has contributed to the country’s success.
Therefore, the government would find it an uphill struggle if it tries to influence people’s thinking about lifestyle, having babies or device ways to gather different races to have weekend gatherings.
It would work no better than our 30 years of courtesy campaigns.
Individuals’ mindset on religion and race, just like mannerisms, is inarguably determined by factors far more influential than the government itself: they are family, educators, friends and self-awareness.
Instead of trying to achieve the impossible, that is making everyone become one happy race, we should open up our eyes to the differences and aim for strength in diversity.
Diversity is healthy and this is the notion that should be reinforced with the younger generation.
The reality is: There will always be likes and dislikes amongst humans.
In an ideal world, all humans will be able to accept differences. In the real world, this is not always achievable. History tells us so.
Therefore, people need to know that it is absolutely normal to be unable to accept or agree with each other’s views – as long as they can tolerate it, respect it and remain friends.
Tolerance need not always equate to acceptance.
Being different is natural. Even our fingerprints are unique.
I tell my children that people are like the colours of the rainbow. The different colours make the rainbow beautiful, just like the different people on this planet.
Can you imagine a rainbow with one colour or a world with one race or one religion? How less interesting that would be.
I am hoping that in years to come, rather than becoming colour blind, my children will learn to enjoy and appreciate the colours all around them.
Resistance and resilience
Fortunately, the young today are able to keep up to date with news developments amid the world of internet and citizen journalism and are likely to be aware of the perils of religious and racial fallout.
Especially after the Mumbai terror attack that claimed the life of a fellow Singaporean, and the recent Jakarta bombings.
Individuals in Singapore need to build a character strong enough to resist undesirable intruders and infiltrators with the intent to destroy the society.
Again, it is my firm belief that families, educators and friends play a bigger role in building such character than the government.
The government can play a vital part by having sound policies in place to ensure that none of the racial groups feel sidelined, threatened, inferior, superior or disadvantaged.
Even simple things matter such as the daily encounters people have with food vendors at the food courts. Every race should be able to order its desired food from a stall without struggling to communicate with the vendors. I know that I have struggled several times restricting myself to only English speaking stall operators. However, I am mature enough to tolerate it and function around it.
Equal opportunities, equal rights and equal recognition are what a country has to aspire for to ensure true racial harmony. This is what the future leaders need to bear in mind.
Race for Life
Most Singaporeans have friends from other races not because the government has told them to do so.
During social functions, no one hands out invitations to match the racial ratio the government aims to sustain.
Instead, friends of different races mingle because they want to and that’s how it should be.
The different races in Singapore are getting along well because they are able to manage their differences and work with their similarities.
While we worry a great deal about racial harmony, we need to also realise that sometimes, there is only so much guidance and reminders the government can bear on its shoulders.
It can’t blanket the future generation to protect them from all evils.
One of the reasons why MM Lee and his team were successful in developing this country to its mammoth economic success is because their minds were challenged and stretched with the unexpected events and there was no one giving them the ‘paternal’ guidance or direction.
The best leadership and guidance and resilience often emerge from tumultuous conditions.
If we protect the society and young leaders too much from the perils we fear, it becomes a sheltered and cushioned society that we have today.
At times, nature will take its course whether we like it or not, and when that happens we must hope that the years of racial harmony will prevail and the people of this country will ride through the storm united, just like our past leaders did.
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Headline picture from jewcy.com.
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Why our own citizen with Phd from Stanford university has to
resort to become a taxi driver to earn a living ?
Is foreign talent more economical to govt than our own talent ?
Read the blog below.
http://taxidiary.blogspot.com/2009/04/preface.html
The Singaporean society is not just CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others) now. There are lots of Vietnamese, Indonesians, Caucasians…Well, they could be classified as ‘others’ I guess. But it is very different from the ‘others’ we had even 10 years ago. Now we don’t have just little Indias, Chinatowns and Malay villages, but Peninsula Plaza and the surrounding area is now known as ‘little Myanmar’ and we have little Thailand and so on. It is this import of foreign talent from the various nation, who choose to live in enclaves, that may tear at the social fabric of the nation. When there is no common language to bind the various people in the country, they react much more easily to rumours and hearsays. This is why we need every immigrant to Singapore to master at least the spoken English language.
Racism leads to double tragedy in Dresden, Germany.
An Egyptian pharmacist Marwa al-Sherbini was murdered by being stabbed 18 times in a Dresden courtroom, in front of her 3-year-old son, judges and other witnesses.
The court was hearing an appeal by the stabber on his fine for insulting Ms. Sherbini in a park. The stabber is a 28-year-old Russian-born German named Alex W.
He had called Ms. Sherbini an Islamist, a terrorist and a slut when she asked him to make room for her son on the playground swings. Ms. Sherbini wore a head scarf.
The killer also stabbed Elwi Okaz, Ms. Sherbini’s husband and a genetic research scientist, who was critically wounded as he tried to defend her. The police, arriving late on the scene, mistook him for the attacker and shot him in the leg.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/arts/15abroad.html?pagewanted=1
sometimes it’s about upbringingreceived since young..
be it from parents or guardians, educators, social circle and environment one is attached to and even so, society as a whole. Of course government initiatives and policies paly a part if they genuinely want a cohesive national identity or a race conscious set of policies coupled with plastic racial harmony covering.
Children are sweet an innocent when they r young. Place them in a kindergarten or childcare centre, they disregard differences and get along well with their fellow peers.
Irresponsible adults mould stereotypical perspectives injecting into young ones until they progress into their adulthood. One can see how parents would warn their children not to hang out with pple of bad company or not be too influenced by certain qualities or traits some of their friends have. That’s fine, it’s a concern issue in parenthood. But prejudical social values are taught when such warnings comes with racial identification.
Read Bill Clinton’s My life…when he was very young, he made a simplistic yet degrading comment on his negro peers in his neighbourhood. The tight slept he got form his grand daddy is a big leasson learnt for him which he remembers for life after that….
this morning i share table at kopitiam with a malay lady. she eating lontong from the muslim stall and i eat my bak-chor mee. still can chit chat. i really love the close singaporeans have, regardless of race or religion.
govt took a long time to build this up. it is a delicate balance. lose the balance and be prepared to see blood shed.
thank you singapore for bringin us closer together as singaporeans!
India and China have healthy real GDP growth of 8.9% and 10.8% (2003-2007) respectively. And save for some upheavals, these trends are projected to continue.
Economists are predicting that between 2035 to 2040, the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China and recent added Vietnam) will overtake the G6 (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US).
Ultimately, I believe, the migrants will decide if, by going back, they benefit more, or by staying, they benefit more.
We can safely assume that as India and China take centrestage, many Indian and Chinese migrants may wave us goodbye and head home. We can assume that some Singaporeans of Indian and Chinese ancestries, will be tempted to follow.
I also know of Pinoy, Bangladesh and Burmese who said that they will do everything to stay in Singapore because going back means facing bleak, rundown economies with low employment and poor future prospects.
Over time, we may not end up with the ideal situation as wished for the PAP, ie to draw fresh blood from India and China to replace ourselves and to boost our birth rates.
We may end up drawing migrants whose social habits, religion and work ethics don’t fit into our social-economic profile. In the worse case scenerio, we may end up searing and stroking racial tension.
I think we will still see an influx of foreigners after all. Only time will tell if the bulk will stay or leave. Or for certain racial group, eventually to depart, leaving the vacuum to other races, hereby tilting the racial balance further and further – beyond recognition.
PM’s speech has no more punch at all. Anyway, after the last few years of his actions not consistent with his words, I will never believe in whatever he says in any public speeches such as the National Day Speech or the National Day Rally Speech.
From the way things are going on and the way the top leaders are talking and acting, I have decided to prepare myself to leave Singapore. Frankly, I do no see a good future for my children and future generations to continue to slog it out in this tiny resourceless island which is being totally controlled and manipulated by a few elitist and selfish leaders, who only care for GDP growth because their own salaries and bonuses are pitched to the GDP growth.
Moreover, these people who persist to stay in power at whatever costs have run out of new ideas and are not innovative enough to bring Singapore a good future. The writings are already on the wall a few years back, just before LHL “forcefully” took over from GCT, i.e. when the MNCs started leaving in droves from greener pastures.
For those who can and willing, it is better to start a new life somewhere else than to stay on and on without any possibility of a better future at the end of the tunnel. This is my advice which I am giving to myself. Make hay while the sun still shines.
“govt took a long time to build this up. it is a delicate balance. lose the balance and be prepared to see blood shed.”
Dear koyomin,
The govt did not build this up, we the people of Singapore did.
In fact the govt is playing up racial differences, while “promoting” racial and religious harmony ad nauseum (very useful as a diversional tactic). Divide and conquer anyone?