New bid to foster racial harmony

last SG · 2006-11-28T19:14:04+00:00

The origin of the quota system for HDB Estates has to do more with the fear of the Ruling Party with one particular minority ethnic community being concentr...

oxford mushroom SG

From next year, youths of different races will have more opportunities to live in one anothers homes in a bid to promote cultural exchange and better understanding of other races.

Speaking at the the HarmonyWorks! Conference held yesterday at the ITE College East, Mr Zainudin, chairman of the Central Singapore Joint Social Service Centre, told students that the centre will organize a series of activities to strengthen cooperation and understanding between youths of various races. This will be done in association with self-help groups and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports beginning next year.

(Translated from Lianhe Zaobao, 26 Nov; http://www.zaobao.com/sp/sp061126_504.html)

This is a step in the right direction. Increasing interaction between children and young people of different races will help improve social cohesion at a time when races have been pulled apart by religious and cultural differences in western nations.

BillyBong SG

It's all fine and dandy that the chairman of the CSJSSC is eager to organize functions to 'foster' stronger ties between various races.

But as with govt functions, they all have one fatal flaw: the reliance on participation or 'forced participation'.

Such events fail despite publicity to the contrary because the event does not reach the right people. Events such as these should be practiced in Schools right from the onset to inculcate the right values in our young. The second area where mindset needs to change is the home, where bigoted parents continue to sway the mindset of their children despite the teachings at schools.

To some extent, this 'brainwashing' practice is akin to the preachings of pastors and clerics and the misinformed can be easily influenced, especially in conservative societies like SG.

justcooler SG

wa man right on the spot Razz

miserable SG

Hey, I thought we had this progamme implemented like 30+ years ago under the name of "National Service" ? Laughing

mistyblue SG

waste time and waste money

LazerLordz SG

The idea is good and noble, but the implementation, we’ll have to wait and see… let’s hope it doesn’t get cursed with the same moniker as coerced volunteerism.

Atobe SG

Is this not one more government inspired distraction to occupy the Singaporean agenda, and draw attention away from the glaring events that are of larger national concern - such as the loss of S$3 BILLION in PUBLIC FUNDS in the wasted Shin Corp debacle; as well as the 2% GST increases that come on top of a string of price increases on all essential utilities and public services and fuel costs ?

Another round of nationalistic " inspirational " push at national cohesion, in the face of the additional burdens created by the Government.

Should we do them a favor in general public obedience ?

FORTY FIVE Years of such National Education - and yet the current generation has lost direction, and need to be revitalize to this national concept of racial harmony ?

How did this atmosphere of racial disharmony set in despite the supposed watchful eyes from the Government sacntioned grass-root organisations ?

If we review the National Day Address from the various Prime Ministers that Singapore had over the last forty five years, the address towards a certain minority section of our Singapore Community, had always sounded condescending - lecturing at the progress or degression of their community in relation to the other Singaporean communities.

The dividing lines of the ethnic groups have been exacerbated unwittingly by the government sanctioned " mother-tongue " campaigns - not in dialects but in the promotion of the languages, as in Chinese with Mandarin, Indians with Tamil, and Malay with the Bahasa Melayu.

With the Chinese forming the majority, the emphasis for the Chinese to relearn the supposed "mother-tongue MANDARIN" can only create an atmosphere of insecurity to the other minority races - which had resulted in the Government having to make repeated reassuring statements, and create new programs to enhance the teaching of the other minority mother-tongues.

The spill over effect of the Mother-Tongue programs was the heightened conciousness in differences, and awakeing to the usefullness and disadvantages of the minority mother-tongues in a setting where the a single ethnic group is the majority in all sphere of economy.

This has emboldened some businesses to make clear their preferences for certain preferred ethnic language in the employment advertisements, which largely cut out the opportunities opened to the minority communities.

What other choices are there left for the minority races except to be more assertive in their political pressence through adopting of "ambiguous religious dictates" - such as the tudong, which basically is accepting an unknown practice as a desired precept, and making a political statement for the community ?

If after forty-five years, we still cannot incalcate into the newer generations this racial harmony concept, it will mean that the previous generations have not accepted those earlier programs to help pass it on within the home environment.

Should a failed program continue ?

oxford mushroom SG

It is going to be applied to students and it's going to be voluntary from what I understand. But if forced participation is what's necessary to ensure racial harmony and understanding, I am for it.

At least the government is doing something proactive about this issue, unlike other political parties. It is not surprising that during the last election it was the votes from the minority races in marginal constituencies that tipped the balance in favour of the ruling party.

Sagara SG

Forced participation will only backfire and do more harm than good.

'A' does not like malay food. He gets sent to a malay family for 3 days. They cook for him but he goes out and eat macdonald's.

Nothing good will come out from it if this is the way it's going to be implemented.

Chelzea SG

Laughing

NT2 SG

'B' is a muslim and he gets sent to a chinese family owing Kway Chup business. will he survived? Twisted Evil

BillyBong SG

In this regard, you're shooting the forest and missing all the trees.

How can any other 'political party' besides the govt set policy? With an overwhelming (and somewhat embarrassing) majority in parliament and the fact that they staff all positions in govt, how can anyone BUT the govt drive such directives across?

Can the WP and SDA combined even have any hope of driving important issues? Any attempt will draw sarcastic flak from the MIW as trying to gain 'political mileage' rather than for the good of the people as witnessed in recent potshots in parliament; exactly what we have come to expect from a politically insecure ruling party.

Till this date, they have quietly skirted the issues of whose monies are being used for joint upgrading programme and completely avoided the failed issue of means testing, a subject raised by the WP during the recent elections.

And if our govt still cannot drive home the importance of racial acceptance against tolerance and requires the use of 'forced participation', can we still deny ourselves from being labelled the totalitarian state run by ONE man's warped vision for democracy?

Can one be forced to live in another person's house simply to 'wayang' the figures to show that such a policy was 'successful' in its implementation? Do we intend to degrade from a society of substance into a stage pre-set with all the smoke and dagger complete with props to boot for a 'world-class' encore?

LazerLordz SG

Enforced particpation removes the propensity to voluntary seek out cross-cultural understanding.It only seeks to harden people against the very same aim, indirectly. This is classical behaviour. It's not hard to miss.

Punitive measures to compel people to perform an act, is just a lazy excuse for failure to create an atmosphere that allows people to internalise their want to reach out and integrate. Atmosphere is influenced by pre-existing policy.

This is where we must tread carefully. Being the government does not mean you wield the heavy hand. The authority must be subordinate to the will of the people, ultimately.

Like I've said, if it's voluntary and good examples come out of this program, I'm all in support for it. In fact, I'm very supportive of community based projects which are citizen startups, this is because they would know the nuances and population/social dynamics of their own local precinct much better than a central planner.

However, your suggestion of forced participation is extremist and is quite unwarranted.

W.R.T to your last point, it's always been the case thus far, not just in the recent elections. Although, I must say that the current immigration policy might have some impact on their voting in the next elections, if not managed well.

Atobe SG

Is there no other creative alternative to an otherwise supposedly educated PhD mind ?

What ever happened to thinking out-of-the-box, or has years of chasing the letters caused one to be disassociated with the Real World ?

How much more cynical should we be for your kind - and your autocratic idols - to depend on force when in the face of desparation ?

FORTY-FIVE years of constant drilling - of the values of racial harmony - has brought us nowhere, are we "driving in the right lane", or has there been changes to the "traffic rules" that contradicted the "basic traffic laws" ?

From the "brilliance" in your PhD thought process, can we believe your speculation that "during the last election it was the votes from the minority races in marginal constituencies that tipped the balance in favour of the ruling party" ?

Are you referring to the Malaysian politics, when the internal dissension had split UMNO, putting the prospects of the Barisan Nasional in the hands of the component partners represented by MCA and MIC ?

If the balance had tipped in favor of the ruling party in marginal constituencies, how will you explain a politically 'safe' constituency headed by PM LHL seen a result of 33.3% of counted votes in favor of UNKNOWN NEWBIEs from the WP, when PM LHL had expected to win an overwhelming majority of at least 80% ?

Is there such a "marginal constituency" in Singapore ?

If the minorities had voted in favor of the ruling party, all the newbies introduced by the various Alternative Parties would have been wiped out in Election 2006.

Surprisingly, the NEWBIES won credible percentages in ALL CONTESTED CONSTITUENCIES.

PM LHL would have consolidated his position by showing a SIMILARLYstrong election results as that achieved in the last election under the leadership of GCT.

oxford mushroom SG

Hear hear! From the defeated soldier in the battlefield, " They only managed to shoot off one of my legs.." Laughing

Read the post-election analysis: had it not been for the support of the Malays in particular in some marginal seats, the results could have gone the other way. The Opposition parties have not managed to win the confidence of minority races.

But your usual rants detract from the point of this thread. The government's initiative to foster racial harmony by encouraging greater interaction among our young is definitely a step in the right direction.

People like you will always oppose everything the government does. but that's just why Singaporeans cannot afford to have more Opposition party members in Parliament. If Opposition Party MPs behave like you and object to everything even if it is for the good of the nation, it will distract legislators from doing the real job of governing the nation.

Herzog_Zwei SG

Is the government doing a good job governing? As for the greying population, the government is asking for foreign talents to become Singaporeans. The old "Stop at 2" policy is not reversed and has worsen the growth of Singapore on the whole. Sooner or later, it's going to become the "Hotel Singapore" scenario. Racial harmony is just a plain stopgap before anarchy breaks loose.

oxford mushroom SG

That's why I said, "..if forced participation is what's necessary to ensure racial harmony and understanding, I am for it."

The program is a voluntary one and it works best without compulsion. However, for students have committed racist crimes or made racist remarks like the blogger who was convicted some time ago, it would not be amiss that part of the punishment is to force them to work in a Muslim voluntary organisation, which was what happened.

I am a pragmatist. As long as it works, do it! I don't think enforced participation for all will do the job, but if that is what's necessary for some, then enforce it for that group.

fymk SG

Originally posted by oxford mushroom:

That's why I said, "..[b]if forced participation is what's necessary to ensure racial harmony and understanding, I am for it."

The program is a voluntary one and it works best without compulsion. However, for students have committed racist crimes or made racist remarks like the blogger who was convicted some time ago, it would not be amiss that part of the punishment is to force them to work in a Muslim voluntary organisation, which was what happened.

I am a pragmatist. As long as it works, do it! I don't think enforced participation for all will do the job, but if that is what's necessary for some, then enforce it for that group.[/b]

I got along with Malay and Tamil classmates pretty well when I was studying in Singapore. Got invited to hari raya celebration, Deepavali celebrations or even weddings. I stayed over at their places as well . Some of them lifelong friends now. They pick up chinese from me and I pick up their slangs in their language when we were young. And all without a campaign like this. We all know the importance of social integration since history teaches us about the days of riots.

I noticed that some people have the tendency to make fun of other races regardless. This is because of their upbringing - parents passing on racist values to them instead of common courtesy to respect others different. If any kid makes a racist remark , maybe it is time to look at the parents as well .

And look at your so-called foreign talents that the government invited in as well i.e. PRCs, indians from india. In Australia, I met alot of them - they just don't integrate well with the general population in terms of culture acceptance . Tell them that they did something wrong with a good reason why and you get labelled by their group a racist or something else. This is my example from Australia. They NEED integration themselves because they will be the cause of tensions if they fail to integrate. Whites- we no need to say lah - some locals still have colonial mindsets that white is always right .....even up in the echelons of power - they integrate on their terms.

I see no use in doing stupid campaigns like that . It sounds like more of a novelty item and has a tendency to put people on the guard if enforced - hence increasing tension.

The last time I heard someone say as " long as it works , do it" ..... stagnation was his downfall. We need someone to say " let's look at another angle on how to further improve harmony " .

fymk SG

Why are we even putting which ethnic group supports what?

66.6% - strong what?

If the government has to use this tactic to initiate fostering racial harmony , then it is akin to sweeping dirt under the carpet and pretending the floor is all clean because surely does it not tell you that Singaporeans are not integrating properly to the point that the young have to stay at each other's house to "foster harmony"?

Opposition parties are never strong because there never have been much political freedom . Although the old guards of PAP formed the foundation of modern Singapore , it does not mean that the new guards are good. I recall an old cantonese saying : First generation builds, Second generation maintains, Third generation wastes. Which generation of government are we in now ,O LEARNEd one?

LazerLordz SG

It's hard not to miss your last point. The third generation usually, in a classical sense, has to go for an IPO before it goes under.

Wink Laughing