Peaceful Co-Existence or Racial Harmony

A Reflection in Racial Harmony Month 2020

A nagging question persists in my mind: Do we have true racial harmony and integration, or do we merely coexist peacefully with one another?

When did you last reach within your souls in true introspection to re-examine what most of us have taken for granted — our racial harmony?

A few years ago, when I saw that my 10-year-old son did not know or have a Malay friend in his primary school, I shuddered at the thought that most of his schoolmates would also grow up quite alienated from an important ethnic group in their common communal fabric.

Indeed, how could they possibly understand the multiracial dynamics of our society when there are fewer than 10 Malay students scattered among the more than 2,000 children in his school?

Parents, and political leaders, should be mindful that as we ‘segregate’ our children into more ethnocultural or religiously ‘homogeneous’ schools, we also risk tearing apart the common communal fabric that most of us adults had painstakingly weaved and constructed through racially integrated housing estates, schools, laws and community grassroots organisations over the past 50+ years.

With so much effort and resources now deployed to send Chinese children to China for ‘cultural immersion’ programs, we should also dedicate time and resources to get schoolchildren into our own ‘multicultural immersion’ programs.

From the 911 event and current racial wars in the United States to our own Jemaah Islamiah (JI) saga and racist bloggers, and the various racial riots in Europe, United Kingdom, Sydney, and Paris, it is clear that a key solution to counter racism and racist tendencies lies in a greater acceptance of diversity that could demolish what a former Member of Parliament Zainudin Nordin referred to as the ‘insidious arguments about racial supremacy or culturally innate abilities’.

Differences in academic achievements should not be linked to artificial and false distinctions in religious beliefs and ethnic lifestyles, along with superior-inferior dimensions.

A greater acceptance of diversity requires a mental paradigm shift that begins by expanding the compassion in our hearts. Our common compassion for one another creates the communal space where we can bring all that we have to share for a better mutual understanding, and in which we can agree to disagree at times without acrimony because there exists a mutual acceptance of who we are.

OnePeople.SG is the National Movement for the promotion of racial harmony promised by our Pledge to create a just and equal society “regardless of race, language or religion”.

As a truly racially integrated and harmonious community, we must have deep feelings of connectedness, mutual identification, and belonging, besides sharing a geographical place. The heart of true racial and religious harmony is defined by our shared interactions and identities.

As Singapore reaches our 55th birthday of Nationhood Independence, we need to take stock and ponder whether we have hitherto ‘forged a strong enough bond that can withstand any threat to our social communal canvas’.

I believe that at the core of the answer lies a real struggle in many Singaporean parents over whether we would feel comfortable letting our young children interact freely with others of different ethnicity, unaccompanied by us adults.

Racial harmony and integration in Singapore remain very much a work in progress. Much more is needed before we dare to declare, without hesitation, ‘…regardless of race, language or religion’ in all that we think or do as one people and one nation.

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