Singapore’s young view multiracialism differently, says Janil Puthucheary, Singapore News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

2017/11/03 Leave a comment

Always interesting to follow developments in Singapore given the historic tensions and how they have largely overcome them, and how the issues have shifted from security to inclusion and representation:

The way today’s young view multiracialism and multiculturalism is different from how they were envisioned 50 years ago, said Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary on Wednesday (Nov 1).

Still, it is important to understand how the younger generation feels about these values, he added.

Though racism today is talked about more in terms of stereotypes and representation rather than about safety and security, it is no less an important issue, he added.

Dr Janil, who is chairman of OnePeople.sg, a charity that promotes racial harmony, made the point at its 10th anniversary dinner.

He said people no longer worry whether they can walk safely through different parts of town because of their race. But they worry about jokes and how many actors are representing their race on television.

“It’s an aspiration to a higher type of inclusion, and that shift of aspiration speaks about how much we’ve done and about far we’ve come as a country,” he said.

Although the anger and outrage the young feel when those aspirations are not met may initially look trivial compared with the dangers of the past, these new issues cannot be ignored, said Dr Janil, who is Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information as well as Education.

“If not, the next generation will feel disenfranchised and will not believe in our model of multiculturalism or multiracialism. We must treat their aspirations for a deeper harmony with the same vigour and respect as the social issues of the past. We must tackle them and do something about them.”

He added: “We have come a long way as a country and as OnePeople.sg over the last 10 years, but our need to tackle racism and our model of multiculturalism and multiracialism – to make sure the next generation understands why we place so much emphasis on this and on getting this right – this mission has not changed.”

Dr Janil was speaking to more than 500 people, including community and religious leaders, volunteers and donors at Shangri-La Hotel.

His organisation, previously known as the Central Singapore Joint Social Service Centre, was set up in 1997 to coordinate the resources of the community development councils and self-help groups.

It took on the role of promoting racial harmony in 2001 with the People’s Association and in 2007, was renamed OnePeople.sg.

It has since been working with schools to build shared values and grow a pool of youth ambassadors and facilitators to spread the message of religious harmony and lead programmes. The group has grown to about 160 facilitators, up from 10 in 2007.

It also works with community groups and ethnic and religious institutions to foster community cohesion. Dr Janil said the organisation will continue to widen its network and build partnerships with more groups, especially youth groups, and work to create safe spaces for people to discuss difficult issues.

The dinner raised about $501,000 to fund the charity’s programmes and activities.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the dinner’s guest-of-honour, launched a commemorative book of research articles on ethnic diversity in Singapore.

The 504-page book, titled “The Singapore Ethnic Mosaic: Many Cultures, One People”, covers aspects of the history, religion, language, value systems and diet, for instance, of various sub-ethnic groups.

Excerpts may be made available as a resource for schools and community and religious groups, through exhibitions or digital e-books.

Mr Thomas Liew, 35, a volunteer for the past 10 years at the charity, facilitating small group discussions, said it is heartwarming to see young people today are well-read and concerned about race and ethnicity issues and about Singapore.

“Raising awareness about these issues is important because we cannot be complacent about our peace and stability brought about by racial harmony,” he said.

Polytechnic student Nurul Fatimah, 18, said she has been on the receiving end of distasteful jokes in school, which came as a culture shock after studying in a madrasah for many years before that.

The youth advocate at OnePeople.sg, who plans events for other students, said she does so because she believes racial harmony is something fragile that should be protected.

“We don’t have racial riots and people may take racial harmony for granted. A problem no matter how small can build into a bigger problem, so we can’t ever let our guard down,” she said.

Source: Singapore’s young view multiracialism differently, says Janil Puthucheary, Singapore News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

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Singapore debates dual nationalities, cites overseas Indian citizenship as option | world-news | Hindustan Times

2017/10/10 Leave a comment

Interesting account of Singapore debates:

Singapore has debated the option of dual citizenship for its nationals, with some citing concepts like ‘Overseas Citizenship of India’ given by New Delhi to Indian diaspora as a middle path.

Diplomats and academics have raised pros and cons of allowing Singaporeans to have dual citizenship, according to a report in The Sunday Times on Sunday.

In 2013, the government had responded to parliamentary questions, saying that Singapore being “a small and young nation” is concerned as it could dilute citizens’ commitment to the country.

The issue of whether Singapore should one day consider dual citizenship has been raised from time to time in discussions about the future of Singapore citizenship.

Barry Desker of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, a prominent advocate of dual citizenship, argued that it would help Singaporeans living abroad and foreigners in Singapore who are married to Singaporeans.

Singapore “may be losing good people” when Singaporeans living abroad are forced to give up their citizenship, said Professor Tan Tai Yong of Yale-NUS College in the National University of Singapore.

Associate Professor Eugene Tan of Singapore Management University said that dual citizenship should not have a detrimental impact in terms of people’s sense of belonging to the country.

A strong opponent of dual citizenship, Professor Leo Suryadinata of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute argued that citizenship is about political loyalty and it is doubtful if a person can be loyal to two countries.

“In an age of growing nationalism and the potential break-up of the European Union, global trends appear to be moving away from dual citizenship,” he observed.

Institute of Policy Studies researcher Debbie Soon said if Singapore were to one day be in conflict with another country, dual citizenship would be problematic because of the island state’s conscription system.

“But discussions on dual citizenship do not have to yield a binary yes-or-no answer,” argued Associate Professor Elaine Ho of the National University of Singapore.

There are in-between options that may enhance the links people have to Singapore, she noted.

One is the British example of an ancestry visa, which offers foreigners who can prove ancestral links to Britain an inside track to living and working there. A similar concept is the Overseas Citizenship of India.

According to Prof Tan Tai Yong the honorary citizenship, which Singapore grants to a very select group of foreigners who have made outstanding contributions to the country, is also an example of an in-between option.

Source: Singapore debates dual nationalities, cites overseas Indian citizenship as option | world-news | Hindustan Times

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Singapore’s Way to Multiculturalism – Fair Observer

2016/10/01 1 Comment

While the ‘social engineering’ of housing policy and practices is likely unique to Singapore, it still is an interesting case study of reducing barriers. But as their society evolves, some of similar questions about identity, citizenship and belonging arise:

A national poll released a few weeks ago found most Singaporeans try to live out multiracial ideals and believe in meritocracy. More than seven in 10 Singaporeans believe personal success is independent of race or ethnicity, according to the survey commissioned by Channel NewsAsia and the Institute of Policy Studies.

That’s a remarkable finding for diverse Singapore, whose population is 74.2% Chinese, 13.3% Malay, 9.2% Indian and 3.3% other. It’s also the most religiously diverse nation in the world, according to a 2014 analysis by the Pew Research Center, its population made up of sizable portions of Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus.

The poll is especially noteworthy considering how far the country has come in half a century, when its early days as a new nation were beset by ethnic tensions and race riots.

Singapore’s strides toward multiculturalism got a shout-out from President Obama, who played host to visiting Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in August.

“In the United States, we call ourselves a ‘melting pot’ of different races, religions and creeds. In Singapore, it is rojak—different parts united in a harmonious whole,” Obama said. “We’re bound by the belief that no matter who you are, if you work hard and play by the rules, you can make it.” (Rojak is a traditional fruit and vegetable salad dish named after a Malay term for mixture.)

Singapore sets an example for the world on multiculturalism. A founding principal of the country is the integration of its ethnic and racial groups—a decision was made at the outset to treat every race, language and religion as equal. It made an asset of its ethnic and religious diversity, and the result is relative racial harmony.

MELTING POT

How did Singapore do it? One answer is forced housing integration. In Singapore, 85% live in very decent, mostly owner-occupied public housing, and racial quotas mean every block, precinct and enclave fall in line with the national ethnic population percentages mentioned above.

Forcing different peoples to live together as neighbors broke up the ethnic ghettoes and the all-Chinese, all-Malay or all-Indian blocks that could be found at the country’s founding in 1965. The housing policy “was authoritarian, intrusive, and it turns out to be our greatest strength,” Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said.

The Housing Development Board (HDB) public housing high-rises were Singapore’s answer to affordable housing. Most HDB dwellers own their own flat, adding to their sense of responsibility and community pride. The units are heavily subsidized for young couples buying a starter home in one of the world’s most expensive cities. The term HDB carries none of the stigma that, say, the term housing project carries in the US.

The HDB has other positive social impacts. By clustering housing near commercial centers and transit hubs, Singapore makes it easier for its residents to live and work in the same place. The best commute, as a Harvard economist once said, is a lift downstairs.

And Singapore can call itself a “Garden City” for the proportion of land that remains open. The concept of HDBs—of building up, and not out—allows Singapore to preserve much of its green space for recreation, while two-thirds of its land surface is used for rainwater catchment.

Source: Singapore’s Way to Multiculturalism – Fair Observer

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Enhancing Creativity Through Multiculturalism

2014/11/22 Leave a comment

Some interesting research on creativity and multiculturalism from Singapore:

In one study, Professor Leung exposed European American undergraduates to one of these three conditions using a 45-minute multi-media slideshow:

  1. single culture through presenting pictures of items that depicted either the American culture e.g., the Statue of Liberty, a hamburger or the Chinese culture e.g., the Great Wall, hotpot dinner on each slide;
  2. dual cultures through presenting pictures of items that depicted American culture and pictures that depicted Chinese culture on each slide; and,
  3. fusion of cultures e.g., a picture of Starbucks’ mid-Autumn festival mooncakes.

She found that participants demonstrated better creative performance when exposed to dual cultures and fusion of cultures, compared to those who were exposed to a single culture. Their creative performance persisted five to seven days after initial exposure.

“Initially, I thought those who were exposed to the fusion culture would perform the best. But the tendency was that those who were exposed to two different cultures showed more creativity. Perhaps the exposure to separate cultures gave them the space to engage in cognitive juxtaposition of the ideas from the respective cultures. When they seek to actively compare and contrast the presented cultures, they delve deeper into the different cultural representations and receive more creative inspirations,” she says.

Another significant finding from her research was that while multicultural individuals tended to be more creative, other considerations had to be taken into account, such as how open and receptive an individual was to new experiences.

Enhancing Creativity Through Multiculturalism | Asian Scientist Magazine | Science, Technology and Medicine News Updates From Asia.

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New Chinese centre to encourage multiculturalism, AsiaOne Singapore News

2014/10/03 Leave a comment

From Singapore which has traditionally, if memory serves me correctly, had a fairly active approach to managing relations among the various communities, including parallel institutions and where people live.

Appreciate any comments either confirming or correcting.

But some signs of more integration as we would understand it:

Performances at the upcoming Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre in Shenton Way will include collaborations with non-Chinese arts groups, said its chief executive Choo Thiam Siew.

For instance, non-Chinese musicians could be invited to play for say, a Chinese dance, he said, adding: “Chinese flautists already play together with Indian tabla musicians.”

Mr Choo was elaborating on the vision that the centres chairman Chua Thian Poh outlined at the buildings ground-breaking ceremony yesterday. The event was officiated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is the centres patron.

The 11-storey centre, Mr Chua said, will “encourage integration among all races in Singapore”.

New Chinese centre to encourage multiculturalism, AsiaOne Singapore News.

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