the ology of charm

Don't Take Racial Harmony for Granted: Swee Say

The Sunday Times, March 26 2006 (Pg 12)

Coming from a school which was mostly made up of students from Chinese backgrounds, I never really had a problem with racial harmony. We celebrated Racial Harmony Day as usual, but the group who were most diverse in race were just the teachers. Then I came to a junior college where there was a good mix of all races. In that particular college environment it was easy to make friends with those who were from different races. However when I travelled abroad during vacations, especially to western countries, I found racial segregation more rampant. This is when I fully understood and appreciated the Singaporean government's actions pertaining to encouraging racial harmony.

In the wake of terrorist attacks and potential attacks, it is obvious that the need for racial harmony is increasingly urgent. Especially since Singapore is so small, and the fact that we are surrounded by mainly Muslim countries. Our only resource is a human resource, and if that fails us then we have nothing left. Given the state of global affairs, especially the conflict in Iran and Iraq, there is potential for racial conflict to occur on a global basis. In which case, we would be easily subdued by the larger surrounding countries.

Though a majority of our population is Chinese, that doesn't mean that we are superior. Perhaps it is this that our government is concerned with: Racial harmony is not easily attained, yet it can be destroyed overnight. It’s not as if racism is non-existent in Singapore, just that it is minimized in comparison to other countries. This might be because Singapore is a small country and easier to manage.

Yet that doesn’t mean we can be complacent. As racial harmony extends into Total Defence, so we must be prepared as best as we can for anything: thus the message “Don’t take racial harmony for granted.”

**image from here.

posted by Charmaine @ 5:15 PM