Solitary man

Social cohesion speech timely as complacency may have set in
By Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 17 August 2009 2149 hrs

SINGAPORE: It was a National Day Rally of a different kind this year as the sensitive topic of race and religion dominated Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's address to the nation.

Some 40 minutes of Mr Lee's speech on Sunday evening were devoted to the need for Singapore to maintain racial and religious harmony. As the prime minister pointed out, it was an "unusually serious and sensitive subject" for the rally.

Political observers said it is a reminder to Singaporeans not to take social cohesion for granted as the makeup of the Singapore society is changing. One Cabinet minister told Channel NewsAsia on Monday that now is as good a time as any to send out that message.

Eugene Tan, assistant professor, School of Law, Singapore Management University, said: "We have more new immigrants who may come to Singapore without having a full appreciation of our multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-lingual society.

"Some of them come from fairly homogeneous society, so the lack of appreciation for some of the differences that exist in our society could cause conflict and tension. I think at the same time, it'll be useful to see more substantive measures taken to ensure that the new immigrants get up to speed quickly about our society."

Agreeing, research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Azhar Ghani, said: "Over the years, the different groups that form the Singaporean ethnoscape have settled into an equilibrium in how they interact with each other.

"This equilibrium may be affected if different or fresh interpretations of religious norms that may come with increasing religiosity were to accentuate differences and promote exclusivity.

"This equilibrium may also be affected with immigration as those settling here not only bring with them skills, but also specific national histories and multiple identities."

(Read more here.)


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Dear Mr Prime Minister,

Yes, you have now reminded us. Yes, there's no excuse for us to forget and get careless about the sensitive shroud we are in. Thank you for the gentle reminder.

However, what steps have you taken to make sure that foreign workers are aware of the complicated circumstance they are in? What further steps are you taking to improve their assimilation programme, if there is any at all?

Are you going to depend on each individual company/organisation to take it upon itself to ensure positive social, racial and religious integration? On companies or organisations which are more focussed on cutting cost and making more profits? Companies or organisations which may lack ethics, aptitude and sometimes...brains?

I have seen foreigners who are indifferent to our cultures and beliefs. Why do you do about them? You give them more expat money? How do you make sure they can harmoniously live in our neighbourhoods? How can you make us less cynical?

We are trained to be told what to do and to just wait-and-see. So, let's see what you will do to handle my pressing issue and then I can try to be told what to do.


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