“Never take our precious racial harmony for granted” These words from Mr. Heng Swee Keat are in support to Singapore’s efforts to promote being multi-ethic society. To comprehend why religious and racial harmony is so important, you yourself must be familiar with the fact that Singapore itself is already a multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious country. The fact is that numerous ethnicities coexist in the land, and with all of them come their different religions and cultures.
Currently, immigrants of different backgrounds have started coming to Singapore from all over the world, such as Malays, Chinese, Indians, and Europeans etc. As such, the current composition of our country is of Chinese, Malays, Indians, and Eurasians. In the past, our races did not get along well, and many racial riots had broken out, taking the lives of many, and greatly impacting the social security of Singapore. However, over the years, we as Singaporeans as a whole have developed something that is stronger than the racial differences we have with other people and that is a common identity. This common identity is being Singaporean. “One united people, regardless of race, language and religion” This quote from our national pledge shows how Singaporeans have fostered the relationships amongst the different races and have continued to live in racial and religious harmony over the years.
There are many methods taken up by our government to uphold our racial and religious harmony. One example would be in the form of ensuring equality amongst the different races and providing them opportunities to mix while celebrating their differences. To ensure equality, our government has opted to utilize a system of meritocracy. In this system, people gain rewards based on their performances, with no regard towards their ethnicity or background. There are also some opportunities for people to mix in with people of different races, one prime example would be that most schools are racially integrated. As such, this will improve their ethnic ties with different people in the future.
There are many other efforts made by our government that we will not go into details of, however they do reflect the importance of racial and religious harmony in Singapore. All in all, Singapore has attained social security and stability in spite of the diverse ethnicity groups. We as Singaporeans must continuously be reminded of the importance of racial and religious harmony and must also practice respect towards other ethnic cultures in their day-to-day activities.
References
Sim, C. (2015, February 17). Little India riot. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2015-02-18_104923.html
The Importance of Racial Harmony. (2021, February 22). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-importance-of-racial-harmony-essay
Seow, J. (2019, July 21). Treasure Singapore's racial and religious harmony: PM Lee Hsien Loong, Heng Swee Keat. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/treasure-singapores-racial-and-religious-harmony-pm-lee-dpm-heng
Racial Harmony In Singapore: Where Do We Go From Here? (2021, July 14). Retrieved fromhttps://cityofgood.sg/articles/race-in-singapore/