Notes Nexgen

8/3/2019 Notes Nexgen

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Racial tensions way back.

+ Maria Hertogh riots in December 1950: a protest led by Muslims who were outraged when she was returned

to her biological Catholic parents after being raised by a Muslim couple

+ 1964 Race Riots on Prophet Muhammads birthday on 21 July: 23 people killed and hundreds injured

To ensure peaceful co-existence among the numerous religious and ethnic groups that call Singapore home,

the government makes serious efforts to enforce religious tolerance and fully respects the beliefs and the

rituals of any of its citizens, as long as they do not violate law and order...

- Loud public arguments about religious topics are unacceptable- Schools are normally secular and do not teach religion- Government tries to keep religion separated from state affairs

___________________________________________________________________________

Address issues:

Should we have a race category on identification documents?

Ethnic quotas in public housing: do they actually segregate or improve racial tolerance like what the

government claims?

Group Representation Constituencies: Racial division or allowing minorities to have their voice?

Presence of SAP schools? Why only an all-Chinese school? Non-Chinese students tend to be at a

disadvantaged position in terms of education, especially since most SAP schools produce high-caliber students.

Relative under-performance in school and lack of high-ranking Malay members of the army and judiciary___________________________________________________________________________


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Group Representative Constituencies

ensure that Singapore's parliament will be multiracial in its composition and representation.

Allows the Government to revise its policies in case there are areas which are overlooked in terms of its

sensitivity to other races, since the government is predominantly Chinese.

Sedition Act

Subsection 3 of the Act describes the types of publication that have seditious tendency and these includes

publication that "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes".

2005: September. Gan Huai Shi charged with the Sedition Act for making racist remarks on his blog entitled

'The Second Holocaust'. Mocked Malay community and ridiculed their religion.

HDBS Ethnic Integration Policy

implemented in 1989 to promote racial integration and harmony and allow people from different races to

intermingle

It is worth noting that these HDB ethnic quotas were revised on 5 March 2010, yet they do not seem aligned

with our current racial mix. The maximum ethnic limit in the neighbourhood for Chinese and Malay residents is

approximately 10 percent higher than their actual percentage in Singapores resident population (2010), while

the maximum ethnic limit for Indians and Others is 0.5 percent less than the actual percentage in resident

population (2010).

Given that the population of Others has increased from 46,400 (1.4 percent) in 2000 to 125,800 people (3.3

percent) in 2010, shouldnt the HDBs ethnic quotas and categories kept pace with this trend in Singapores

racial mix?

Another suggestion by a forum participant was to keep the concept of ethnic quota, but to relax it further. He

asked: If we can allow blocks to have 80 percent Chinese and 20 percent Indian occupants (as a loose

estimate), why not allow blocks to have 80 percent Indian and 20 percent Chinese occupants? This would

loosen the quota to give people more choice of housing, while still preventing the formation of racial enclaves.

Race in IC

If dialect could be removed from the IC, why not the race?Lee Kuan Yew once lamented that the Japanese could progress as they were a homogenous race. By having

race on the IC, the government is subtly disintegrating the society

Funds for the respective races

Segregation of Funds based on race. The Chinese, being the biggest majority will have the biggest

contribution. As a result, the Chinese community will have better programmes than the rest. Chinese

Development Assistance Coucil (CDAC) for Chinese

Mendaki Fund for Malays

Sinda Funds for Indians


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Relatively high emphasis on racism around the world

- 2001 World Conference against Racism, racial discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance[Durban, South Africa] The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action

- 2009: World Conference against Racism at the United Nations office in Geneva, Switzerland

RACISM AROUND THE WORLD

ASIA

China: Xinjiang, Tibet [Han majority against Uighers minority]

LHASA RIOTS

Cambodia: strong anti-Vietnamese sentiment

Indonesia: a lot of violence against the affluent Chinese population who has been blamed for the economic

problems which have plagued the country in recent years

EUROPE

Greece has one of the worst records in the European Union for racism against ethnic minorities

Albanian immigrants came under attack for coming out on the streets to celebrate the Albanian football teams

victory over Greece in the World Cup qualifying match in 2004.

GREEK national culture is one that believes there is a superiority of the Greek nation

AUSTRALIA

Racism against Indians: in Jan 2010, Indian man was attacked and set alight in Melbourne.

AFRICA

Rwanda: 1994 Genocide which happened over a course of 100 days. Majority Hutus against minorities Tutsis.

Documents

Notes Nexgen