Racial Harmony

What exactly is Racial Harmony? Does racial harmony means tolerating your friends of different races, or does it mean to be able to accept the cultures of your friends? Actually, racial harmony is more than all this. The true and real definition of Racial Harmony is actually to maintain good relationships with people of different races. This is an essential concept for a multi-racial country like Singapore and is one of the reasons why Singapore can be so successful today. If different racial groups were to fight among themselves, a small country like Singapore will certainly fall.

I can strongly state my stand that racial harmony is not just simply important; it is the fundamental to the nation’s well-being and prosperity. Once the trust that different races have for each other is broken, it cannot be easily fixed together again. Although it can be done, a great deal of hard work and effort would be needed. Racial harmony has been the distinguishing trait of Singaporean society since Independence. This is not because our social fabric is stronger than other multi-racial societies, or that we are immune to such problems. It is because a great deal of hard work and care has gone into strengthening it. It requires a lot of care, commitment and hard work. Even so, this should not be taken for granted as no one can predict the future.

What are the benefits of having a cohesive, harmonious and peaceful society? Firstly, needless to say, there will be no racial riots in the country. When there are no riots, everyone lives happily and that in turn, will no doubt bring about the prosperity of the country as the country’s fast-going economic growth is not hindered. Working and living harmoniously with people of different races not only brings economic stability to our country, it also affects the country’s wealth and everyone else residing in the country.

On the other hand, if nothing is to be done to preserve the social harmony in country, riots happened, death results and there will be no peace. People would live in fear, innocent people will be killed. Also, would anyone want to come to a country where there is bloodshed and chaos everywhere? Obviously, investors become less attracted to invest in the country and economy of country would definitely deteriorate. When a country faces economic crisis, unemployment rate increases as more people lose their jobs. This can be linked to the reason why crime rate shoots up when economy of a country falls. People lose their monthly income, and thereby resorting to stealing. Consequences of a disharmonious society can be fatal and destructive as people’s lives and the country’s well-being are adversely affected.

One good example to illustrate the above paragraph would be the Maria Hertogh riots. It started on 11 December 1950 in Singapore and consisted of outraged Muslims who resented the court’s decision to give the custody of Maria Hertogh to her biological Dutch Catholic parents after she had been raised as a Muslim under the care of Aminah binte Mohamed, whom she regarded as her mother. The riots ended on 13 December 1950, with a significant damage to lives and properties.

The occurrence of racial riots could have been prevented if people did not take racial harmony for granted. If much commitment and care was given to preserve the harmony that exists in each country, racial riots would not have happened. Both the Government and people play a part in preserving racial harmony and social cohesiveness in the country. Government should be vigilant in taking preventive measures to prevent the rise of conflicts between races and be efficient in fostering good relationships between races. People, indeed, play the greatest role in preserving racial harmony as anyone in this world can cause a conflict to break out. People should learn to respect, be tolerant and sensitive of others’ culture and beliefs, and also to explore the rich culture that other races have. In this way, social harmony can therefore be preserved.




QUOTE:

“No man need to feel that to belong to a particular religion puts him at a disadvantage or gives him an advantage. Only in this way can a multi-racial society like Singapore live in peace and prosperity”.

(First) President Yusof Ishak, New Year Message, 1968.