The Solution to Racial Discrimination by Singapore Government

Racial equality is the act of giving all races equal opportunities and rights. The Singapore Government treats racial equality with much seriousness. It is no surprise that many politicians in Singapore emphasize the importance of treating every race equally on many occasions, like National Day, Racial Harmony Day and Total Defense Day. Despite all the measures put in place, is Singapore actually successful in promoting racial equality? Many Singaporeans would think that the different races in Singapore do live together in harmony and could enjoy the same rights. On the other hand, there are people and researchers who argue that racial inequality in Singapore is still a major problem. I believe that the Singapore Government has not been successful in promoting racial equality.

The Singapore Government is not successful in promoting racial equality through its the racial quota in public housing that is provided by the Housing and Development Board (HDB). In Singapore, over 80% of Singaporeans live in public housing provided by the HDB. These public housing follow certain rules from the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP_, which limits the amount of people from a certain race can live in a HDB flat. How would this promote racial equality? Firstly, the EIP would ensure that all races would be able to engage with one another and they would learn to treat everyone equally. Secondly, the EIP would ensure that people of different races get a fair chance to be able to buy a HDB flat at a certain location. The EIP may seem to be able to fix the problem of racial inequality, but does it actually fulfill its purpose? The EIP only works when residents engage with each other. However, in recent times, citizens are not engaging with their neighbours as much as before. Adults are too busy with their work and do not spend time with their neighbours. Children do not go downstairs to play as frequently as before as they are preoccupied with computer games or homework. This means that Singaporeans do not engage with people from different races even when they live near each other and they would still discriminate against a race. This discrimination can be seen when Singaporeans put their house for rent. Many Singaporeans would not want their flats to be rented out to foreigners like Indians and Chinese from China. Why Indians? Indians would want to cook curry at home. However, many Singaporeans do not like the smell of the curries. Why Chinese from China? They are presumed to cook heavily and not clean their houses. This clearly shows that many citizens still discriminate against other races even though the EIP is in place. I believe that the government should do more than just making people of different races live near each other to make sure that the discrimination is decreased and racial equality is increased. There must be something done to get them to talk with each other and understand each other’s culture. It can be through organising community engagement programmes like compulsory resident gatherings and breakfast sessions. Therefore, The Singapore Government is not successful in promoting racial equality through its the racial quota in public housing as residents are not engaging with each other, even with this initiative.

The Singapore Government has also been not successful in promoting racial equality through schools and education. In Singapore, education is seen to be one of the best means of grooming citizens. From the start of their education, primary school classes have students of different ethnic backgrounds, and students are taught to treat each other equally. This is done through speeches, Social Studies lessons and classroom activities. Furthermore, anyone who is caught treating someone badly would be punished by their teachers. Because of this, students of different races are friends and can be seen playing, studying and eating together. Schools of Singapore also celebrate Racial Harmony day, where students learn to treat races equally and are taught the importance of racial equality. By right, all students that graduate from Singapore would be citizens who would treat every race equally. However, this is not the case. In Singapore, there are schools that only cater to a certain race. These schools would thus have little to no students from another race. In these conditions, students would show their true colours. Students would make fun of other children from different races, and would discriminate against a student from a different race. This can be seen in Hwa Chong Institution, which is a school specially for students taking the Chinese language. In this school, students are mostly Chinese. As a student who studies in Hwa Chong Institution, I could definitely see cases of racial discrimination happening. Some students would clap in a jeering manner when a student of a different race goes up on stage to speak. Others would mimic the way certain races speak in a ‘funny’ way. Select students even go as far as to insult a certain race in front of the whole school. Students do this because they think that it is okay to make fine of other races as it would not offend anyone in the school. However, outside of school, students act very well behaved as they do not want to shame their school. The government is thus unaware of this problem and has done little to fix it. I think that the Government should implement more measures to curb discrimination of other races in schools, espacially in schools that only cater to a certain race. Therefore, I believe that the Singapore Government has also been not successful in promoting racial equality through schools and education as many cases of racial discrimination goes unnoticed.

The Singapore Government has not been very successful in promoting racial equality by imposing laws that forbid racial discrimination. There are many laws that forbid Singaporeans to discriminate against a race. In order to prevent racial inequality and discrimination, the government can cancel public events and punish those who discriminate against a certain race. What are some of the punishments? According to the Penal Code Chapter 298, people who promote or the disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different racial groups; or commits any act which he knows is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious or racial groups and which disturbs the public tranquility, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 years, fine, or both. Citizens would thus be scared to make racist comments, thus ensuring that racial equality is present in Singapore. Then, why are there still such a huge amount of racial inequality within citizens in Singapore? That is because this measure is not very effective. Some people are not afraid of getting caught and would still voice their racist comments whenever they want. Others who discriminate against or shun other races do it in private and thus are never caught. I think that the Government could solve the problem of racial inequality with laws, as citizens are not encouraged to treat every race equally. The Singapore Government has not been very successful in promoting racial equality by imposing laws that forbid racial discrimination.

The Singapore Government has been successful in promoting racial equality. For example, Singapore has Group Representational Constituencies. The Singapore population is dominated by the Chinese, with them forming about 74.4% of the population in 2019. With such a high number of Chinese, elections would be decided only by the Chinese population, and almost only the demands of the other races would not be heard and met. To fix this problem, the government has introduced Group Representational Constituencies (GRC). These GRCs are a group of people who are meant to represent the ethnic minorities in Singapore and help them voice demands to the government. Singaporeans would then think that the Government is trying to treat everyone fairly, and thus should also follow suit and carry out racial equality. However, does this measure actually help promote racial equality? There are very few people voicing out on how Singapore’s voting system does not account to the ethnic minorities’ needs because there are many Chinese. In fact, most of the needs of racial minorities could be met. Singaporeans would thus follow suit and treat all races equally. Therefore, Singapore has been successful in promoting racial equality by having Group Representational Constituencies.

There are also times where the government promoted racial inequality. An example of this is in National Service. In National Service, the Malays are not given certain roles, especially the top ranking ones. The parliament has discussed this issue before. Some ministers thought that Malays would be unloyal to Singapore and thus kept this policy in place, even till this day. Why would they be unloyal? Malays are presumed to have extremist thoughts and might betray Singapore during a war against Malaysia by turning their backs and helping Malaysia. This made many Malays very enraged, as they were deprived of a promising job in the military, although they are as loyal to Singapore as the other races could be. I think this move done by the government is very inappropriate. Just because Malays are from Malaysia does not mean that they would backstab Singapore during a war. The Malays, just like the other races, are dedicated to protecting the country. Furthermore, this kind of action might cause citizens to ‘learn’ from the government and discriminate against the Malays. This outcome is certainly undesirable. I believe that the government should open up all spaces for everyone instead of preventing Malays to join certain roles just because they are Malays. Therefore, there are times where the government promoted racial inequality like in National Service.

The government also could not fix certain problems that cause racial inequality in Singapore. For example, the government could not change the mindset of citizens. Citizens believe that certain races are inferior to others. For example, some citizens believe that the Malays and Indians are less intellectual than the Chinese as they tend to score lower in tests. Citizens also believe that the only reason as to why they score lower in tests as they did not work hard enough. This obviously is untrue as the Malays and Indians might not have as much privilege as the Chinese in terms of education. They might not have enough money to afford study materials, and might not have many friends to help him when studying subjects like their mother tongue. Instead of fixing this problem, the government has made the problem worse. How so? The government tells citizens that meritocracy is the golden rule in Singapore, and everyone is rewarded based on how hard they work. This makes the unprivileged Malays and Indians at a worse spot. Citizens would think that Malays and Indians are more lazy and would not want to work with them. It can be seen among students. Students are seen to have commented on how certain races are ‘stupid’ during conversations, and how they are going to shun them because of their ‘stupidity’. I think that it is too late to reverse this action now. No matter how much the government tries, the citizens would not change their mindset anymore. Therefore, the government could not fix certain problems because of Singaporeans’ fixed mindset.

In conclusion, the Singapore Government has not done enough to fix the problem of racial inequality. Many of their measures are ineffective and many Singaporeans are still racist on the inside. The Singapore Government should also make sure that it sets a good example for citizens. I believe that Singapore could become a country that has more racial equality as long as the government puts new measures in place and citizens obey the instructions of the government.