[Music]
in 1964
a series of race riots between chinese
and malays
broke out in singapore leaving dozens
dead
and hundreds injured when it came to
racial riots
it was just madness i experienced myself
firsthand and that was when i felt so
threatened
and where i was almost killed communal
tensions that led to the 1964 race riots
contributed to singapore's separation
from malaysia the next year
to avoid the mistakes of the past
singapore's founding prime minister lee
kuan yew and his team
aimed to create a society where
different races religions and cultures
could live peacefully here's how
singapore built
a fairly harmonious society
singapore has a population of 5.7
million people
among the 3.5 million who are citizens
76 are chinese and 15 percent are malay
malays are the native people of the
island during british colonialism
immigrants from china india and other
parts of the world
came to singapore as the island was
being developed into a trading port
by the 1870s chinese had become the
majority population in singapore
in 1959 singapore obtained
self-governance from the british
to completely break away from colonial
rule in 1963 singapore
joined the federation of malaya part of
malaysia today
but it was a difficult union plagued
with differences in political approaches
economic conditions and sharp exchanges
between
leaders from both sides the
relationships then were just not getting
on
between majority singapore chinese 75
percent chinese from singapore
in a merger with malaysia which are
predominantly malay
55 60 malays the community in singapore
the majority chinese have been doing
very well economically
the malaysians feel that they will be
undermined
should the chinese and singapore
continue to gain
economic supremacy over the peninsula
and in singapore
the idea was that all research should be
treated equal
but in malaysia there was a different
outlook because
malay leaders and malay politicians felt
they were sons of the soil there was a
sense that
malays should always have the political
dominant
position in 1964
increasing racial tensions between
malays and chinese
led to a series of riots singaporean
malays
are predominantly muslims on july 21st a
muslim holiday to celebrate the prophet
muhammad's birthday
clashes broke out between malay
participants and
chinese bystanders during a procession
violence spread across the island
ravaging singapore for weeks leaving 23
dead and 454 injured
in september another series of riots
triggered by the killing of a malay
rickshaw rider broke out
zional and a few friends were on their
way back home from friday
prayers when the curfew was imposed on
september 2nd
buses were full so they jumped on a
lorry for a ride
but the lorry broke down in a chinese
area a lot of chinese youngsters were
standing by the roadside watching
and suddenly when they saw this group of
about 20 malays
rising from the lorry to come down to
get
alternative transport they must have
thought that we were there to attack
them
and the next second came out with
bicycle chains iron rods
acid bulbs and pandemonium broke loose
they just randomly were hammering
killing people on the streets but
fortunately for me
i was able to grab a moving taxi and
fled to safety but that was not the end
of the story began
when i took the taxi ride and reached
the other side
where where i live which is gaelang area
which is the malay area
it was the reverse malays were
beating up innocent chinese dry shoppers
fruit sellers who used to be friends at
one time
the september riots resulted in 13
deaths
and left another 106 injured
about a year later singapore separated
from malaysia
and became an independent state be firm
be calm
we are going to have a multi-racial
nation in singapore we will set the
example
this is not a malay nation this is not a
chinese nation
this is not an indian nation everybody
will have his place
equal language
culture religion the singaporean
government
enshrined multiracialism in its
constitution
and implemented major policies and
initiatives based on these principles
for education housing politics and
community development
one of the first things that singapore's
leaders did
was to break down the language barrier
between ethnic groups
four official languages english chinese
malay
and tamil were established but english
was designated as a common language
people in singapore are required to take
english as a first language
as well as a mother tongue language so
so that enables them to
not just hold on to their heritage their
ethnic culture
but at the same time be able to interact
with people of a different race
at first there was resistance from
chinese parents
but enrollment to chinese schools
gradually dwindled
and those to english schools grew
english
is the language of the civil service of
government
parents saw the writing on the wall if
english is the language of the civil
service you go to an english school so
that your
child can act get a job in the civil
service which is an iron rice bowl
english became you know in a way a
unifying language
for singapore and it was a very
important decision
because that made singapore so relevant
in the world
and gave us our position racial
segregation
dating back to british colonial rule was
thought to be one of the reasons for the
race riots
so in the 1960s and 70s the singaporean
government
forcibly removed people from racial
enclaves
and relocated all races to new public
housing estates
where about 80 percent of singaporean
households live today well over 400 000
people
a quarter of singapore's population has
been rehoused in the last five years in
these bright modern airy flats
nowhere in the world except in russia
despite the government's early efforts
by the 1980s racial enclaves were
forming within public housing estates
in 1989 the ethnic integration policy
was introduced
to ensure a mix of chinese indian and
malays in each public housing block
it's not just having different race
groups on the same corridor
and they walk down the corridor and say
hello to each other
or they you know meet in the town square
and they see different race groups
that children go to the same
neighborhood school and that is a value
but critics see
mixing ethnic groups in public housing
as a way of social control
on a political level singapore has
policies to ensure multi-racial
representation
in 1988 an amendment to the
parliamentary elections act was passed
this introduced the group representation
constituency
or the grc which required political
parties to field
at least one minority candidate in each
grc
team composed of three to six members
currently there are 17 grc's
which mean there are at least 17
minority members
among the total 93 members of the
parliament previously you could have a
party putting up a chinese candidate
just hoping to get the majority chinese
to vote for that without having to worry
about the malay voters
but now no party no candidate can
behave in that way anymore but
detractors said the group
representation constituency was
introduced to make it harder for the
opposition to win elections
in 2016 the constitution of singapore
was revised to include
reserved elections this meant that a
presidential election
would be reserved for a particular
racial group if no one from that
community had been
president for the past 30 years
the 2017 election was the first reserved
election
and it was reserved for the malay
community but compared with the prime
minister of singapore
the president plays a largely ceremonial
role
and doesn't hold much power
the government also initiated
ethnicity-based self-help groups
to uplift the socio-economic status of
the poor
employees in singapore are expected to
contribute a small percentage of their
monthly income
to one of the four ethnic self-help
group funds
according to their ethnicity these funds
are mainly used to subsidize
tuition and help upgrade skills for
lower income groups
but ethnicity-based self-help groups
were criticized for emphasizing the
issue of race
in recent years four different self-help
groups started to run
joint programs
so i wouldn't say that singapore's
racial relation is perfect
but definitely we have come a long way
since 1960s
for multiculturalism multi-racialism to
succeed
there has to be a visible hand in
society
i think we've done quite well you know
we've not had
inter racial riot since 1969
singapore is a stable society and it is
this
stability that has helped us develop
economically singapore has strict
anti-racism
and anti-rioting laws the absence of
race riots
doesn't mean there are no racial
tensions and racial disparities
today singapore faces challenges to
shrink the income gap between malays
and other ethnic groups among the
minorities
that they feel that they are
marginalized they couldn't speak out of
it because
the whole system is structured in such a
way that it should be legitimate
the reason why you are where you are is
because
you haven't done well right whereas if
you dive further
and look at some of the structural
issues you realize that
if the reason why they are not doing
well certain racial groups are not doing
well
maybe because there are certain
structural issues and challenges
that we have not been able to address in
the last 50 years
be there in the education sector be
there in the housing market be that in
the employment sector
all this concerns about income
the lack of mobility will intersect with
racial identity and in the long run this
could
generate a perpetual cycle of
unhappiness or discontent
overt racism might have been reduced in
singapore
but covert discrimination still exists
researchers found that over half of
malays and
indians in singapore perceive
discriminatory treatment at work
recently coronavirus outbreaks in
cramped dorms where many south asian
migrant workers live
has also highlighted the inequalities
that still exist in different parts of
singapore's society
[Music]
the maintenance of racial harmony
is a work in progress the goal posts
change all the time and you've got to
keep catching up
but what hasn't changed is that racial
harmony day is celebrated
on july 21 each year in singapore
to commemorate the 1964 race riots
and remind singaporeans that racial
harmony
shouldn't be taken for granted