Multiracialism through CCA
Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has suggested that schools need to encourage "multiracialism" and that one way in which they could do so was through CCAs or co-curricular activities. He apparently cited how football teams tended to be dominated by Malays and that this should not be the norm, and noted with approval how CCAs can promote bonding between students of different races - in his words "nothing like sweating it out together, winning and losing together, shedding tears of joy and pain together" and in that respect I can agree - sports and activities create a bond between people that is often closer than that forged in the more stuffy and rarified air of the classroom.
My question is this - isn't the whole point of CCAs that of giving students a chance to pursue their interests and areas outside the classroom in which they are talented at? Based on interest alone, some CCAs will necessarily be biased - I would not expect many non-chinese to be joining the Chinese Orchestra, for example. There are also traditionally some CCAs, particularly some sports like Football and Cricket, which are dominated by a particular race - the Malays and Indians respectively. Why then does multiracialism (whatever that is supposed to mean - greater interaction between the races, I suppose) have to interfere with that? There are some activities with a strong gender imbalance, the modern dance society at my Junior College had 2 guys and 23 girls participating, for example, and we don't seem to have a problem with that, nor with the fact that some sports, rugby and water polo in particular, remain the preserve of men. Why then is race such an issue - why are we addressing a supposed lack of multiracialism, but not one of gender imbalance?
All this goes back to the Government's fundamental stance on race - namely that it is a delicate issue, a gossamer thread liable to be snapped at any time, a fragile egg liable to do a Humpty Dumpty. We are reminded continually, repetetively of race riots in the 1950s, of Maria Hertzog, of Malays seeking shelter in good samaritan chinese flats fleeing the hatchets and knives of assailants. This is not to deny that learning about such events is important - for they are - but it almost seems to me that it has been drummed in too far. I think my generation has grown up far less attenuated to differences in race - it is something that is not really fundamentally noticed. Indeed, the past decades has seen a much greater intermingling of the races, partly as a result of specific government policy mandating a minimum number of so-called "minorities" living in each HDB flat.
It thus seems very surprising to me that the Government incessantly brings up the notion of race, and fears of racial divide and a repeat of bloodshed and riots. For, in a sense, it is almost as if a division is being created, where one almost no longer exists, precisely from this emphasizing of racial difference, this clarion call to remain vigilant and not let our differences boil over and for the need for integration and communication. Measures such as putting one's race on Identity Cards, though relatively uncontraversial, is just one example of the seeming fixation we have on this issue. For many, categorizing themselves like this is more or less meaningless - I have friends who have mixed chinese, malay, eurasian and dutch backgrounds, but we still do it. It is scary to think that in Rwanda, the massacre was aided by ID cards similar to us branding people Tutsi or Hutu.
Thus my view is this - let anyone play football whether he is chinese, malay, indian, eurasian, european or a mix of all of the above, whether he is black, white, yellow, or pink, so long as he loves the game. That is why football is known as the universal game - it seems quite odd to particularize any pastime and activity along such seemingly unrelated lines. It is time to lay this old Singaporean bugbear to rest.
My question is this - isn't the whole point of CCAs that of giving students a chance to pursue their interests and areas outside the classroom in which they are talented at? Based on interest alone, some CCAs will necessarily be biased - I would not expect many non-chinese to be joining the Chinese Orchestra, for example. There are also traditionally some CCAs, particularly some sports like Football and Cricket, which are dominated by a particular race - the Malays and Indians respectively. Why then does multiracialism (whatever that is supposed to mean - greater interaction between the races, I suppose) have to interfere with that? There are some activities with a strong gender imbalance, the modern dance society at my Junior College had 2 guys and 23 girls participating, for example, and we don't seem to have a problem with that, nor with the fact that some sports, rugby and water polo in particular, remain the preserve of men. Why then is race such an issue - why are we addressing a supposed lack of multiracialism, but not one of gender imbalance?
All this goes back to the Government's fundamental stance on race - namely that it is a delicate issue, a gossamer thread liable to be snapped at any time, a fragile egg liable to do a Humpty Dumpty. We are reminded continually, repetetively of race riots in the 1950s, of Maria Hertzog, of Malays seeking shelter in good samaritan chinese flats fleeing the hatchets and knives of assailants. This is not to deny that learning about such events is important - for they are - but it almost seems to me that it has been drummed in too far. I think my generation has grown up far less attenuated to differences in race - it is something that is not really fundamentally noticed. Indeed, the past decades has seen a much greater intermingling of the races, partly as a result of specific government policy mandating a minimum number of so-called "minorities" living in each HDB flat.
It thus seems very surprising to me that the Government incessantly brings up the notion of race, and fears of racial divide and a repeat of bloodshed and riots. For, in a sense, it is almost as if a division is being created, where one almost no longer exists, precisely from this emphasizing of racial difference, this clarion call to remain vigilant and not let our differences boil over and for the need for integration and communication. Measures such as putting one's race on Identity Cards, though relatively uncontraversial, is just one example of the seeming fixation we have on this issue. For many, categorizing themselves like this is more or less meaningless - I have friends who have mixed chinese, malay, eurasian and dutch backgrounds, but we still do it. It is scary to think that in Rwanda, the massacre was aided by ID cards similar to us branding people Tutsi or Hutu.
Thus my view is this - let anyone play football whether he is chinese, malay, indian, eurasian, european or a mix of all of the above, whether he is black, white, yellow, or pink, so long as he loves the game. That is why football is known as the universal game - it seems quite odd to particularize any pastime and activity along such seemingly unrelated lines. It is time to lay this old Singaporean bugbear to rest.
posted by Caleb Liu | 3:51 AM
1 Comments:
Don't you think it's curious how the rest of us Singaporeans are not supposed to talk about race and religion, but they - the PAP - can?
I've thought for some time now that "multiracialism" in Singapore is really the PAP's definition of multiracialism. It's a multiracialism where race isnt' talked about, where racial boundaries are fixed and paternally defined, and where the ratios between the races are supposed to be kept (hence the anxiety over there being "not enough Chinese babies, for instance).
Perhaps what really irks me is the assumption, among so many Singaporeans I've come across, that simply because I have a European surname, therefore I must not really be Singaporean. They always ask, "So where does your father / grandfather come from?". In all likelihood, my family has been in Singapore longer than any of these children/grand children of recent immigrants from other Asian countries.
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