SINGAPORE — Some countries' leaders will always paint Singapore as being a Chinese-dominant society and such portrayals will not stop as domestic politics in the region becomes more polarised, but Singaporeans need not overreact, said presidential hopeful Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
He made these remarks in response to a question on how regional leaders view Singapore and multiracialism in the country, during an event marking Racial Harmony Day on Friday .
However, there would be “some tendency to characterise Singapore as being Chinese or Chinese-dominant” in public statements for political reasons. “Planning of our housing estates, our schools, our workplaces — it’s a whole system of wiring and software to ensure that we remain not just multiracial in description, but multiracial in the way we live our lives,” he said.
“Surely we can also develop more Malay language competence in our own Singaporean population. Just oral command is good enough.”
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