Mustafa Shopping Centre

The other night, we were shopping at Mustafa Shopping Centre for a formal dinner function. We were surprise that we could find Chinese Chong Sum as easily as good quality Sarong from Indonesia. Of course there were large selections of good Sari. Punjabi suit and Indian salwar kameez yet there was an impressive range of formal coat and Western Suit.

This created a lasting impression on me because I noted that there was equal emphasis on clothes from the four main races in Singapore. It might be argued that these selections were motivated solely based on economic reasons. Yet in a way, it reflected the state of racial harmony that has been cultivated in Singapore. We are comfortable in wearing each other ethnic clothes and increasingly more Singaporean are adopting these ethnic clothes that do not necessary reflect their own race.

Thus, when my Eurasian daughters and my Indonesian maid wore the Chong Sum to the dinner while I wore a Baju Kurung, we only receive complements.

However, when I was attending an in service course on multi-culturalism, Prof Rahil Ismail of the National Educational Education (NIE) asked if we can see beyond the three Fs of fashion, food and festivals when it comes to promoting racial harmony in Singapore.

This might be a question worth asking as we have been celebrating Racial Harmony Day in July since 1998. Normally schools would try to promote understanding among the races by encouraging students to wear different ethnic clothes, tasting different food or watching cultural performances.

In addition, to grow the common space and deepen inter-racial understanding, Inter-Racial Confidence Circles(IRCC) for the constituencies and “Harmony Circles”(HCs) for schools, work places and other local organizations have been organized since January 2002. They are meant to be casual, self-evolved group with the aim of providing a platform for Singaporean from different races and religion to interact and to get to know one another better in the hope that confidence, friendship and trust can be cultivated.

Is this sufficient for us to maintain racial and religious harmony? While appreciating that the structure has been put in place, we as individual has to play an active role.

A recent 15-country poll by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press indicated that there is a deep divide between Muslim and the West. Muslim generally views Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy while Americans and Europeans view Muslims as arrogant, violent and intolerant.

Would a similar poll done in Singapore surfaced similar view? And if it does, could we as individual help to dispel these stereotypes? Even if similar views are not found is it time for us to pat our back for a job well done in the area of racial and religious relationship? What can we do to ensure that these types of view do not grow secretly in our heart?

What has happened in the past does not necessary means that it will continue in the future. Thus, we can never take the racial harmony that we have enjoyed for the past forty years for granted.

One possibility is to view ourselves as human first. This means that we will come to the aid of our fellow being regardless of his race, language or religion. We must treat each other with dignity and must have the courage to stop any conversation that disparage, debase or demean any race. In addition, we should look upon our foreign domestic help and worker with kindness. We should come to their help when they are in trouble and treat them with kindness.

While shopping at Mustafa that same night, I met a Muslim lady that was completely veiled except for her eyes. It invoked an unfounded and illogical fear in me. The following day, I asked my good friend, a learned Muslim woman about my fear. She could explain to me with confident the rational for the way Muslim woman should dressed. I am glad that I have that conversation with her as it helped me to dispel my fear and prejudices.

We have to play an active role to consistently and consciously work on eradiating out our stereotypes that we have of other people. None of us can claimed that we do not have them but it is what we do with them that makes a difference between living in harmony or in fear.