<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Common language key to racial harmony
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to last Monday's commentary, 'Hard work on harmony key to future prosperity'. The Prime Minister's call for continued racial harmony is timely.
Besides government-backed community events to promote this, I suggest that schools actively discourage the use of language not common to all races between students, both in and outside class.
My illiterate mother, now 98, migrated to Singapore as a young woman speaking only Cantonese. She soon picked up enough market Malay to communicate with the non-Chinese she met. My earliest childhood memories are of her camaraderie with other tenants, Eurasian and Punjabi, in a flat with shared bathroom, toilet and kitchen. Racial harmony was a way of life, because interaction was possible in a common language, Malay.
In school, Chinese was not allowed except in Mandarin class. Again, racial harmony was simply part of life. I had Malay-Muslim, Indian and Chinese classmates of various faiths. We did not give a second thought to our racial or religious differences, with everyone sharing a common language of communication, English.
I therefore felt great concern when I heard of incidents among college students today, where Mandarin was the language of choice in the presence of non-Chinese, effectively excluding them from conversations, even after it was pointed out that this was inconsiderate.
The 'So what? Too bad for 'them'' attitude is a threat to the racial harmony emphasised by the PM.
I lived for 16 years in Europe. Not once did I feel discriminated against. In fact, I quite forgot I looked different from everyone else. All because I spoke their language.
Calls for racial harmony will be useless if we do not tackle the problem at its roots and promote a common language.
Amy Loh (Ms)
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to last Monday's commentary, 'Hard work on harmony key to future prosperity'. The Prime Minister's call for continued racial harmony is timely.
Besides government-backed community events to promote this, I suggest that schools actively discourage the use of language not common to all races between students, both in and outside class.
My illiterate mother, now 98, migrated to Singapore as a young woman speaking only Cantonese. She soon picked up enough market Malay to communicate with the non-Chinese she met. My earliest childhood memories are of her camaraderie with other tenants, Eurasian and Punjabi, in a flat with shared bathroom, toilet and kitchen. Racial harmony was a way of life, because interaction was possible in a common language, Malay.
In school, Chinese was not allowed except in Mandarin class. Again, racial harmony was simply part of life. I had Malay-Muslim, Indian and Chinese classmates of various faiths. We did not give a second thought to our racial or religious differences, with everyone sharing a common language of communication, English.
I therefore felt great concern when I heard of incidents among college students today, where Mandarin was the language of choice in the presence of non-Chinese, effectively excluding them from conversations, even after it was pointed out that this was inconsiderate.
The 'So what? Too bad for 'them'' attitude is a threat to the racial harmony emphasised by the PM.
I lived for 16 years in Europe. Not once did I feel discriminated against. In fact, I quite forgot I looked different from everyone else. All because I spoke their language.
Calls for racial harmony will be useless if we do not tackle the problem at its roots and promote a common language.
Amy Loh (Ms)
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