http://tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,210947,00.html?
Parliament
Let kids of European-Asian marriages be known as...
Eurasians not 'others'
MP de Souza wants Eurasians to feel they belong here
By Andre Yeo
August 20, 2009
POSSIBILITIES: Scenarios, according to Minister of State for Education, Mr Iswaran. In November, The New Paper did a story on Samuel Wittberger, who wasn't the top Eurasian student in PSLE as he was listed as Caucasian.
A POSER about race was raised in Parliament yesterday - just two days after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong emphasised the need for racial and religious harmony at the National Day Rally.
The question: Whether the Education Ministry (MOE) would consider allowing children of European-Asian marriages to be classified as Eurasians for Primary One registration.
Related to that, whether the race of these children could be recorded as 'Eurasian' and not 'Others'.
Why raise the issue now?
Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC), 33, told The New Paper that his request was to give the Eurasian community a chance to feel that they belong in Singapore.
PM Lee had said being a Singaporean meant not just tolerating other groups, but welcoming all Singaporeans.
Said Mr de Souza: 'We are embracing PM's call to warmly welcome people into our community.'
Mr de Souza said he brought up the matter in Parliament after a discussion with the Eurasian Association two months ago.
They were discussing issues facing the Eurasian community and talked about how their community could continue to welcome people of different cultures into it.
One way would be to welcome first-generation Eurasians - those whose fathers were Caucasian and mothers were Asian - into the local Eurasian community.
He said these young Eurasians could call themselves Singaporean Eurasians and feel a sense of belonging.
Not only would these Eurasians benefit, he said, but the current Eurasian community would also benefit as they would be able to relate to new cultures.
Why set the Primary One registration as a deadline?
'That student would then identify himself for the next nine years as a Eurasian until he gets his IC (identity card) when he is 15.
'The next official document you will fill up your race in would be the IC. By then, he would be inclined to call himself Eurasian.'
Replying to Mr de Souza's question, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education, Mr S Iswaran, said the current practice was that a child's race would generally follow his father's.
Follow daddy
Where one parent was Caucasian and the other Asian, the child's race would by default be recorded following the race of the father.
But he added that the race of the child could also be recorded as 'Eurasian' if both parents wanted it that way.
This was despite the fact that the MOE was not the authority for the registration of citizens. He said schools could still entertain these requests for a change of race.
It could happen at important stages like when this information is verified for school admission exercises.
He gave the example of parents being asked to verify their child's particulars, including race, before starting Primary One.
Both parents would need to agree and show the required documents.
The schools would then update its records and inform the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) of the change.
Mr Iswaran clarified that 'Others' was not a race classification. It is used by the Department of Statistics and other agencies when presenting statistical data by race.
And it was usually used to refer to all other races besides the Chinese, Malay and Indian.
Was Mr de Souza's question aimed at enlarging the Eurasian community?
It would be one positive consequence from the move, he said.
'What we want to do is to inject vibrancy and longevity. Communities need to re-invent themselves.
'The Eurasian community has a very rich history of being loyal to Singapore. And we want to build on this by including Eurasians of different cultures into the community.'
Indeed, confusion can arise under the current system.
Last November, The New Paper reported the case of Anglo-Chinese Junior School student Samuel Wittberger, who had a 277 score in his Primary School Leaving Examination.
He and his family thought he was the top Eurasian student here. His father is Austrian and his mother is Singaporean Indian.
But he was disappointed to learn the title of top Eurasian was not his to claim.
The MOE had ruled that Ahmad Ashraf Muhammad Johari was listed as the top Eurasian student. MOE's records had Samuel listed as Caucasian, like his father.
When The New Paper asked MOE about the issue then, we were directed to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which in turn re-directed the query to the ICA, which did not reply.
91 races here
Last month in Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng said citizens here were classified under 91 races.
Mr Wong said the largest groups were Chinese (78 per cent), Malays (14 per cent) and Indians (7 per cent).
For the remaining 1 per cent, Eurasians formed the largest group, followed by Arabs. Then come some 80-plus races.
He said the Government did not assign a race to a person.
He said: 'The general rule is that a person's race follows that of his or her father. However, a person's race can be registered differently if he or she is of mixed parentage.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN M'SIA
MALAYSIA is looking into scrapping the column in official forms that require race information, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.
He said the pros and cons would have to be fully studied before a decision can be made, reported The Star.
He said: 'There were some views that, maybe, there is a need for us not to focus so much on race.
'But there were also some who said it is still a necessity, for reasons like gathering of information on how we fare among races.'
Online news portal Malaysian Insider reported yesterday that the cabinet had agreed to a proposal to drop the column on 'race' from most official forms and Malaysians can opt out of stating their race in documents which still have such a requirement.
A government official familiar with the move reportedly told the portal that the decision was made in early August.
He was quoted as saying the civil service was working to eliminate the category in all new forms. But some forms will continue to have the category in relation to special privileges for bumiputras.
Parliament
Let kids of European-Asian marriages be known as...
Eurasians not 'others'
MP de Souza wants Eurasians to feel they belong here
By Andre Yeo
August 20, 2009
POSSIBILITIES: Scenarios, according to Minister of State for Education, Mr Iswaran. In November, The New Paper did a story on Samuel Wittberger, who wasn't the top Eurasian student in PSLE as he was listed as Caucasian.
A POSER about race was raised in Parliament yesterday - just two days after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong emphasised the need for racial and religious harmony at the National Day Rally.
The question: Whether the Education Ministry (MOE) would consider allowing children of European-Asian marriages to be classified as Eurasians for Primary One registration.
Related to that, whether the race of these children could be recorded as 'Eurasian' and not 'Others'.
Why raise the issue now?
Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC), 33, told The New Paper that his request was to give the Eurasian community a chance to feel that they belong in Singapore.
PM Lee had said being a Singaporean meant not just tolerating other groups, but welcoming all Singaporeans.
Said Mr de Souza: 'We are embracing PM's call to warmly welcome people into our community.'
Mr de Souza said he brought up the matter in Parliament after a discussion with the Eurasian Association two months ago.
They were discussing issues facing the Eurasian community and talked about how their community could continue to welcome people of different cultures into it.
One way would be to welcome first-generation Eurasians - those whose fathers were Caucasian and mothers were Asian - into the local Eurasian community.
He said these young Eurasians could call themselves Singaporean Eurasians and feel a sense of belonging.
Not only would these Eurasians benefit, he said, but the current Eurasian community would also benefit as they would be able to relate to new cultures.
Why set the Primary One registration as a deadline?
'That student would then identify himself for the next nine years as a Eurasian until he gets his IC (identity card) when he is 15.
'The next official document you will fill up your race in would be the IC. By then, he would be inclined to call himself Eurasian.'
Replying to Mr de Souza's question, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education, Mr S Iswaran, said the current practice was that a child's race would generally follow his father's.
Follow daddy
Where one parent was Caucasian and the other Asian, the child's race would by default be recorded following the race of the father.
But he added that the race of the child could also be recorded as 'Eurasian' if both parents wanted it that way.
This was despite the fact that the MOE was not the authority for the registration of citizens. He said schools could still entertain these requests for a change of race.
It could happen at important stages like when this information is verified for school admission exercises.
He gave the example of parents being asked to verify their child's particulars, including race, before starting Primary One.
Both parents would need to agree and show the required documents.
The schools would then update its records and inform the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) of the change.
Mr Iswaran clarified that 'Others' was not a race classification. It is used by the Department of Statistics and other agencies when presenting statistical data by race.
And it was usually used to refer to all other races besides the Chinese, Malay and Indian.
Was Mr de Souza's question aimed at enlarging the Eurasian community?
It would be one positive consequence from the move, he said.
'What we want to do is to inject vibrancy and longevity. Communities need to re-invent themselves.
'The Eurasian community has a very rich history of being loyal to Singapore. And we want to build on this by including Eurasians of different cultures into the community.'
Indeed, confusion can arise under the current system.
Last November, The New Paper reported the case of Anglo-Chinese Junior School student Samuel Wittberger, who had a 277 score in his Primary School Leaving Examination.
He and his family thought he was the top Eurasian student here. His father is Austrian and his mother is Singaporean Indian.
But he was disappointed to learn the title of top Eurasian was not his to claim.
The MOE had ruled that Ahmad Ashraf Muhammad Johari was listed as the top Eurasian student. MOE's records had Samuel listed as Caucasian, like his father.
When The New Paper asked MOE about the issue then, we were directed to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which in turn re-directed the query to the ICA, which did not reply.
91 races here
Last month in Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng said citizens here were classified under 91 races.
Mr Wong said the largest groups were Chinese (78 per cent), Malays (14 per cent) and Indians (7 per cent).
For the remaining 1 per cent, Eurasians formed the largest group, followed by Arabs. Then come some 80-plus races.
He said the Government did not assign a race to a person.
He said: 'The general rule is that a person's race follows that of his or her father. However, a person's race can be registered differently if he or she is of mixed parentage.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN M'SIA
MALAYSIA is looking into scrapping the column in official forms that require race information, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.
He said the pros and cons would have to be fully studied before a decision can be made, reported The Star.
He said: 'There were some views that, maybe, there is a need for us not to focus so much on race.
'But there were also some who said it is still a necessity, for reasons like gathering of information on how we fare among races.'
Online news portal Malaysian Insider reported yesterday that the cabinet had agreed to a proposal to drop the column on 'race' from most official forms and Malaysians can opt out of stating their race in documents which still have such a requirement.
A government official familiar with the move reportedly told the portal that the decision was made in early August.
He was quoted as saying the civil service was working to eliminate the category in all new forms. But some forms will continue to have the category in relation to special privileges for bumiputras.
