12 Jan 2010

Of race and entitlements in Singapore

Some of you would have heard of Singapore's new "double barrel" policy of race declaration for children of mixed parentage.

On the surface, this sounds great - it tells the child exactly who he/she is, who his/her parents are, and his/her bloodline.

Then this morning, I read this news article on Channel News Asia, which says that the race which "parents choose to place first will be considered the main one." (source)

"Main race?" I asked myself.

I read on about the debate in parliament, on why there is even a need to declare a 'main' or dominant race:

Paulin Tay Straughan, Nominated MP, said: "I am trying to understand why you need to have a declaration of a dominant race. Perhaps Minister can help us appreciate the implications of registration in real terms."

Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs, said: "We have got ethnic-linked policies, for example HDB's ethnic integration policy, and these are key policies. So we do need to know which classification to put the child under."

Hri Kumar, MP, Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, said: "In light of the many different permutations, and now the greater flexibility of choices given to parents, is the selection of race on the identity card going to become an artificial exercise - you pick a race of convenience?"

Clearly, everyone is going to pick Chinese as the dominant race due to the fact that Chinese is the government's "preferred" race in Singapore. So yes, it really is an artificial exercise that only looks good on paper.

I don't think this exercise is helping the situation of racial / ethnic discrimination that still exists in Singapore at all, despite our claims of racial harmony and of our multi-ethnic society that lives in harmony.

I know what you're thinking - that some ethnic-linked policies "protect" the minority races. But I'm for the school of thought that everyone should have equal opportunities, no matter what colour their skin is. If we remove this racial classification, there would be no special entitlement in the first place, or any need at all to protect people from any particular ethnic group. 

In my ideal world, race doesn't matter, and there is no racial divide. 

But I suppose we are light years away from that.