President Halimah Yacob spoke at the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations in China where she highlighted challenges faced by Singapore in encouraging and fostering inter-racial and inter-religious ties.
She highlighted that Singapore is a strictly secular state that treats everyone equally regardless of race or religion. Singaporeans are free to practice their faith, so long as these faiths do not impinge upon others.
Halimah also pointed out the constitutional changes to the elected Presidency (EP), which enabled her to become President.
While Singapore is relatively harmonious, she knows that it is not perfect and that the maintenance of harmony is always a work in progress.
Halimah Yacob is not wrong. Yes, Singapore is relatively harmonious. True, maintaining harmony is an ongoing endeavour that can never be completed.
However, the EP is not the right example to showcase equality for all races in Singapore. Furthermore, there was no contest because no other candidates could pass the very stringent criteria that was set out. This cannot be seen as a positive for the community. This does not equate to minority representation. If anything, Singaporeans are more suspect of the EP and the constitutional amendment.
For that reason, harmony in Singapore is always a work in progress.
