the ties that bind & blind
Research Report
the ties that bind & blind: A REPORT ON INTER-RACIAL AND INTER-RELIGIOUS RELATIONS IN SINGAPORE (2012)
YOLANDA CHIN
NORMAN VASU
Copyright Date: Dec. 31, 2012
Published by: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Pages: 36
OPEN ACCESS
https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep05915
Table of Contents
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. [i]-[iii])
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. 1-1)
  3. Executive Summary
    Executive Summary (pp. 2-5)
  4. 1. Introduction
    1. Introduction (pp. 6-11)

    A significant foundational element of the “Singapore Story”, a euphemism for the official history of Singapore, holds that Singapore since independence in 1965 has successfully developed inter-communal harmony despite communal tensions at independence. However, when describing the condition of multicultural Singapore, that is, the manner in which the different races and religions in Singapore interact with one another, a common refrain is that though inter-communal harmony prevails, the harmony enjoyed today can unravel very quickly if it is not continually worked at. For example, this position was iterated by former Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zainul Abidin Rasheed...

  5. 2. Methodology
    2. Methodology (pp. 12-14)

    The survey instrument is a questionnaire consisting of two parts.

    The first part pertains to the attitude of the respondents towards interacting with a member of the identified racial (Chinese, Malay, Indian and ‘Others’) and religious (Buddhists/Taoists,20 Muslims, Hindu, Christians, ‘Other religion’ and Free-thinkers) groups for 15 different scenarios pertaining to interaction in the public sphere. Interviewees were asked to respond as though they had a choice and not according to their actual interaction patterns in a given scenario. For instance, for a question such as “Would you mind if your next-door neighbour were a Chinese?”, respondents were asked to...

  6. 3. Analysis
    3. Analysis (pp. 15-20)

    This study addresses two questions pertaining to the social fabric of Singapore:

    a) Have Singapore’s multicultural ties been resilient between 2007 and 2011?

    b) Were Malays, Christians and Chinese consistently less inclusive than non-Malays, non-Christians and non-Chinese between 2007 and 2011?

    As noted earlier, this study has defined multicultural resilience as the ability of a multicultural society to maintain or strengthen its inter-racial or inter-religious ties in the event of challenges to social harmony. Conversely, if the strength of its inter-racial and inter-religious ties were to weaken under stress, it can be said that the society did not possess multicultural...

  7. 4. Conclusion
    4. Conclusion (pp. 21-21)

    Through 2007 and 2011, owing to the occurrence of several high-profile events involving race and religion coupled with greater discussions in the public sphere of these issues, it may be tempting to wonder if Singapore’s multicultural harmony has possibly been destabilised. In an attempt to more systematically discern if such unease is justified, the two fundamental questions this study has grappled with surrounds whether Singapore’s multicultural ties have been resilient between 2007 and 2011 and whether Malays, Christians and the Chinese have been consistently less inclusive than non-Malays, non-Christians and non-Chinese respectively in the same period.

    Simply put, the study...

  8. Appendix
    Appendix (pp. 22-28)
  9. About CENS
    About CENS (pp. 29-29)
  10. About RSIS
    About RSIS (pp. 30-31)
  11. Back Matter
    Back Matter (pp. 32-32)