Closure of 'cracks' sought in multi-cultural Singapore
Closure of 'cracks' sought in multi-cultural Singapore
SINGAPORE (AFP): Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong yesterday urged
Singaporeans to seek common ground and close the "cracks" opened
up by a heated election campaign centering on divisive issues of
language, race and religion.
In a Chinese Lunar New Year message to citizens, Goh warned
such fissures could destroy political stability and social
harmony in the prosperous city-state which takes pride in its
multi-cultural character.
"Elections always stress a society," the 55-year-old premier
said. "Arguments are hurled back and forth, emotions are heated
up and fanned and people are forced to take sides, and divide
into opposing camps."
"Now that the election is over, let us close the cracks opened
up in the heat of election," he said on the eve of the Year of
the Ox.
"We cannot afford to be divided between English-educated and
Chinese-educated Singaporeans, between one religion and another."
Goh's People's Action Party (PAP), which has governed Singapore
since 1959, won the Jan. 2 elections hands down to extend its
unbroken rule into the 21st century.
The party won all but two of 83 parliamentary seats and raised
its share of the popular vote to 65 percent from 61 percent in
the 1991 elections.
The campaign was dominated by a debate on language, race and
religion sparked by the presence in the fray of opposition
candidate Tang Liang Hong, whom the PAP branded an anti-
Christian, anti-English-educated Chinese chauvinist.
The previously little-known Tang, who has since left Singapore
and is facing a clutch of libel suits for alleging that PAP
leaders lied, fought on a Workers' Party ticket and narrowly
failed to win election to parliament.
"Unfortunately, this election opened up old fault lines of our
society," Goh said in his message.
"Opportunistic politicians sprang to life. Rowdy, anti-
establishment elements turned up to become agit-props at
opposition rallies. They used the election campaign as a cover to
vent their personal grievances."
About 77 percent of three million Singaporeans are ethnic
Chinese, with Malays composing 14 percent and Indians seven
percent. English is the working language of the former British
colony, where Mandarin, Malay and Tamil are the other official
languages.
The prominence of English is intended to give minorities equal
chances in education and jobs in the island, which broke from
Malaysia in 1965 amid a dispute over racial rights.
Goh said the January polls exposed a weakness in the electoral
procedure in Singapore, which will "always be vulnerable to
racial, religious and language pulls."
"Out of nowhere, in a nine-day campaign, an unknown but
plausible orator could sway the electorate and open up fissures
in the ground," he said in a reference to Tang, who was last
reported to be in London.
"We must not let these vulnerabilities be exploited. Otherwise
our political stability and social harmony, which we have
painstakingly built over 30 years, will be destroyed," the
premier warned.
PAP leaders have cautioned that as China becomes more powerful
over the years, there would be a temptation for ethnic Chinese
here to push for the primacy of Chinese language and culture
unless the government takes a strong stand now.
"We accept honest differences of views," Goh said. "But these
differences must not so divide us that we become a fractured
society, unable to compete as a team against other countries or
to unite as one people against external threats."
He urged Singaporeans to seek common ground and forge
consensus on major issues to maintain political stability, which
he described as the "bedrock of our social harmony and economic
prosperity."