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."