Goh calls for more racial integration

Goh calls for more racial integration

SINGAPORE (AP): Singaporeans need to find more time to gather and socialize with members of different races, the prime minister of the multiracial city-state said.

Goh Chok Tong's comments came late Sunday at an event organized by an ethnic Indian organization at which he urged people from different racial groups to reach out to each other and organize joint events and training programs.

"I want to reiterate at the outset that our national objective remains the integration of the different ethnic communities," Goh said. "It means finding more occasions for Singaporeans of all races to gather and socialize, as opposed to organizing activities and events along ethnic lines."

Goh said he was happy to attend the event organized by ethnic Indians, but that he was "apprehensive" about sending the "wrong message that the government now favors a segregated, race-based approach to politics."

Race is a sensitive topic in Singapore and the government often censors art performances they deem racially touchy. Over seventy percent of the population is Chinese, with ethnic Malays, Indians and Eurasians making up the bulk of the remaining population.

People in the affluent city-state live in racial harmony, but Singapore was rocked by race riots in the sixties. Government officials, including Goh, often mention the race riots, asking Singaporeans not to forget.

"Creating a cohesive multiracial society will take time," Goh said. "A multiracial Singapore provides us that stability necessary for progress."

Meanwhile, a Singaporean civil rights group has applied for a permit to picket outside a local radio station next month to mark World Press Freedom Day, a member of the group said on Monday.

Any assembly of more than five people requires a permit in tightly controlled Singapore.

However, police said later on Monday that the planned protest has been denied a permit.

"The event is a demonstration in a public place that has the potential to lead to law and order problems," the police said in a statement.

The group wants to picket the Radio Corporation of Singapore to call for more press freedom and to protest the radio station's handling of a December story about human rights, said Jacob George of the Think Center.

"The main thing is the issue of why they censor," George said on Monday. "They're not being accountable to the public at all." George said they want to know why the radio station "censored" coverage of a December human right's rally. He said a local radio presenter had been told to edit her coverage of the event to delete comments from a leading opposition politician.

The management also edited a part where the journalist read a letter on air from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan about human rights, George said. The journalist said on air that her editors were unhappy with the program.

The journalist no longer works for the radio station and George says he want to know why.