Singapore has always been multicultural. Here, we have 200 years of continuous trading and development, so we have a multicultural society for around 200 years. Immigrants come in from the Malay Peninsula/Malaysia, Spice Islands in Indonesia, Siam/Thailand, China, India and recently, Philippines, Australia and so on.
However, being a multicultural society is not enough to build a strong nation, when societies remain pluralistic and separate from each other.
After all, a separate but equal society sounds archaic, and it indeed is.
Singapore is still a plural society. Chinese Singaporeans don't interact much with the Indians, for example, and the Filipino Singaporeans are a rather insular group currently.
I remained insensitive to the rest of Singapore society, until I realised I am, indeed, living in a Chinese Singaporean world, even within a country that prides itself in integration of different people. The Chinese Singaporean mindset is different from the Malay or Indian Singaporean mindset.
Being multicultural is not sufficient to build a strong and stable society, being both proud of one's heritage and truly able to work together, thus bringing the different strengths of the culture, will make a multicultural society truly diverse, accepting and culturally deep and rich.
Perhaps a more ideal multicultural country than Singaporean would be the United States, though both countries are incomparable because of differences in geopolitical circumstances, demographics and socio-economic dynamics differences.
The US are able to integrate generations of English, Scottish, Irish, Italian, German, Russian, African, and more recently, Latin American and Asian immigrants, together under one country and one flag, and having a distinctively American character in all its people. Even though inherent discrimination is disguised under socioeconomic differences and their underlying racial stereotypes, at least, from what my parents said about (Chinese-)Americans such as basketball phenom Jeremy Lin or Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu, they and their children are able to do the same things as other Americans do, and they are both Chinese and American, with a strong American core within.
This 'Singaporean core' is something certainly my society can work towards. In such a society, no matter how Singaporean society gets to evolve, all Singaporeans are united as one people, and equal to each other, regardless of socio-economic circumstances, medical conditions, and previous ethnic background.
However, being a multicultural society is not enough to build a strong nation, when societies remain pluralistic and separate from each other.
After all, a separate but equal society sounds archaic, and it indeed is.
Singapore is still a plural society. Chinese Singaporeans don't interact much with the Indians, for example, and the Filipino Singaporeans are a rather insular group currently.
I remained insensitive to the rest of Singapore society, until I realised I am, indeed, living in a Chinese Singaporean world, even within a country that prides itself in integration of different people. The Chinese Singaporean mindset is different from the Malay or Indian Singaporean mindset.
Being multicultural is not sufficient to build a strong and stable society, being both proud of one's heritage and truly able to work together, thus bringing the different strengths of the culture, will make a multicultural society truly diverse, accepting and culturally deep and rich.
Perhaps a more ideal multicultural country than Singaporean would be the United States, though both countries are incomparable because of differences in geopolitical circumstances, demographics and socio-economic dynamics differences.
The US are able to integrate generations of English, Scottish, Irish, Italian, German, Russian, African, and more recently, Latin American and Asian immigrants, together under one country and one flag, and having a distinctively American character in all its people. Even though inherent discrimination is disguised under socioeconomic differences and their underlying racial stereotypes, at least, from what my parents said about (Chinese-)Americans such as basketball phenom Jeremy Lin or Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu, they and their children are able to do the same things as other Americans do, and they are both Chinese and American, with a strong American core within.
This 'Singaporean core' is something certainly my society can work towards. In such a society, no matter how Singaporean society gets to evolve, all Singaporeans are united as one people, and equal to each other, regardless of socio-economic circumstances, medical conditions, and previous ethnic background.
