SINGAPORE: Singapore is commemorating racial and religious harmony on a national level through the month-long National Orange Ribbon Celebrations – the first of its kind.

It is organised by OnePeople.sg, the five community development councils, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, People's Association and the Self-Help Groups.

Over 5,000 people – Singaporeans, new citizens and expatriates – turned up at Clarke Quay in orange-coloured outfits on Sunday morning to embrace the idea of multiculturalism.

Orange colour symbolises universal friendship, kinship and familial ties.

Mayor of Central Singapore District Zainudin Nordin said: "We need to make sure that everybody understands that we are Singapore – multi-racial, multi-religious. We try to appreciate one another and we're highly tolerant of different ethnic cultures and so forth.

"At the same time, we want to ensure that if people have difficulties, we're there to help them and make them feel comfortable to integrate."

To further promote racial harmony, South West District plans to hold an arts festival, featuring cultural artworks and photography competitions.

Mayor of South West District Amy Khor said: "We also have another event that we call 'YourFilm.sg'. This is a short film and animation competition, and one of the themes that they can focus on is racial harmony, what the youths' feelings are about racial harmony, and how they think we can work towards reinforcing racial harmony among the different races."

Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan also put on an Orange Ribbon Pin as a commitment to uphold racial and religious harmony in Singapore.

Some 180,000 Orange Ribbon pins are expected to be distributed across Singapore.


- CNA/so