Founding fathers were ‘passionate about multiracialism’
For the founding fathers, a multiracial society is one “where nobody would be favoured or disadvantaged because of the colour of his or her skin. Where everybody would have equal opportunities, feel kinship and brotherhood with people of different races and religions, and share the same Singapore nationality”. TODAY File Photo
SINGAPORE — The nation’s founding fathers believed passionately in the vision of a multiracial society, and they also wanted to make sure that Singapore would not be viewed by its neighbours as a “Third China”.
That was why the founding fathers — Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Goh Keng Swee, Mr S Rajaratnam, Mr Othman Wok — made multiracialism the fundamental principle on which Singapore was founded, and enshrined it in the Constitution, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the People’s Association Kopitalk on last Saturday (Sept 23). The edited transcript of Mr Lee’s speech was released to the media on Friday.
PM Lee noted that Mr Lee, who was Singapore’s founding Prime Minister, summed up what multi-racialism was all about when he said in 1965 — the year Singapore gained independence — that the Republic is “not a Malay nation, not a Chinese nation, not an Indian nation. Everybody will have a place in Singapore”.
His message was meant not only to reassure the minorities, but also to remind the Chinese majority in Singapore never to oppress the non-Chinese, “because they themselves had felt squatted upon when Singapore was in Malaysia”, PM Lee said.
For the founding fathers, a multiracial society is one “where nobody would be favoured or disadvantaged because of the colour of his or her skin. Where everybody would have equal opportunities, feel kinship and brotherhood with people of different races and religions, and share the same Singapore nationality”.
Malaysia was different, PM Lee noted, “The Umno leaders in Kuala Lumpur — the central government — wanted one dominant race, i.e. Malay Malaysians, to enjoy special rights, while the Chinese, Indians and other citizens would forever be in a subordinate position. We fought that, and disagreed with them. Eventually, we separated from them because it could not be settled,” he said.
PM Lee added that in the 1960s, Singapore — a Chinese-majority country, in a Malay-majority part of Southeast Asia — was seen “as a Chinese country, a proxy, a stooge for communist China, and not an independent player”.
“If Singapore had been identified as a Chinese country, it would have caused problems with our neighbours. We would not have been able to live peacefully in South-east Asia. So, we had to make quite sure that people understood that we were an independent, multiracial country,” he said.
