Sylvia Lim on racial harmony and constitutional amendment bills

MP Sylvia Lim voiced support for the wider objectives of managing race relations and said she will vote in support of the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill. Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 4), she pointed out that on the ground, it is quite common to see race-based organisations having reciprocal relationships with like-minded organisations in other countries. Such relationships enrich the breadth of engagement of shared interests, increase access to resources for charitable activities and enhance people-to-people ties across national borders. In the implementation of the Bill, such benign relationships should be allowed to continue and flourish, she said. Ms Lim also raised concerns over the role of the president in making hard decisions on matters involving ethnicity. She said it would detract from his role as a unifying figure, above politics. Ms Lim said getting the president to take a position on racial affairs could quite possibly lead to the presidency being polarised along racial lines. “This should be avoided at all costs,” she said.