Iffah's Answers To The Questions

Why is it important to foster social cohesion?

It is important to foster social cohesion so that we can build a strong bond within Singaporeans. Singapore provides a lot of opportunities to foster social cohesion. All the different races go to the same type of school and have the same co-curriculum activity (CCA).This opportunities helps Singaporeans to bond with each other despite the differences they had to make Singapore a happy, prosperity and progressive country.


What were the events that led to the race riots of 1964?

The Malay newspaper, Utusan Melayu, claimed that 3,000 Malay families were affected by the resettlement in an area stretching from Crawford, Kampong Glam to Rochor. In reality, out of 2,500 families resettled, only about 200 were Malays. The Utusan Melayu also highlighted that the PAP government did not care about the Malays in Singapore. UMNO had a meeting with the Malays giving them fiery speeches portraying PAP as anti -Malay that made the Malays furious.
Malays gathered at the Padang to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad's birthday. Along the way, a group that was dispersed was asked to rejoin the procession by a policeman.Instead of obeying the orders, the group attacked the policeman. This incident led to race riot after the group of Malays attacked the Chinese.


What were the causes of the race riots?

Lack of communication, understanding and interaction between the different races causes this race riots. Another reason for this riot is that the riot occurred during the period when the
PAP-UMNO relations were severely strained after the PAP challenged the UMNO in the March 1964 Malaysia federal election with the campaign slogan of Malaysian Malaysia.


What happened during the race riot?

During the riot, a curfew was declared at 9.30pm to restore order but in the first day of the riot 4 people were killed and more than 170 were injured. After the curfew was lifted at 6am, the conflict grew even more intense and another curfew was imposed but only lifted for a short period of time for people to buy food. The curfew was completely lifted on 2 august.

Syafik's & Ashraf 's Answers To The Question

What Were the Consequences of the Riots?

18 people were killed & 173 were hurt in the riots.Although the rioters were mainly malay, they included a lot of forigners including pakistani,indian & indonesian malays.119 vehicles were damaged & 2 buildings were set on fire.778 people were detained when the police set up a special investigation unit.Some were released & some were sentenced to death.

What were the lesson learnt from the riots?

Riots causes many innocent lives to be lost.Violence is not the key to solve any issues.Do not show anger by damaging public property & killing innocent lives.The importance of understanding each other culture is therefore important in a country like Singapore.

Why do people react sensitively to religious issue?

In multi-ethnic societies like Singapore,race and religion may be used to create ill-feeling among the ethnic groups.

What were the measures taken to foster social cohesion(unity among the people) in multi-ethnic singapore?

Common practices-
These are actions that Singaporeans carry out together, to build a strong sense of belonging/national identity in Singapore. Examples are singing the national anthem and taking pledges together during the morning, having a Racial Harmony day and National day where all races get together, etc.Inculcating loyalty and national pride towards Singapore is one way to create a sense of identity as one people among Singaporeans.

Bilingualism-
This policy was introduced in 1966, where students were expected to learn English and their Mother Tongue language. With this, English is used by many people, therefore enabling different types of ethnic group to communicate and understand each other better through talking with English, while Mother Tongue languages are used to cultural traditions and moral values of each race.

Josey's Answer to The Question

What were the events that led to the Maria Hertogh riots of 1950?

In 1940s,a dutch couple was imprisoned by the Japanese.
They placed their daughter,Maria Hertogh,under the care of a malay lady,Aminah.
Maria was raised as a muslim and at the age of 13,married a malay teacher.
When her parents demanded that Maria be returned to them,a court trial followed.
this court trial had wide media coverage and provoked much unhappiness among the muslim community.The court decided to give custody to the Hertoghs.

What were the causes of the Maria Hertogh riots?
The large crowd outside the court felt that the british legal system was unfair to Muslims.This sparked off anger towards the European and Eurasian communities which resulted in the outbreak of riots.

What happened during the riots?
Five were dead & 100 were hurt due to the Maria Hertogh riot.During the riots,the government placed a 24-hour curfew for two weeks.The british and malayan troops as well as the singapore police were called in to maintain peace.

Explore other ways to foster social cohesion in singapore.
Other ways that we could foster social cohesion is by bonding ourselves with our neighbours who are from different race by asking them out wif you to watch a movie or making friends with them instead of enemies.Besides that,we also can visit them during the festive season & understand about the culture & religion.

Khairul's Answer To The Question

How Different Are We?

Singapore is a multi-ethnic country with people from many different racial,cultural & religious background.Despite these differences,it is possible for people to live in peace & harmony.We also share the same identity & thats being a Singaporean.

What were the consequences of the race riots?
Many victims were hurt & some dead. People were afraid to go out of their homes & scared to be hurt in the riots.The race riots caused damage to property as well as loss of lives.

What were the lesson learnt from riot?
Lesson that can be learnt from the riot is that if racial issues are not handled carefully,hostility & distrust could occur among the people,thus affecting the relationships among people from different race.We should not insult each other religion & we should have close bond among other races in singapore.

Why do people react sensitively?
In multi-ethnic societies like Singapore,race and religion may be used to create ill feelings among the ethnic groups.Insulting about their race could hurt the people feelings & therefore it can cause a hard feeling among each other.Their religion is like their pride & if you insult them it can start as a small fight n will end up leaving many dead & wounded.

Project Task A

Josey's Task.

What were the events that led to Maria Hertogh riotsof 1950?(Religious Issues)
What were the causes of them Maria Hertogh riots?(Religious Issues)
What happened during the riots?(Religious Issues)
Explore other ways to foster social cohesion in singapore.

Khairul's Task.

What were the consequences of the race riots?(Racial Issues)
What were the lessons learnt from the riot?(Racial Issues)
Why do people react sensitively to race issues?(Racial Issues)
How different are we?

Syafik's Task.

What were the consequences of the riots?(Religious Issues)
What were the lessons learnt from the riots?(Religious Issues)
Why do people react sensitively to religious issues?(Religious Issues)
What were the measures taken to foster social cohesion(unity among the people) in multi-ethnic Sinapore?

Iffah's Task.
What were the events that led to the race riots in 1964?(Racial Issues)
What were the causes of the race riots?(Racial Issues)
What happened during the race riots?(Racial Issues)
Why is it important to foster social cohesion?

Our Steps On Doing The Project

We Have Decided On Focusing Our Project On Doing Question A.

We Have To Set Up A Blog To Reflect On The Challenges At Social Cohesion That Singapore Has Face And Is Facing Today. Singapore Is A Multi Racial Society & The Government Has Manage Ethnic Diversity The Importance Of Doing So.

Our Project Focus Is:

To Make Pupils Appreciate What Singapore Has Done So Far To Foster Social Cohesion As Well As To Generate New Ideas To Unite Singapore As One People One Nation
& To Forge A National Identity In A Globalizing World.

We Are To Reflect On :

The Differences Of Every Races & How Different We Are.
The Challenges Of Multi Ethnicity In Singapore.
Such As:- How Racial Issues Could Divide The People?
How Religious Issues Could Divide The People?
How Issues Relating To Transnational Terrorism Could Divide The People?