Sunday, August 26, 2007

CMIO

Since tomorrow is my first Singapore Society tutorial and the topic will be on CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others) of Singapore, I thought maybe I should practice some points here in case I need to articulate myself in class.

From the last lecture, one of the questions posted is during the period of merger of Singapore and Malaysia, LKY hoped to achieve Malaysians Malaysia, inside of a Malay Malaysia, so why Singapore is not a Singaporeans Singapore but rather a Singapore that acknowledge CMIO. In case you do not know the difference (not sure if I am correct either), I do believe that a Singaporean Singapore is one of integration, that is more towards Nationalism and we believe in our national identity, and not be too concern about our ethnicity. It will be Singapore first, then CMIO, and an example of such policy will be France, which practice a policy of integration on all it's immigrants. However, the present day Singapore present the notion of the four main races of Singapore, that is CMIO, and they make up the present day Singapore.

With a so call system of equality in the country, we should be able to consider Singapore as a Singaporean Singapore, though we concentrate much on our ethnic background. Not sure if this goes against the notion of a Singaporean Singapore since we are effectively a migrant society, but definitely by practicing such policy has it's advantages. We should understand that despite the differences in people, we are of one entity that is we are all Singaporeans. We do not ignore our differences but we celebrate the diversity in the heritage of our cultures.

As compared to other countries either practicing integration or separation, I do believe that accepting the diversity is the way to go, while making sure that the diversity will still ensure equal opportunities and assistance.

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