This is the result that emerges from a study entitled Indicators of Racial and Religious Harmony prepared by IPS and Onepeople. Stereotypes based on race or religion are reinforced, related to greater attention to the elements of “diversity” and greater “honesty” when recognizing it. A quarter of the population (compared to 42% in 2013) does not fully trust their fellow citizens of another religion or ethnicity.
Singapore (Asianews) – A study published on February 3, on the database collected last year, shows that in Singapore, on the one hand, stereotypes rooted on the various ethnic groups and religions that live together in this Small but dense multiethnic and multireligious reality. And, on the other hand, citizens ask the authorities for a greater implication to better guarantee the rights of each and social peace, which has always been an essential element of the prosperity of the city-state with an active participation of politics and of governments.
Of the indicators of racial and religious Harmony developed by the Institute of Political Studies (IPS) and the NGO Onepeople.SG a positive general result arises. However, it also confirms – as the most prominent data – that still a quarter of the population does not fully trust their fellow citizens of a religion or ethnicity different from its own. An improvement (from 42.4% in 2013 to 27.2% of last year), which nevertheless opposes an opposite sign index: the increase in racial stereotypes.
These conditions have been highlighted, were aggravated by the situation that was created during the pandemic, where the fight against the propagation of COVID-19 caused society to be more cohesive as a whole, but the forced lack of interaction has also also Increased the attitude of suspicion with respect to the “other.” Actually, the situation is even more complex, because the data was collected at various times over the last five years, based on ten different indicators of racial and religious harmony. “These indicators – says the study – allow us to compare the change of attitudes and perceptions over time, providing a clearer vision of Singapore’s progress in the conservation of harmony and inclusiveness.”
More specifically, the growth of stereotypes on a racial or religious basis, with a diffusion percentage that went from 35.2% in 2018 to 43.5%, seems to be due to two concomitant phenomena: greater attention to the elements of ” Diversity “, as the way of dressing and behaving, or age; a greater “honesty” when recognizing the perception of diversity in others. This last element – said the president of Onepeople.SG, Janil Puthucoyy – is not necessarily negative, because “it is important to recognize this perception in ourselves to be able to overcome it and reach adequate behavior at the cultural and social level.”
It is important that few see ethnic or religious belonging as a discriminatory factor in the world of work. However, there are still important resistances in regard to individual and collective relationships, beginning with marriages between individuals from different groups of Singapore’s “meling”. A country with six million inhabitants in which, together with the Chinese majority (75%), important bad, Indian and Euroasy minorities coexist, as well as 1.5 million immigrants from various origins.
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