Is racial harmony attainable?

Racial harmony means living harmoniously with people of different races. Singapore is a multi-racial country and thus racial harmony is vital in keeping peace within the country. The government has realised this fact ever since out independence from Malaysia. There has been numerous policies implmented to achieve this purpose, such as making English our official language. However whether or not racial harmony can be achieved in the long run will depend on a lot more factors.

There are several reasons why racial harmony is attainable. One of the reasons is economic interest. Singapore has a high employment rate(97.3% from Ministry of manpower) meaning most Singaporeeans are working. If Singaporeans do not try to keep peace within races and start to disrespect other races, racial riots might start and this may lead to closure of certain companies as their workers might not be working or their company has been destroyed. When companies close, workers will be retrenched, increasing Singapore's unemployment rate. Since most people would not want to lose their job, they will not wish for a racial riot and thus try to achieve racial harmony. Hence racial harmony is attainable for economic interest.

However there are also several reasons why racial harmony is not attainable. One of the reasons is the income gap between races. This is espically significant in Indonesia. In 2004, the malay's population is 6 times that of the chinese but the income to poulation ratio for the malay is 1.11, whereas the chinese is 1.57, meaning that the chinese individuals is earning more than the malay individuals. The Chinese are reported to control about 3/4 of the 140 big conglomerates that dominate Indonesia’s private sector. The Economist also reports that the Suharto clan usually operates in partnership with Chinese-owned businesses. Some of the riots in Indonesia is believed to be caused by the income gap as the malays become unhappy about the income gap with the chinese. The former minister of home affairs urges the government to ban the Chinese from some economic activities to avoid racial tensions. Hence racial harmony may not be attainable if the income gap between races is too big.

In conclusion, the fact that racial harmony is vital in keeping peace in a country is undeniable, espically is a multi racial country like Singapore where the different races meet each other everyday. However, whether or not racial harmony can be attained will be determined by the country's own effort in maintaining racial harmony such as implmentation of certain anti-racist policies and removal of potential problem such as income gap.