DPM Lee Hsien Loong delivered an off-the-cuff speech in Parliament on March 10 in response to views expressed earlier by MP for Sembawang GRC, Mr K Shanmugam, on racial harmony and cultural elites. He stressed that while building a Singaporean identity, we must at the same time retain the strengths and traditions of the different ethnic groups.
Below are extracts of his speech.
I think we should cast our discussion in the framework of the situation in Singapore： Where did we come from？ Where are we today？
We did not start off with a homogenous society. We are not a homogenous society. In fact, our starting point was schools which were very substantially differentiated and segregated, because many of the Chinese were in Chinese schools, many of the Malay children were in Malay schools, and the English schools catered to a minority of the population.
It's a diversity which can be a problem but in our case has been a source of strength. And as I explained during the debate in January on Chinese language, the fact that we have people who have come from Chinese school backgrounds, like Hwa Chong （Chinese High）, people who have come from English school backgrounds, like RI and ACS, people with strong Malay roots or strong Indian roots, makes us a diverse society with different strengths which are useful in different situations.
And the whole together is stronger than any single one of the parts.
So, the diversity is a major factor for our national survival. If we were all homogenised, not only do the communities not want it — because actually each community wants to retain some of its own identity — but I think we would be the weaker for it.
So, therefore, what we are trying to do is to retain some of the strengths of these different ethnic groups and cultural traditions while at the same time building a Singaporean identity.
Not all of the top 30 per cent of Chinese students attend SAP schools. For a start, there is RI and ACS, who will claim that they are any time as good as Hwa Chong. And even apart from that, if we take all the SAP schools as a whole, perhaps about 15 per cent of Chinese students will be there.
So, many good Chinese students do not go into SAP schools but we want some of them to, because we think there is something valuable in the tradition of the SAP schools which we should try our best to preserve.
And we are really preserving, in a new situation, something which grew out of the historical circumstances of the period after the war in a different Singapore.
We are not really advancing the margins. We are just trying to maintain, in a transmuted form, part of what was good of the previous generation.
So it is not a society which is becoming more and more segregated, it is a society which is actually becoming more and more unified. But, yet, in the unity we want to preserve some of the strengths.
Between what we are doing and the extreme possibility which Mr Shanmugam has presented, I think there is a considerable difference which is not just quantitative but becomes qualitative.
There is a trade-off, of course. It is not the same learning about other cultures vicariously as it is having a class of mixed students — Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, all together — having to accommodate one another.
But given that SAP schools are something which we want to maintain, I think there are ways we can work to minimise the disadvantages. For example, we are pressing National Education in schools, both in the formal as well as informal curriculum, to bring home the importance of multi-racial harmony. And to participate in activities and programmes which register this message, not just on paper but through actual participation and experience — joint activities with other schools, opportunities to mix with students with other schools, so that they can get to know one another.
And some of the SAP schools have regular activities which involve the minority cultural groups. For example, Catholic High School regularly invites Malay and Indian cultural groups to perform or to give talks during appropriate festivals.
Secondly, of course, the SAP schools are now using English as the medium of instruction and Chinese at a higher level than other schools and with greater cultural content, but the main medium of instruction is English.
So the difference between a SAP school student and a student who went to Hwa Chong or Chung Cheng or Catholic High School 30 years ago is that they （now） speak the same language, use the same textbooks as students who go to SCGS or RGS or any of the other English schools. So the gap is much less.
Thirdly, MOE is clustering the schools. We are going to group seven or nine schools together in one cluster for all the schools in Singapore so that there is greater sharing and interaction between them, and SAP schools would be part of these clusters and these clusters will have other non-SAP schools in them and there will be frequent joint activities with other schools in the same cluster. So you are within the same family.
Finally, of course, SAP schools are not the end of a person's formative experience. They go on to top junior colleges. They go on to National Service. They go on to work and to university and there they will learn to mix and to work together and to relate to Singaporeans whatever the ethnic group.
And feedback from our junior college principals has confirmed that, in fact, the SAP school students have not had a problem mixing with non-SAP school students. But we will continue to keep the situation under close review and help create more opportunities and we welcome suggestions from members as to how we can do so.
特選學(xué)校和多元種族社會(huì)
副總理李顯龍準(zhǔn)將本月10日在國(guó)會(huì)針對(duì)三巴旺集選區(qū)議員尚穆根較早時(shí)提到我國(guó)種族和諧以及文化精英的問(wèn)題,即席作出答復(fù)。他強(qiáng)調(diào)我國(guó)在建立具有新加坡特色的文化的同時(shí),也有必要保留各族的文化優(yōu)點(diǎn)和傳統(tǒng)。
以下是李副總理演講的摘要：
我認(rèn)為我們應(yīng)該在我國(guó)環(huán)境的架構(gòu)下討論這個(gè)問(wèn)題：我們過(guò)去的處境如何？我們今日又處在什么樣的環(huán)境里？
我們過(guò)去一開(kāi)始就不是一個(gè)單一種族的社會(huì),而現(xiàn)在也不是一個(gè)單一種族的社會(huì)。其實(shí)開(kāi)始的時(shí)候,我們的學(xué)校在相當(dāng)大的程度上是互相分化和隔離的,因?yàn)楹芏嗳A人報(bào)讀華校,馬來(lái)族學(xué)童在馬來(lái)學(xué)校受教育,英校則是為人口中的少數(shù)而開(kāi)設(shè)的。
這個(gè)多元化的現(xiàn)象可能成為一個(gè)問(wèn)題,但對(duì)我們而言卻是一股力量的源頭。我在一月份關(guān)于華文教學(xué)的辯論中已經(jīng)做過(guò)解釋,我們有來(lái)自華校背景如華僑中學(xué)的人,有來(lái)自英校背景如萊佛士書(shū)院和英華中學(xué)的人,亦有擁有穩(wěn)固馬來(lái)或印度文化基礎(chǔ)的人。這一切都使我們成為一個(gè)多元化社會(huì),擁有不同的長(zhǎng)處,在不同的情況下能夠發(fā)揮其特長(zhǎng)。
而整個(gè)實(shí)體比任何一個(gè)個(gè)別部分來(lái)得堅(jiān)固。
因此,社會(huì)多元化是國(guó)家生存的重要因素之一。若要完全單一化,恐怕各族群都反對(duì),因?yàn)楦髯迦憾家Ａ糇约旱囊恍┨卣?。而且若要完全單一?我認(rèn)為我們將變得更加脆弱。
因此我們所要做的是,保留這些不同種族和文化傳統(tǒng)的長(zhǎng)處,同時(shí)建立起國(guó)人對(duì)新加坡的認(rèn)同感。
不是所有頂尖30%的華族學(xué)生都將來(lái)自特選學(xué)校。就單以萊佛士書(shū)院和英華中學(xué)的學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō),他們必定會(huì)相信自己的能力和華中的學(xué)生是平分秋色、不分上下的。就算我們以整個(gè)特選學(xué)校的情況來(lái)說(shuō),大約只有15%的華族學(xué)生會(huì)上特選學(xué)校。
所以很多成績(jī)好的華族學(xué)生不一定會(huì)進(jìn)入特選學(xué)校,但我們希望當(dāng)中有些學(xué)生會(huì)進(jìn)入特選學(xué)校。原因是我們覺(jué)得特選學(xué)校中的傳統(tǒng)有其可貴之處,我們應(yīng)該盡我們所能去保留它們。
戰(zhàn)后的新加坡,情況和今天有所不同。我們目前所要保留的,是那個(gè)時(shí)代的歷史事件所產(chǎn)生的某些事物。
我們并不是要把界限擴(kuò)大。我們只想以不同的形式保留上一代良好的部分。
因此,我們的社會(huì)不是一個(gè)日益分化的社會(huì)。相反的,我們的社會(huì)是一個(gè)越來(lái)越團(tuán)結(jié)的社會(huì)。但在這團(tuán)結(jié)之中,我們也要保留各族中的一些長(zhǎng)處。
我們現(xiàn)在所做的,和尚穆根先生所敘述的可能發(fā)生的極端情況有著很大的不同,在量和質(zhì)兩方面都大不相同。
當(dāng)然,我們需要作出取舍。這跟馬來(lái)族、華族、印族和歐亞裔同學(xué)一同上課,直接學(xué)習(xí)對(duì)方的文化及如何互相遷就的情況,是有所差別的。
但特選學(xué)校是我們所要保留的,我想應(yīng)該有辦法使不利條件減少到低程度。譬如,我們?cè)趯W(xué)校的正式以及非正式課程中加倍注重國(guó)民教育,讓學(xué)生了解種族和諧的重要性。他們也須要參加傳達(dá)這種信息的活動(dòng)。這么一來(lái),他們不只是在書(shū)本上學(xué)習(xí)種族和諧,而是親身參與和體驗(yàn)——參加其他學(xué)校的聯(lián)辦活動(dòng),有機(jī)會(huì)和其他學(xué)校的學(xué)生交流,從而加深彼此的認(rèn)識(shí)。
有些特選學(xué)校舉辦有少數(shù)種族文化團(tuán)體參與的定期活動(dòng)。譬如,公教中學(xué)就時(shí)常邀請(qǐng)馬來(lái)和印度文化團(tuán)體在適當(dāng)?shù)墓?jié)日里到校內(nèi)演出或舉行講座。
第二,特選學(xué)校目前是以英語(yǔ)作為教學(xué)媒介語(yǔ)文。校內(nèi)所教的華文,程度會(huì)比較高,文化成分也比較多,但主要的教學(xué)媒介語(yǔ)文還是英語(yǔ)。
因此,特選學(xué)校學(xué)生和30年前的華中、中正或公教生的分別是：今天他們所用的語(yǔ)文、所念的教科書(shū)和新加坡女子學(xué)校、萊佛士女中或其他英校的學(xué)生一樣。因此彼此間的距離已經(jīng)減少了。
第三,教育部正把學(xué)校都組合起來(lái)。我們要把新加坡所有的學(xué)校分成七校一組或九校一組,讓各學(xué)校間有更多的交流和分享。特選學(xué)校將是這些組合的一部分,而這些組合也包括了非特選學(xué)校。在同一個(gè)組合里面,經(jīng)常會(huì)有和其他學(xué)校的聯(lián)辦活動(dòng)。因此大家都屬同一個(gè)大家庭。
后要提的是,特選學(xué)校當(dāng)然不是學(xué)生本人學(xué)習(xí)過(guò)程的終階段。特選學(xué)校的學(xué)生們都會(huì)升上好的初級(jí)學(xué)院。他們會(huì)去服兵役。之后他們工作、上大學(xué),將會(huì)學(xué)習(xí)如何同各種族的新加坡人一起交流、工作和來(lái)往。
我們初級(jí)學(xué)院的校長(zhǎng)們證實(shí),特選學(xué)校學(xué)生和非特選學(xué)校學(xué)生交往和相處并沒(méi)有任何問(wèn)題。但我們會(huì)繼續(xù)密切觀察這個(gè)情況,設(shè)法創(chuàng)造更多交流的機(jī)會(huì),而我們也歡迎議員們提供更多這方面的意見(jiàn)。
Below are extracts of his speech.
I think we should cast our discussion in the framework of the situation in Singapore： Where did we come from？ Where are we today？
We did not start off with a homogenous society. We are not a homogenous society. In fact, our starting point was schools which were very substantially differentiated and segregated, because many of the Chinese were in Chinese schools, many of the Malay children were in Malay schools, and the English schools catered to a minority of the population.
It's a diversity which can be a problem but in our case has been a source of strength. And as I explained during the debate in January on Chinese language, the fact that we have people who have come from Chinese school backgrounds, like Hwa Chong （Chinese High）, people who have come from English school backgrounds, like RI and ACS, people with strong Malay roots or strong Indian roots, makes us a diverse society with different strengths which are useful in different situations.
And the whole together is stronger than any single one of the parts.
So, the diversity is a major factor for our national survival. If we were all homogenised, not only do the communities not want it — because actually each community wants to retain some of its own identity — but I think we would be the weaker for it.
So, therefore, what we are trying to do is to retain some of the strengths of these different ethnic groups and cultural traditions while at the same time building a Singaporean identity.
Not all of the top 30 per cent of Chinese students attend SAP schools. For a start, there is RI and ACS, who will claim that they are any time as good as Hwa Chong. And even apart from that, if we take all the SAP schools as a whole, perhaps about 15 per cent of Chinese students will be there.
So, many good Chinese students do not go into SAP schools but we want some of them to, because we think there is something valuable in the tradition of the SAP schools which we should try our best to preserve.
And we are really preserving, in a new situation, something which grew out of the historical circumstances of the period after the war in a different Singapore.
We are not really advancing the margins. We are just trying to maintain, in a transmuted form, part of what was good of the previous generation.
So it is not a society which is becoming more and more segregated, it is a society which is actually becoming more and more unified. But, yet, in the unity we want to preserve some of the strengths.
Between what we are doing and the extreme possibility which Mr Shanmugam has presented, I think there is a considerable difference which is not just quantitative but becomes qualitative.
There is a trade-off, of course. It is not the same learning about other cultures vicariously as it is having a class of mixed students — Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, all together — having to accommodate one another.
But given that SAP schools are something which we want to maintain, I think there are ways we can work to minimise the disadvantages. For example, we are pressing National Education in schools, both in the formal as well as informal curriculum, to bring home the importance of multi-racial harmony. And to participate in activities and programmes which register this message, not just on paper but through actual participation and experience — joint activities with other schools, opportunities to mix with students with other schools, so that they can get to know one another.
And some of the SAP schools have regular activities which involve the minority cultural groups. For example, Catholic High School regularly invites Malay and Indian cultural groups to perform or to give talks during appropriate festivals.
Secondly, of course, the SAP schools are now using English as the medium of instruction and Chinese at a higher level than other schools and with greater cultural content, but the main medium of instruction is English.
So the difference between a SAP school student and a student who went to Hwa Chong or Chung Cheng or Catholic High School 30 years ago is that they （now） speak the same language, use the same textbooks as students who go to SCGS or RGS or any of the other English schools. So the gap is much less.
Thirdly, MOE is clustering the schools. We are going to group seven or nine schools together in one cluster for all the schools in Singapore so that there is greater sharing and interaction between them, and SAP schools would be part of these clusters and these clusters will have other non-SAP schools in them and there will be frequent joint activities with other schools in the same cluster. So you are within the same family.
Finally, of course, SAP schools are not the end of a person's formative experience. They go on to top junior colleges. They go on to National Service. They go on to work and to university and there they will learn to mix and to work together and to relate to Singaporeans whatever the ethnic group.
And feedback from our junior college principals has confirmed that, in fact, the SAP school students have not had a problem mixing with non-SAP school students. But we will continue to keep the situation under close review and help create more opportunities and we welcome suggestions from members as to how we can do so.
特選學(xué)校和多元種族社會(huì)
副總理李顯龍準(zhǔn)將本月10日在國(guó)會(huì)針對(duì)三巴旺集選區(qū)議員尚穆根較早時(shí)提到我國(guó)種族和諧以及文化精英的問(wèn)題,即席作出答復(fù)。他強(qiáng)調(diào)我國(guó)在建立具有新加坡特色的文化的同時(shí),也有必要保留各族的文化優(yōu)點(diǎn)和傳統(tǒng)。
以下是李副總理演講的摘要：
我認(rèn)為我們應(yīng)該在我國(guó)環(huán)境的架構(gòu)下討論這個(gè)問(wèn)題：我們過(guò)去的處境如何？我們今日又處在什么樣的環(huán)境里？
我們過(guò)去一開(kāi)始就不是一個(gè)單一種族的社會(huì),而現(xiàn)在也不是一個(gè)單一種族的社會(huì)。其實(shí)開(kāi)始的時(shí)候,我們的學(xué)校在相當(dāng)大的程度上是互相分化和隔離的,因?yàn)楹芏嗳A人報(bào)讀華校,馬來(lái)族學(xué)童在馬來(lái)學(xué)校受教育,英校則是為人口中的少數(shù)而開(kāi)設(shè)的。
這個(gè)多元化的現(xiàn)象可能成為一個(gè)問(wèn)題,但對(duì)我們而言卻是一股力量的源頭。我在一月份關(guān)于華文教學(xué)的辯論中已經(jīng)做過(guò)解釋,我們有來(lái)自華校背景如華僑中學(xué)的人,有來(lái)自英校背景如萊佛士書(shū)院和英華中學(xué)的人,亦有擁有穩(wěn)固馬來(lái)或印度文化基礎(chǔ)的人。這一切都使我們成為一個(gè)多元化社會(huì),擁有不同的長(zhǎng)處,在不同的情況下能夠發(fā)揮其特長(zhǎng)。
而整個(gè)實(shí)體比任何一個(gè)個(gè)別部分來(lái)得堅(jiān)固。
因此,社會(huì)多元化是國(guó)家生存的重要因素之一。若要完全單一化,恐怕各族群都反對(duì),因?yàn)楦髯迦憾家Ａ糇约旱囊恍┨卣?。而且若要完全單一?我認(rèn)為我們將變得更加脆弱。
因此我們所要做的是,保留這些不同種族和文化傳統(tǒng)的長(zhǎng)處,同時(shí)建立起國(guó)人對(duì)新加坡的認(rèn)同感。
不是所有頂尖30%的華族學(xué)生都將來(lái)自特選學(xué)校。就單以萊佛士書(shū)院和英華中學(xué)的學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō),他們必定會(huì)相信自己的能力和華中的學(xué)生是平分秋色、不分上下的。就算我們以整個(gè)特選學(xué)校的情況來(lái)說(shuō),大約只有15%的華族學(xué)生會(huì)上特選學(xué)校。
所以很多成績(jī)好的華族學(xué)生不一定會(huì)進(jìn)入特選學(xué)校,但我們希望當(dāng)中有些學(xué)生會(huì)進(jìn)入特選學(xué)校。原因是我們覺(jué)得特選學(xué)校中的傳統(tǒng)有其可貴之處,我們應(yīng)該盡我們所能去保留它們。
戰(zhàn)后的新加坡,情況和今天有所不同。我們目前所要保留的,是那個(gè)時(shí)代的歷史事件所產(chǎn)生的某些事物。
我們并不是要把界限擴(kuò)大。我們只想以不同的形式保留上一代良好的部分。
因此,我們的社會(huì)不是一個(gè)日益分化的社會(huì)。相反的,我們的社會(huì)是一個(gè)越來(lái)越團(tuán)結(jié)的社會(huì)。但在這團(tuán)結(jié)之中,我們也要保留各族中的一些長(zhǎng)處。
我們現(xiàn)在所做的,和尚穆根先生所敘述的可能發(fā)生的極端情況有著很大的不同,在量和質(zhì)兩方面都大不相同。
當(dāng)然,我們需要作出取舍。這跟馬來(lái)族、華族、印族和歐亞裔同學(xué)一同上課,直接學(xué)習(xí)對(duì)方的文化及如何互相遷就的情況,是有所差別的。
但特選學(xué)校是我們所要保留的,我想應(yīng)該有辦法使不利條件減少到低程度。譬如,我們?cè)趯W(xué)校的正式以及非正式課程中加倍注重國(guó)民教育,讓學(xué)生了解種族和諧的重要性。他們也須要參加傳達(dá)這種信息的活動(dòng)。這么一來(lái),他們不只是在書(shū)本上學(xué)習(xí)種族和諧,而是親身參與和體驗(yàn)——參加其他學(xué)校的聯(lián)辦活動(dòng),有機(jī)會(huì)和其他學(xué)校的學(xué)生交流,從而加深彼此的認(rèn)識(shí)。
有些特選學(xué)校舉辦有少數(shù)種族文化團(tuán)體參與的定期活動(dòng)。譬如,公教中學(xué)就時(shí)常邀請(qǐng)馬來(lái)和印度文化團(tuán)體在適當(dāng)?shù)墓?jié)日里到校內(nèi)演出或舉行講座。
第二,特選學(xué)校目前是以英語(yǔ)作為教學(xué)媒介語(yǔ)文。校內(nèi)所教的華文,程度會(huì)比較高,文化成分也比較多,但主要的教學(xué)媒介語(yǔ)文還是英語(yǔ)。
因此,特選學(xué)校學(xué)生和30年前的華中、中正或公教生的分別是：今天他們所用的語(yǔ)文、所念的教科書(shū)和新加坡女子學(xué)校、萊佛士女中或其他英校的學(xué)生一樣。因此彼此間的距離已經(jīng)減少了。
第三,教育部正把學(xué)校都組合起來(lái)。我們要把新加坡所有的學(xué)校分成七校一組或九校一組,讓各學(xué)校間有更多的交流和分享。特選學(xué)校將是這些組合的一部分,而這些組合也包括了非特選學(xué)校。在同一個(gè)組合里面,經(jīng)常會(huì)有和其他學(xué)校的聯(lián)辦活動(dòng)。因此大家都屬同一個(gè)大家庭。
后要提的是,特選學(xué)校當(dāng)然不是學(xué)生本人學(xué)習(xí)過(guò)程的終階段。特選學(xué)校的學(xué)生們都會(huì)升上好的初級(jí)學(xué)院。他們會(huì)去服兵役。之后他們工作、上大學(xué),將會(huì)學(xué)習(xí)如何同各種族的新加坡人一起交流、工作和來(lái)往。
我們初級(jí)學(xué)院的校長(zhǎng)們證實(shí),特選學(xué)校學(xué)生和非特選學(xué)校學(xué)生交往和相處并沒(méi)有任何問(wèn)題。但我們會(huì)繼續(xù)密切觀察這個(gè)情況,設(shè)法創(chuàng)造更多交流的機(jī)會(huì),而我們也歡迎議員們提供更多這方面的意見(jiàn)。