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Vital to strike right religious balance

Date : 9 March 2011

My Paper - Vital to strike right religious balance

9 Mar 2011

SINGAPORE has to strike the right balance between common secular space and private religious space, said Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

It is especially important for a multiracial country like Singapore to "give minorities the assurance that their identity, culture, values and religions are not under siege".

Dr Balakrishnan noted that minorities and their leaders, too, should resist "a segregationist approach (even as) they assert their rights to be different and distinct".

He said that cohesion amid diversity is not built on laws and policies only. "It is also about mindsets, attitudes, norms, behaviour and relationships – not just at the top, but across the entire strata of society," he added.

LEI JIA HUI

(With thanks to My Paper - MyPaper.sg)

Note : No reproduction or downloading of this Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) article is allowed in any medium. Permission has to be obtained from SPH.

 

The Straits Times - Balancing the secular and religious

9 Mar 2011

'BUILDING a multiracial, multireligious, harmonious, inclusive society is not just about laws that we pass in this House and not just about policies. It is also about mindsets, attitudes, norms of behaviour and relationships.

Sometimes in Singapore, and even in this House, I think we take this for granted and we don't appreciate how extraordinary we are and how special and how precious what we have is. For example, I know of no other country in the world where you can get 89 per cent of every single mosque, church, temple represented at a local level in the community (in inter-racial and religious confidence circles).

We have created common secular spaces whilst protecting more private, religious, personal spaces and we have to get this balance right, especially in a multiracial country... to give minorities that assurance that their identities, their cultures, their values, their religions are not in dispute, that they are free to practise and to express themselves fully on this very crucial component.

But we must, and now I speak from the point of view of a person of a minority group, it is just as important for minorities, and especially their leaders, to resist a segregationist approach.

In other words, even as we assert our right to be different, to be distinct, to practice our own way of life, we must never jostle at the expense of segregating our communities from the mainstream in life because if we do that, it's not the majority that will lose, it is minority communities.'

Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan

(With thanks to SPH - StraitsTimes.com)

Note : No reproduction or downloading of this Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) article is allowed in any medium. Permission has to be obtained from SPH.

 

Lianhe Zaobao - 我国社会无论哪方面 都秉持开放公平包容信念

9 Mar 2011

新加坡社会无论是在处理哪一方面的问题,都需秉持着开放、公平与包容的信念。

例如,在接纳残疾者方面、处理贫富者之间的差异、面对本地人才与外国人才问题,以及种族、语言或宗教有所不同等等,都需要持着这样的信念,新加坡才得以生存。

社会发展、青年及体育部长维文医生昨日在国会拨款委员会辩论该部门的开支预算上总结陈词时表达上述看法。他指出,新加坡的生存之道,其中重要的一点在于"保持融合特性,而不是同化,不是统一,不是傲慢自大,而是整合所有构成新加坡社会的不同脉络。"

他说,在新加坡,人们致力于有一个共同的世俗空间的同时,也保有个人的信仰空间。在一个多元种族的社会,多数种族向少数种族保证后者的身份、文化、价值、宗教信仰不受干扰是非常重要的。

与此同时,维文以他作为少数种族的一员说:"对于少数种族,尤其是其领导者,懂得抗拒种族隔离的做法也是同样重要的。"

"换言之,即使我们坚持自己有权利与众不同,以不同的方式过日子,但我们绝不能将我们的社群从主流中隔离开来。若我们这样做,损失的不是大多数人,而是少数社群。"

维文也强调,不应该把我国所享有的多元种族、多元宗教与和谐包容的社会当成理所当然。

他说,他不知道除了我国以外,还有什么国家能够有高达89%代表各回教堂、基督教堂、寺庙的领导者可在社区层级定期会面、讨论问题、解决分歧、联办活动。在一些国家,宗教间的对话有时都充满了危险和政治的干涉,但宗教间的融合在本地却被人当成想当然的。

他庆幸我国有明智的领导人与开国元勋,因为他们对公正系统的坚信,为不同的种族包括少数种族提供了保护,也为大家提供了一个追求梦想,做到最好的平台。

(With thanks to SPH - Lianhe Zaobao.com)

Note : No reproduction or downloading of this Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) article is allowed in any medium. Permission has to be obtained from SPH.