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25 SAcLJ 84 (2013)
Multiculturalism in Singapore - The Way to a Harmonious Society

handle is hein.journals/saclj25 and id is 88 raw text is: Singapore Academy of Law Journal MULTICULTURALISM IN SINGAPORE* The Way to a Harmonious Society Chan Sek KEONG Chief Justice of Singapore. I. Introduction 1 It is an honour to be invited to deliver the Audrey Ducroux Memorial Lecture, for which I wish to thank David Salter, President of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (IAMI), Jennifer O'Brien, Chairperson of the Education Committee for the IAML Meeting in Singapore, and the Singapore IAML. 2 First of all, I must apologise to David Salter for not revealing the topic of the lecture earlier. I was worried that if I did, no one would attend the lecture. I also feel somewhat inadequate to reciprocate the honour, in the light of the global dimensions of many of the previous lectures in this series. This is particularly so, as I intend to speak on a subject that seems insular and of little or no interest to international family lawyers. Nevertheless, I hope the subject will resonate with those of you who come from countries that have large populations of immigrants and which are facing economic and social problems in integrating them as part of the mainstream culture and values of the host country. The subject of my lecture is multiculturalism as the way to a harmonious society. Singapore was a British colony until 1963 when Singapore became a constituent state of Malaysia, and then an independent and sovereign state in 1965. Fortunately, for Singapore, multiculturalism was able to take root under an imperial power that ensured that each community preserved its own culture and respected the culture of other communities. 3 Singapore's achievement is in being able to use multiculturalism to foster social cohesion and as a building block of a new nation. In 1965, Singapore's population was made up of about 75% Chinese, 13% Malays, 7% Indians and 5% others. Thus, one can immediately see that with this kind of demographic distribution in a nascent democratic state, there was always a great risk of the majority racial group assuming political power without regard to the rights of the minority groups. But our political leaders have never allowed race to determine its social or political values if it is to forge a nation without a national identity of its * This paper was delivered at the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Audrey Ducroux Memorial Lecture 2012 on 8 September 2012. 84 (2013) 25 SAcLJ