Lee warns Malays against race-based politics

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, MARCH 5. ``Globalisation has spread and reinforced Islamic forces throughout the world. It is a part of globalisation. These are realities,'' said Singapore's Senior Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, in a recent speech to Malay-Muslim professionals.

Mr. Lee's remarks came at a dialogue session intended to seek clarification on his 1999 remarks that the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) must check the background of a religious Malay-Muslim officer before he could be put in charge of a machine-gun unit.

``Under severe stress, loyalty can change in unpredictable ways. How an individual reacts can be heavily influenced by how the group or community to whom be belongs reacts,'' Mr. Lee said.

``Loyalty relationships are not static. They evolve in a dynamic, changing environment... we are not changing in isolation. Singapore is the mirror image of the multi-racial divide in Malaysia,'' he said. History, he said, was replete with examples of how, when the survival of their people of nation is at stake, Governments must take hard decisions and exercise policies of prudence.

For nearly every job, the Senior Minister said, a person's race and religion were irrelevant. ``But in the security services because of our context, we cannot ignore race and religion in deciding suitability,'' he remarked.

Whether a Malay SAF officer made it to the top depended solely on merit. Malay officers have risen through the ranks and held senior appointments as Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels.

``Outside the SAF, there are Malay and Muslim officers deployed in the most sensitive appointments in our security agencies. Our concerns about conflicting realities are real. We know of at least one case where foreign intelligence agencies approached one of our senior officers because he was Malay,'' Mr. Lee stated.

Integration, Mr. Lee said, was a two-way process. ``The Government would like our Malays to be an integral part of our society, but cannot force them... if Malays in Singapore show that they prefer to be separate, the other communities will pick up these signals and react accordingly. As the majority race, the Chinese have to show a willingness to expand the common ground by including other races...

``Recent moves by the AMP (Association of Malay Professionals) can undo what we have achieved over the last 35 years of gradual integration... it is naive to believe that AMP can create a collective Malay communal leadership without causing other races to mobilise their own counterparts...'' he said. ``Race-based politics will pull apart our society as parties contest to better advance their own community interests. On the other hand, multi- racial politics encourages integration. Integration has brought benefits to all,'' Mr. Lee maintained.

``Separate development must lead to a drifting apart of our society into Malay, Chinese, Indians and other communal segments. This will be a setback for all, not least for the Malays,'' he said.

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Section  : International
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