While little red dot Singapore leads the way in inter-communal harmony, Sri Lanka looks at a White Paper on the issue
Ms. Phua during her learning tour (@sheenaphua on Instagram)
A few months ago, a young Singaporean social media influencer found one of her posts on Instagram going viral, for all the wrong reasons.
A spectator at a Singapore Grand Prix concert, the influencer was disturbed to find out that her view was obstructed by two tall men. Like any other netizen looking for a digital outlet for her frustrations, she posted an Instagram story showing two Sikh men in white turbans standing in front of her. The caption read “Dang! 2 huge obstructions decided to appear out of nowhere.
Ms Sheena Phua soon landed in hot water for her controversial comment. Despite apologising with a public statement, detailing that it was not Ms Phua’s intention to hurt any community, online criticism grew, with many calling the influencer, racist. But for 34-year-old Sarabjeet Singh, President of Young Sikh Association (YSA), the incident called for an unlikely response.
Along with fellow members of the association, Singh invited Ms Phua to an informal tour of a Gurdwara (A place of assembly and worship for Sikhs) so that the young Instagram beauty could learn more about their traditions.
“Some responses to Sheena’s original post felt like a case of cyberbullying. (Although) there were some among us who were also a little uncomfortable with her initial post, we recognised it as an opportunity for us to reach out and engage,” Mr Singh said in an interview with a local newspaper.
Ms Phua meanwhile admitted that the post was insensitive, causing distress to the Sikh community, and therefore decided to take up the YSA’s offer to learn more.
The instagram influencer took part in service or 'seva', along with Sarabjeet at the community kitchen (@sheenaphua on Instagram)
Youth at the fore
The incident highlighted that racial and religious insensitivities can stem from a multitude of factors, which do not necessarily originate from malice or with the intent to offend.
For young Singaporean, Anisah Abdul Khalid, promoting understanding amongst different communities was a way to mitigate misconceptions while raising awareness on diversity. She joined the inter-faith group, Roses of Peace, a student group led by Mohamed Irshad in 2012.
The student collective saw their gathering as an opportunity to promote social cohesion and religious harmony in Singapore.
“The Roses of Peace project started in 2012 when there were protests and unrest in some parts of the world namely Afghanistan and Europe over the burning of the Quran and caricature of Prophet. So as tertiary students in Singapore, my friends and I were thinking about what we could do to help the situation calmly and peacefully locally so that Singaporeans remain steadfast on our interfaith harmony despite the international news and events,” Anisah recalled.
“We also wanted to clear misconceptions and start conversations on faith. We cannot take our peaceful multi-cultural and multi-religious society for granted. Hence the interfaith initiative was born to spread peace, love and harmony by highlighting the common goodness and values that Islam and other different faiths promote. We gave out 3000-7000 roses with the peaceful messages from different faiths, quoting Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, Jesus and other religious leaders,” she said.
Anisah also noted that she grew up in a Muslim environment where she attended a Muslim religious school.
“I can say that I was quite sheltered from faith issues. I think that made me think harder on what I can do to help promote the true values of Islam and also to emphasize that there are common values that everyone and all faith hold on tightly to,” she added.
A 2014 Pew Research Centre study found that Singapore is the most religiously diverse society in the world.
The little red dot of Asia has witnessed very few instances of inter-racial tensions and no major terrorist threat, which most developed nations in the world have been vulnerable to.
Like Anisah and Sarabjeet, youth have been at the forefront of efforts to preserve the island’s multicultural identity. These are mostly voluntary efforts, despite a state mechanism which ensures the harmonious living of its most diverse citizens.
The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA) performs an important function of clearly stating the boundaries of what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in order to maintain religious harmony in Singapore.
It is urgent and imperative that we implement such laws with immediate effect. As a nation, we’ve grown accustomed to shutting stable doors after horses have bolted. We cannot afford such repetitions in the future, not with public safety and economic prosperity being threatened, each and every time hate speech acts as a catalyst to violence and civil unrest
The Act passed in 1990 guards the nation against religious enmity and hatred while preventing the foreign influence of religion, and ensuring a separation of religion from politics in Singapore.
Thirty years later, the vigilant island nation is now amending its laws, in a timely move; with global trends such as rising extremism and increased violence fuelled by hate speeches which are threatening democracies.
In Sri Lanka, following repeated incidents of racially and religiously charged violence, a Civil Society Committee presented Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya, a white paper titled ‘The Harmony Act for Religious, Racial, Ethnic and Civil Harmony in Sri Lanka.’
The White Paper was developed by a group of independent and diverse Sri Lankan nationals representing academic, private, business and professional fields.
“It is urgent and imperative that we implement such laws with immediate effect. As a nation, we’ve grown accustomed to shutting stable doors after horses have bolted. We cannot afford such repetitions in the future, not with public safety and economic prosperity being threatened, each and every time hate speech acts as a catalyst to violence and civil unrest,” a member of the committee, Aman Ashraff said.
Modelled on the MRHA of Singapore, the proposed Act was intended to foster interethnic, intercultural and interreligious harmony and understanding. The white paper is also available on public domain in three languages: www.harmonyactofsrilanka.com. However, no political or civic group leader has made an effort to bring the committee’s efforts into legislation.
The writer was a participant in the Asia Journalism Fellowship, a programme of Temasek Foundation and the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore.
