Judiciary's Social Studies Blog

How issues relating to transnational terrorism could divide the people

2008-08-31T05:45:00.000-07:00

Transnational terrorism refers to acts of global violence in terms of aims, organisations and impact. These acts of violence tests the social bonds of people in Singapore, and Singapore needs to handle it carefully as it could result in the dividing of people. In multi-ethnic countries like Singapore, race and religion can be used as a tool to create tension among the different ethnic groups, which therefore, could endanger the safety of the people of Singapore and also destroy Singapore's image of having racial and religious harmony in them.
Source: Social Studies Textbook

What are the challenges of multi-ethnicity in Singapore

2008-08-31T05:18:00.000-07:00

The challenges is of multi-ethnicity in Singapore is the government have to meet the needs of people of different races and religion while safeguarding the interest of minority group so as to prevent hostility between each other.

How Different are we?(Jonathan)

2008-08-31T03:16:00.001-07:00

Singapore is a multi-ethnic society which is made up of mostly Chinese,Malay,Indian and Eurasian.The Chinese makes up 75.6% of the population,the Malays makes up 13.6% of the population,the Indians makes up 8.7% of the population and the remainings are made up of Eurasians and other races.The Chinese are mostly Buddhist and Taoist,the Malays are Muslim,the Indians are mostly Hindus and some are them are Muslim and the Eurasians are Christians.The tradition costume of the Chinese is Cheongsam for the males and Qipaos for the females.The traditional costume of the Malays is Baju Melayu for the males and Kebaya and Baju Kurung for the females.The Traditional Costume of the Indians is Sari for the females and Dhoti and Kurta for the males.The Chinese celebrates Chinese New Year,the Malays celebrate Hari Raya,the Indians celebrates Deepavali while the Eurasian celebrates Christmas.The Chinese goes to temple for prayers , the Muslims go to mosque for prayers, the Hindus goes to Hindu temple for prayers and the Christians go to church for prayers.Different races also enjoys different kinds of food.For example,the Chinese enjoy eating dumplings.The Malays enjoy eating nasi lemak,lotong.The Indians enjoy eating nasi briyani,roti prata and curry.The Eurasians enjoy eating spaghetti and pastas.Some religions cannot take certain meat.For example,the Buddhist cannot eat beef because they believe that they should show gratitude to cows as they helps farmer to pow the land in order to grow rice.The Hindus do not eat beef because Hindus sees cows as scarced animals.The Malays cannot eat pork of any form or meat which are not slaughtered by a Muslim according to the Islamic rites.

Explore other ways to foster social cohesion in Singapore(Jonathan)

2008-08-28T03:37:00.002-07:00

Other ways to foster social cohesion is to make friends from different races and celebrate with them during their festivals.Another way to foster social cohesion is when playing games,include people from other races.

Why is it important to foster social cohesion(Jonathan)

2008-08-28T03:37:00.001-07:00

It is important to foster social cohesion because Singapore is a cosmopolitan city.In order for Singapore to move onward,we need to be united as one.Everyone has a important role to play in Singapore,if a particular race pulls out,Singapore will collapse.

What were the measures taken to foster social cohesion in the multi-ethnic Singapore(Jonathan)

2008-08-28T03:36:00.004-07:00

Community Development Councils
The Government has set-up the Community-Development-Council (CDCs) in 1997 to promote social cohesion and strengthen community bonding in the various districts.They organise many interesting activities such as family outings, sports carnivals, job fairs and cultural performances for residents to interact and bond together. CDCs also organise home stay/ home visit programme in which children spend the day with families of other races, share a meal with them and visit cultural and religious places in order to get to understand the various practices and cultures. This programme gives children the opportunity to experience first-hand the lifestyle of another ethnic group

Inter-racial Confidence Circles
The Government has also established Inter-Racial Confidence Circles (IRCC) and Harmony Circles in all our 84 constituencies to reach out to all Singaporeans in order to strengthen understanding and a shared sense of responsibility among Singaporeans of all races and religions.The IRCCs create opportunities for Singaporeans to explore and appreciate their differences and develop bonds among different ethnic and religious communities. They organise visits to the houses of worship of different religions. This fosters greater religious harmony between the different religious and ethnic groups. There will be less chance of misunderstanding when we get to know one other better.

National Day Parades and Celebrations

Every year, during our National Day parades and celebrations, we are reminded that we are all Singaporeans, regardless of race or religion. Our nation can continue to prosper only if there is

racial harmony and peace

National Service

National Service was started in July 1967 when the first batch of 900 male Singapore citizens and permanent residents were called up for compulsory full-time service in the army. During national service, young men of different races interact with one another while training to defend our country, thus fostering common understanding, tolerance and comradeship between them. We must always remember that it is the responsibility of every Singaporeans to foster racial unity, not just the Government's alone. In going about our daily lives, we should try to do things that promote racial harmony, such as accommodating each other's cultural and religious activities.

Why do people react sensitively to religious issues(Daniel)

2008-08-28T03:36:00.003-07:00

From my point of view,people react sensitively to religious issues because they have a very strong believe in their religion.They were raised from young with that believe and that religion and thus,it would cause them to have a very strong sense of belonging to that religion,also they would then respect the believes of that religion very much and would not tolerate anything that has bad image,impression,insults to the religion,as it would meant that they are look down on,insulted badly and greatly disrespected.

What were the lessons learnt from the riots ( KEVIN )

2008-08-28T03:36:00.001-07:00

Ans : The lessons which i guess most people will learnt from the riots is that, we have to respect the guardian who brought up Maria Hertogh(Aminah binte Mohamed) rather than handing over to the respective parents who abandoned her.Most importantly we have to be fair and respect one another's religious beliefs and not using violence to solve matters.We must also learn to keep our promise to people, as a mistake happens it might cause misunderstanding between one another.

What were the consequences of the riots(Kevin)

2008-08-28T03:35:00.002-07:00

Ans: After the riot the police went to investigate the matter which detained 778 people including the leader of riots , Karim Ghani.509 people were released due to various conditions while the remaining people were accused of causing the riots.Seven of them were brought to trail at the Assize Court for wanton killing while five of them were send for death sentence. 25 august 1951, Tunku Abdul Rahman was appointed to be malaysia's 1st Prime minister then took over UMNO's president place to form a party.Therefore becoming the biggest and ruling political party in malaysia, he immediately order the seven people who were on death row to be saved.Abdul Rahman then placed pressure on the authourities who then gave in, the British hopes were then shattered to be Colonial master.

What happened during the riots(Daniel)

2008-08-28T03:35:00.001-07:00

There was another hearing on the 11th of December.This time round, early morning, crowds carrying banners and flags with star and crescent symbols began to gather around the Supreme Court and till noon,the number was around 2000~3000 and the appeal was being threw out in five minutes time it had convinced the gathering that the colonial legal system was biased against Muslims and riots started.... Those malay or Indonesians Muslims and local Chinese would attack any Europeans and even Eurasians they could spot anywhere.They too,overturn and burned cars.Police were not very effective in this riot as its lower ranks largely consisted of Malays who sympathized with the rioters' cause.The riots spreaded quickly and by nightfall almost the whole island was affected by it even the remote areas.The British and various Muslim leaders also then help to ceased the riot.When the British reinforcements arrived on the 12th December,the rioters' were still in action and they could only control the situation by noon on the next day.The Maria Hertogh riots had caused a total of 18 people killed, among whom were seven Europeans or Eurasians, two police officers, and nine rioters shot by the police or military, 173 were injured, many of them seriously, 119 vehicles were damaged, and at least two buildings were set on fire,and also two weeks of 24hours curfew.Below is a video about the Maria Hertogh riots from www.youtube.com

What were the causes of the Maria Hertogh riots?(Kevin)

2008-08-28T03:34:00.002-07:00

Ans:Due to Maria's cornvertion to Muslims, her Dutch parents who are Catholics could not agree to it.Also Maria was sent to marry a 22 year old husband when she turned 13, but the dutch laws could not agree to it.Therefore decided to lodge a complaint and was later brought to court, not recognising the Muslim laws the court decided that her parents will be the one to take her back(as a Catholic girl).Leading to tensions in the muslims, the street then poured out a huge number of rioters numbers of 2000 to 3000.

What were the events that led to the Maria Hertogh riots of 1950(Daniel)

2008-08-28T03:34:00.001-07:00

Maria hertogh was a girl which was born on march 24th 1937. When world war two broke out,her father was captured by the japanese and during that time,her mother gave birth to a sixth child.Maria had no choice but went to live with Aminah binte Mohammad a good friend of Maria's mum.When world war two ended,Sergeant Hertogh was released and returned to Java, where he reunited with his wife.They then started looking for their lost child,with the help of the Red Cross Society, the Indonesian Repatriation Service,4 years later the found the kampung where maria and her foster mum lived.But 4days after winning the appeal,Maria was married to a malayan born guy named Mansoor Adabi who was 22 years old and this marriage could have been a manoeuvre by Aminah to prevent further attempts by the Hertoghs to get back their daughter as when the couple never consummated their marriage.One day after the marraige,Aminah received a lawyer's letter from the hertogh's demanding the return of Maria by 10th of August without fail,if not legal actions would be taken.But Aminah ignored the deadline but the Hertogh's did not and on the 20th of November, Adeline Hertogh travelled down to Singapore to attend the hearing of this case and the judge held the marraige as invalid because of Maria's country of domicile was, by law that of her natural father, i.e. the Netherlands. Under the Dutch laws, the minimum age of marriage for girls was 16. The English law applicable in Singapore recognized the marriage laws of the subject's country of domicile and because neither Mansoor, born in Kelantan, could be proved to be domiciled in Singapore nor Maria be considered a Muslim by law,and her father had the rights to contorl Maria's religion and had testified that he would never consent to her conversion to Islam and thus, because of this events the muslims felt that the judge was biased to them and started rioting.

Why do people react sensitively to race issues(Chanel)

2008-08-28T03:33:00.000-07:00

people will react sensitively because everyone is involve in the race issues.Because in Singapore there are many races.So people want to prevent racial riots to happen again so they will behave very careful when handling race issues.

What were the lessons learnt from the riots(Chanel)

2008-08-28T03:32:00.004-07:00

We learn to be harmony so we can prevent riots. We must remember that we should not be like our ancestors fight with other races because if we do that there will be another race riots. Althought we came from different races but we belong to one country we are all singapore citizens so to keep our country united we should be harmony.Though we could not get along through our different beliefs, we should sought help or request from the government instead of using violence.Mainly, we should grow a bond of trust in between different races, to show we care for other nations and think as one united people.

What were the consequences of the race riots(Chanel)

2008-08-28T03:32:00.003-07:00

The consequences of the race riots

The Deputy Premier, Dr. Toh Chin Chye, suggested on 2 August 1964 that people are not allow to publish articles which incite communal strife. Add on,that the leaders of both the Federal Government of Malaysia and the State Government of Singapore gave firm assurances that everyone, regardless of racial origin, "has a place under the Malaysian sun and all will be looked after without discrimination." Source: The Sunday Times, 16 August 1964, p.1.

What happened during the race riots(Jim)

2008-08-28T03:32:00.001-07:00

During the race riots,36 people were killed,556 were injured and about 3000 people were arrested for being involved in the riots.A lot of curfew were imposed during the riots the restore order.

What were the causes of the race riots(Jim)

2008-08-28T03:31:00.000-07:00

A lot of reasons have been named for causing the riots.For example,the Malaysia deputy Prime Minister blamed Indonesia and Communist provocateurs,while Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew attributed the riots as a result of agitation by Syed Jaafar Bin Albar and UMNO as the PAP-UMNO relationship were severely strained after the PAP challenged the UMNO in the March 1964 Malaysia federal election. UMNO high ranking leader Syed Jaafar Bin Albar came to Singapore after the elections to talk to the Malays in Singapore.He wanted to dislike PAP and Lee Kuan Yew.He told them the PAP only supported the Chinese as he wanted them to think that PAP ill-treated the Malays. He also wrote bad things in the Malay newspaper Utusan Melayu about PAP.The Malays not only became very angry with PAP,but also with the Chinese.

What were the events that led to the race riots of 1964(Jim)

2008-08-28T03:30:00.000-07:00

The events that led to the race riots on 21 july 1964 happened when 25000 Malays went to celebrate the Prophet Mohammed's birthday.However,the celebrations soon turned into a race riot.A policeman was attacked by a group of Malays which were separated from the rest of the group,the policeman was attacked when he ask them to rejoin with the rest,they also attacked Chinese passer-by and spectators.A curfew was impose to restore order until 2 August 1964 and it was only lifted for short periods of time for people to buy food.Another riot happened on September and a curfew was imposed to stop the riots.

2008-08-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

Judiciary Social Studies Group
Project A

Kevin- Group Leader
Chanel- Secretary
Daniel- Designer
Jim- Time Keeper
Jonathan- IT Coordinater