基本説明
The author challenges the conventional wisdom that multiracialism in Singapore is race-blind or nonethnic in its approach.
Full Description
How has Singapore's multiracialism policy evolved, and how has it impacted on ethnic relations and nation-building in a secure, yet perpetually vulnerable, Singapore? This important book addresses these important questions through a critical analysis of ethnic markers in key facets of Singaporean life, such as elections and race quotas in public housing, national service, ethnic self-help groups, the rise of "Chineseness" and increased religious piety. The author challenges the conventional wisdom that multiracialism in Singapore is unequivocally race-blind or nonethnic in its approach. Instead, he argues that Singapore is an ethnic-conscious state wherein race, culture and language are instrumentally mobilized as key resources in nation-building and political governance. This could have potentially ethnic/racial enhancing or polarizing effects, thus undermining the stability of the multiracial framework in Singapore.
Contents
Introduction -- The Multiple Realities of Multiracialism; Race and Multiracialism as a Mode of Governance in Singapore; Institutionalizing Multiracialism: The Legal, Institutional Framework and the Periodization of Ethnic Relations; Electoral Politics: Electing Race Consciousness?; The Citizen's Army: The Dilemmas of Faith, Loyalty and Citizenship; The Essence of Self-Help and the Dilemmas of Ethnic Essentialism; Multiracialism and the Growing Assertion of Chineseness: Ethnic Consciousness as a Cultural Resource; The Specter of Religious Extremism: Veiled Threats, Fearful Faithful Piety and Enlarging the Common Space; The Impoverishment of Multiracialism: The Lack of Shared Institutions; Conclusion: The Way Ahead.
