One of our most remarkable achievements over these last 50 years has been our racial and religious harmony. It stems from a strong belief in the ideal of a multi-racial society where everybody is equal regardless of race, language or religion. And it was the most fundamental reason why we left Malaysia and went our own way on 9 August 1965.
Since then, we’ve held firmly to the belief that before race, language and religion, first and foremost we should all be Singaporeans together. And so we build a fair and just society based on
meritocracy where ability and not your background or the colour of your skin determines how well you do, determines what contributions you make and what rewards you get.
But what we enjoy today isn't a natural thing. It doesn't just happen and fall from heaven. It was an act of will which we have sustained for many decades. Because our pioneers knew that for us to survive as a nation we could not be a divided society and they brought the communities together and extended the common spaces and they policed the rules and made sure that everybody knew that was how Singapore was meant to work right from the beginning.
Excerpt of PM Lee's speech
Onepeople.sg Community Leaders' Conference 4 Oct 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment