Joining forces for Racial Harmony Day

Ethnic self-help groups will hold a fair and re-enact the racial unrests. Some 140 events are planned for this month

FOR the first time, ethnic self-help groups in Singapore have come together to promote Racial Harmony Day, which will fall on Saturday.

The groups - Chinese Development Assistance Council, Eurasian Association, Yayasan Mendaki and the Singapore Indian Development Association - and the Association of Muslim Professionals will hold a one-day, mini-funfair with the Central Singapore Community Development Council (CDC).

To be held at the Singapore Repertory Theatre, near Robertson Quay, on July 28, the event will also see the theatre group Act 3 staging a play re-enacting racial unrest in 1960s Singapore.

About 350 students from 12 primary and secondary schools will be in the audience.

The groups and the CDC are part of the Central Singapore Joint Service Centre, started in 1997 as 'a platform for the various races to join forces' in promoting racial harmony and community bonding, said People's Association's Ng We Khoon.

To celebrate Racial Harmony Day, grassroots organisations, CDCs, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Heritage Board will reach out to about 230,000 residents of various ethnic groups, with more than 140 events to be held this month.

These include multi- racial karaoke sessions, heritage tours, cooking demonstrations and martial-arts performances.

Schools will have their celebrations this weekend.

MOE's head of projects for national education Goh Bian Koon said: 'Promoting racial harmony is also meant to be ongoing in the schools, carried out through extra-curricular and group activities.'

Meanwhile, NorthEast CDC will hold a homestay programme this weekend, when 40 students from Yuying Secondary School will stay in a home outside their community.

At Sembawang-Hong Kah CDC, 450 students from 19 schools in the district competed in contests where art was used to get students involved in the idea of racial harmony.

The winning entries will be on show at the Singapore History Museum on Sunday.

Three students from Bukit Panjang Government High School - Neo Haw Yng, 15, Pang Xuxian, 16, and Liang Yongming, 14 - won the sculpture contest.