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Who's Your Neighbour?

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Who's Your Neighbour? FRONT COVER WHO DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU STEP OUT OF YOUR DOOR? WHAT DO YOU DO OR SAY WHEN YOU MEET THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEXT TO YOU? This handbook offers a quick guide to the roots of Singapore's multicultural heritage as well as an introduction to life amid neighbours with diverse origins and beliefs. Through brief insights into the com- For many Singaporeans, the world beyond their door- munities who call Singapore home steps is a community of neighbours, a high-rise village and their respective ways of life, we of people of different origins, traditions and mother hope this handbook will help you tongues who have learned to live together in harmony. to explore and reacquaint yourself We no longer live in kampongs (villages) or shophous- with the many customs and tradi- es, but life in modern Singapore retains much of the tions that make up Singapore, and kampong spirit of old, when children of different races in doing so, even pick up a few new and religions grew up together and learnt to give and nuggets of information and engage take as they marked life’s milestones, performed rites your neighbours with sensitivity and of passage and celebrated moments of festivity. confidence. Walk down the corridors, landings and void decks of HDB flats across the island and you will find neigh- We begin by recalling Singapore's bours who are happy to greet you with a smile, offer history in a nutshell and the rise of a hand in friendship and play a part in making one the public flats that most Singapo- another feel at home. Neighbours become friends reans call home. We then focus on and children become playmates. Families living next the practical aspects of living next door to each other learn to share in the joy of seasonal door to neighbours from Singapore’s A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROJECT BY IN COLLABORATION WITH festivities, chip in when help is needed, and together most prominent ethnic communi- build ties that strengthen their faith in the community ties, namely the Malays, Chinese, and their sense of belonging to the nation. Indians and Eurasians. pg 2 »Who’s Your Neighbour? pg 3 A MAGNET for MIGrants LIVING News of Singapore’s new status as a free TOGETHER port spread far and wide. Thousands of merchants, labourers and planters soon AS A NATION arrived, turning the island into a mosaic of communities from all over the region. In Modern Singapore was a multicultural so- modern Singapore’s early years, as a result ciety from the very start, when Sir Stamford of Raffles' Town Plan of 1822, new arrivals Raffles (1781-1826) arrived on 28 January often settled in designated enclaves such 1819 and signed a treaty with the local ruler, as Kampong Glam for the Malays, Bugis Temenggong Abdul Rahman (d. 1825), that and Arabs; Telok Ayer (Chinatown) for gave the British trading rights on the island. the Chinese; and Chulia Street, Market Apart from sizeable Malay and Orang Laut Street and later, Serangoon Road, for (Sea Nomads) villages, Singapore then migrants from South Asia. But over time, was also home to Chinese settlers who many of these ‘enclaves’ acquired a more ran about 20 gambier estates. Along with diverse make-up. Chinatown, for instance, Raffles came a company of Indian soldiers or is where you can find Singapore’s oldest Sepoys who defended the harbour, as well as Hindu place of worship, the Sri Mariam- cooks and servants of Indian origin. man Temple, as well as the Jamae Chulia Mosque, built by Tamil Muslim migrants in the 1830s, and Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka, Singapore's oldest mosque. Meanwhile, the Serangoon Road area, popularly known as Little India, is home to several Hindu temples, mosques and churches as well as Buddhist and Tao- ist temples. Early migrants, for the most part, continued to practise their respec- tive cultural and religious traditions while living and working alongside each other. Many also played active roles in society at large by giving to the poor, building sites of worship, funding hospitals, establishing schools or serving as community lead- ers who helped to mediate communal disputes or conflicts. pg 4 »Who’s Your Neighbour? pg 5 FROM COLONY TO NATION Over the years, many who arrived from afar to seek their fortunes and explore fresh opportunities sank roots in Singapore. During the Second World War, the shared trauma of the Japanese Occupation (1942- 1945) contributed to a growing sense of nationhood and encouraged many Singaporeans in the post-war years to seek the rights and responsibilities of citizens in an independent country, rather than live as subjects of colonial rule. LIVING IN A Multi-Cultural soCIETY THE NATIONAL PLEDGE Singapore became independent in a turbulent We, the citizens of Singapore, Singapore’s journey towards nationhood was, thank- time. Communal tensions were then wide- pledge ourselves as one united people, fully, a peaceful one. Under British rule, a governor and spread and even resulted in racial riots that regardless of race, language or religion, Legislative Council made the laws that shaped the lives threatened to wreck the fabric of the nation. To to build a democratic society, of ordinary residents. This changed on 2 April 1955, preserve social harmony and improve the well- based on justice and equality, when the first general elections were held for a par- being of all citizens, many of whom then lived in so as to achieve happiness, tially elected Legislative Assembly that gave Singapore urban slums with poor sanitation and facilities, prosperity and progress for our nation. limited self-government. These elections were won by the government embarked on a sustained pro- the Labour Front, whose leader, David Saul Marshall gramme to develop the economy and provide "One united people" (1908-1995), a lawyer of Baghdadi Jewish origins, affordable housing through subsidised flats. The ideals that unite the nation are became Singapore’s first Chief Minister. Later, on 30 This gave Singaporeans, who were encouraged perhaps best captured in the National May 1959, general elections were held for the first fully to buy their own flats rather than rent or squat, Pledge, which was introduced to elected Legislative Assembly, which were won by the a tangible stake in the country and a real sense schools islandwide in 1966. The words People’s Action Party led by Lee Kuan Yew (b. 1923), a of ownership for their homes and nation. There of the National Pledge, written by S. lawyer who became Singapore’s first Prime Minister. were also efforts to forge a strong sense of na- Rajaratnam (1915-2006), a Ceylon- On 3 December 1959, Singapore was proclaimed a tionhood and common identity among Singapo- born former journalist who was then self-governing nation with its own Head of State or reans of all races and religions. These initiatives Minister for Foreign Affairs, remind Yang di-Pertuan Negara, Yusof bin Ishak (1910-1970). included National Service, introduced in 1967, Singaporeans that the nation’s suc- Later, after a brief merger with Malaysia between and Racial Harmony Day, which reinforces the cess and progress depends on the September 1963 and August 1965, Singapore declared importance of racial and religious harmony as a unity of all citizens, who must not full independence on 9 August 1965 and henceforth, shared national value that cannot be taken for allow differences in language, race or charted its own destiny as a republic founded on the granted. principles of democracy, justice and equality. religion to divide them. pg 6 »Who’s Your Neighbour? pg 7 LIVING TOGETHER UNDER ONE roof For many Singaporeans, living in Housing & Development Board or HDB flats is part and parcel of growing up in the Lion City. For the world at large, HDB estates, with their well-planned towns and safe and clean FroM URBAN sluMS to HIGH-RISE LIVING Did you know? living spaces, have become a source of pride and a symbol of Singapore’s Today, more than 82 percent of Singapore's population The infamous Bukit Ho Swee success as a nation despite overwhelming odds. live in HDB flats. It was a very different scene back in fire, which broke out in a 1960, however, when the HDB was established. Then, squatter settlement near the city was overcrowded and dotted with shanty Tiong Bahru on 25 May 1961 towns. An entire family might squeeze into a tiny and left 16,000 people home- shophouse cubicle, which was shared with many other less, helped to spur a major households, while thousands lived in squatter settle- building drive by the HDB. ments with no piped water, unreliable electricity and Then Prime Minister Lee primitive sanitation and waste disposal. Kuan Yew, who visited the scene, had promised the vic- Before 1960, the HDB’s predecessor, the Singapore tims that new flats would rise Improvement Trust (SIT), had built low-rise flats in from the devastated neigh- areas such as Tiong Bahru, Kampong Java and Queen- bourhood within a year. Five stown, but could not keep up with the rapidly growing new HDB blocks were then population. To tackle the severe housing shortage, the completed in nine months to HDB took a high-rise approach and introduced simple, house the displaced families. cost-efficient designs such as communal corridors and standardised interior layouts. Estates OF CONVENIENCE Did you know? To make life convenient and pleasant for residents, In the early years, residents HDB estates also incorporate facilities and ameni- preferred the lower storeys of ties such as markets, hawker centres, schools, clinics, HDB flats as lifts then were libraries, sports facilities, parks and playgrounds, thought to be unreliable.
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