The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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More than nine in 10 Singaporeans accept colleagues and neighbours of a different race but fewer are willing to marry or welcome an in-law of another race.

A recent survey on race relations here has found that while Singaporeans are generally open to other races in the public sphere, this attitude does not always extend to the private space.

For instance, among non-Malay respondents, just over three in 10 said they would be comfortable with a Malay spouse.

The numbers were similar when non-Indian respondents were asked about marrying an Indian person, and just slightly higher – five in 10 – for a parallel question on Eurasians.

The finding was characteristic of the bigger picture on race relations painted by the study of more than 4,000 Singaporeans by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and racial harmony advocacy group OnePeople.sg:

The country has made good progress, but there is still some way to go.

IPS director Janadas Devan said the results show "an overwhelming majority of Singaporeans are ideologically committed to the idea of Singapore being a multiracial society". But he sounded a note of caution, especially as fewer than half of the respondents said they had a close friend of another race.

And there were other gaps as well. Those born here were much less comfortable with workmates who are new citizens of a different race. While 94% of non-Chinese accept a local-born Chinese as their boss, that share falls to 74% for a boss who is a new citizen originally from China.

There was also a significant number who said that minorities are disadvantaged at work. Some 36% of respondents felt Malays had to work harder or much harder than someone of another race to reach the top spot in their company. For Indians, the figure was 31%.

The Chinese had marginally different attitudes to race relations compared to minority ethnic groups. They were, for instance, the least keen to learn from other races.

IPS research fellow Mathew Mathews, who headed the survey, said the results indicate that racial bias "has not been removed across the board". -The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Traffic accident case highlights reckless habits of cyclists

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A motorist whose car collided with a cyclist at a traffic junction and killed him was fined S$1,000 (RM2,581) and disqualified from driving for four months in a district court last week.

But while Yap Thien Leong, 40, had pleaded guilty to the less serious charge of driving without due care, the case drew notice to the habit of errant cyclists riding on pavements and pedestrian crossings at traffic junctions, and posing grave risk to life and limb.

Yap had failed to keep a proper lookout when he knocked down S. Muneeshwaran at a traffic junction along Pasir Ris Drive 2 on Dec 17 last year.

Muneeshwaran, 24, who was cycling across the pedestrian crossing despite the green light in Yap's favour, suffered severe internal injuries.

The Indian national was taken to Changi General Hospital where he died the next day.

Video footage showed that he was cycling on the road pavement in the same direction as Yap but on the opposite side of the same road.

He also rode over the pedestrian crossing at a much higher speed than a pedestrian would have crossed, giving little time for Yap to react.

Yap's lawyer Selva Naidu argued that it has become "a worryingly frequent experience in Singapore to find cyclists riding on pavements meant for pedestrians and riding across a pedestrian crossing. Many seem unaware they should not be riding across the pedestrian crossing".

"The deceased should never have cycled at all on any pedestrian crossing. Pedestrian crossings are for pedestrians, not cyclists," he added. -The Straist Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Jumaat, 13 September 2013