{"id":120554,"date":"2021-07-06T02:07:38","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T19:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/ethnic-integration-policy-remains-important-to-building-racial-harmony-says-desmond-lee\/"},"modified":"2021-07-18T17:03:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-18T10:03:06","slug":"ethnic-integration-policy-remains-important-to-building-racial-harmony-says-desmond-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/ethnic-integration-policy-remains-important-to-building-racial-harmony-says-desmond-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic Integration Policy remains important to building racial harmony, says Desmond Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nEthnic Integration Policy remains important to building racial harmony, says Desmond LeeLee explained that the EIP remains \u201ccritical, because so much of our lives, and our children\u2019s lives, revolve around our homes and our neighbourhoods\u201d.\u00a0
\nMinister for National Development Desmond Lee believes the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) is still necessary to combat racism and build racial harmony since it ensures \u201cinclusive and diverse neighbourhoods\u201d, reported Channel News Asia (CNA).
\n\u201cThe EIP remains an important part of this effort. Left entirely to social and market forces, ethnic concentrations will start forming in different areas again,\u201d said Lee in Parliament on Monday (5 July).
\nLee made the statement in response to Members of Parliament Chong Kee Hiong (PAP-Bishan-Toa Payoh) and Cheryl Chan\u2019s (PAP-East Coast) query on the relevance and necessity of EIP in today\u2019s context.
\nIn his speech, he noted that there might be \u201cethnic concentrations\u201d in Singapore without the EIP.
\n\u201cJust imagine how much more different ethnic groups would concentrate in different neighbourhoods if we did away with the EIP and how much harder it would then become to promote mixing and understanding across ethnic groups (at home),\u201d he said as quoted by CNA.
\nAlthough living near someone of a different ethnic group, religion or culture does not guarantee understanding, Lee explained that the EIP remains \u201ccritical, because so much of our lives, and our children\u2019s lives, revolve around our homes and our neighbourhoods\u201d.
\n\u201cIf we don\u2019t live with one another, it makes it much harder to empathise with other communities and understand the challenges they face, and much easier to stereotype or assume the worst of those who are different from us. This is a recipe for mutual mistrust and intolerance,\u201d he said.
\nNonetheless, he acknowledged that EIP is \u201can intrusive social policy\u201d, with some \u201crough edges\u201d including the inability of sellers from other ethnicities to sell to buyers from certain ethnic groups once the quota for such group within the neighbourhood has been reached.
\n\u201cWith a smaller pool of eligible buyers, sellers may have to lower their asking price or take longer to sell their flat,\u201d said Lee.
\nWith this, HDB has been exercising flexibility for EIP-constrained owners on a case-by-case basis. In fact, successful EIP-related appeals have increased to 21% last year from 14% in 2018.
\n\u201cHowever, whenever HDB waives EIP limits to address its impact on certain households, it\u2019s mindful that this may lead to even higher imbalances in the concentrations of certain ethnic groups in some areas,\u201d he said.
\nBut ultimately, the EIP has an \u201cessential place\u201d to promote and protect racial harmony, added Lee.
\nMeanwhile, Workers\u2019 Party (WP) Secretary-General Pritam Singh asked whether HDB can exercise \u201cgreater flexibility\u201d at the neighbourhood level to relax the EIP criteria as a compromise or remove block and precinct quotas to help ethnic groups affected by the policy.
\nIn response, Lee cited WP\u2019s manifesto, which he said \u201cunequivocally\u201d provides that people should be able to live wherever they want by scrapping the EIP since racial harmony within the city-state would not be affected following over 50 years of nation-building.
\n\u201cWe take a very different view to (the WP),\u201d said Lee, noting incidents that remind Singaporeans to continue working at racial harmony.
\n\u201cNever rest on our laurels that we can afford to take away mechanisms that are in place through the wisdom of the generations to keep our society where it is today.\u201d
\nHe reiterated that HDB acts in a \u201cvery judicious\u201d manner when looking at appeals for waiver of EIP limits, otherwise \u201cthe lessons that we learnt will all unravel\u201d.
\nSingh, on the other hand, noted that his call for EIP review is \u201cundergirded by the frustration of ethnic minorities who cannot sell their flats\u201d.
\n\u201cIs the EIP the only policy among a whole gamut of policies that the Government has to encourage racial integration?\u201d he said as quoted by CNA.
\n\u201cIt has to be revisited in the context of, and not limited to, a larger national conversation on race relations in Singapore today \u2026 and what it means to be Singaporean,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cThe current policy, as it stands, has a larger impact on minorities, penalising them in the pocket when they have to sell their flat \u2026 This may perversely interact with the stated objective of the policy of racial harmony, thereby breeding resentment amongst those who are affected by the policy.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nLooking for a property in Singapore? Visit PropertyGuru\u2019s\u00a0Listings,\u00a0Project Reviews\u00a0and\u00a0Guides.
\nVictor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this story, email:\u00a0victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg
\n
\nSource : proppertyguru.com.sg\/Property Market
\nRead more…Ethnic Integration Policy remains important to building racial harmony, says Desmond Lee<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethnic Integration Policy remains important to building racial harmony, says Desmond LeeLee explained that the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120555,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/HDB-Singapore-1.jpg?fit=810%2C422&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-vmq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":99118,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/no-plans-to-buy-back-unsold-flats-due-to-ethnic-integration-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":120554,"position":0},"title":"No plans to buy back unsold flats due to Ethnic Integration Policy","date":"October 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The policy was introduced in 1989 and ensures there is a balanced mix of ethnic groups in HDB estates. 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