Racial Harmony

“Regardless of race, language or religion”. This line is from our national pledge and I feel that this is very significant to the harmony of Singapore. Racial harmony to me is people that get along well with each other although they are from different race or religion. This is something that is very special and unique to the citizens of Singapore. It is not commonly seen in other countries as there would be indifferences in different race and religion. This causes conflicts to occur and peace to be disrupted.I feel that racial harmony is the result of the good governance in Singapore. The government of Singapore helps to promote racial harmony as decades back the young generations are made to sing the national anthem and the national pledge. Both of these aids in the relationship of the different race and religion of Singapore. Also, back then all males are made compulsory to join the National Service (NS) which helps in the bonding between races as the NS men are made to live for 2 years together to share weal and woe with each other. In addition, the young generations currently are studying about national education which helps to foster social cohesion between each race. Lastly, as the flats are built, there must be a certain percentage of different races in each block of flats. This would therefore help in maintaining a good relationship between races as their neighbors maybe someone of a different race.However, there is only to a certain extent that there is racial harmony in Singapore. There are some incidents that happen in my life that I personally feel that not all Singaporeans are in harmony with another race. An example would be during breaks, my friends would crack racist jokes that everybody would laugh over it. Even my friends of different race would laugh with us but deep inside, I know that his heart is hurting and crying for us to stop.Nobody wants to be discriminated and therefore they would try to act like one of us. Another life example is that I have another friend who accepts his own race as inferior and hates his own race. I feel this behavior is because of us, the majority race which influences them to hate their own race and to even discriminate it.The last example I would like to share would be that my friend who was in the lift was being looked down on as she was in the minority race. However, instead of taking up her own mother tongue, she took up Chinese. Because of this, she could understand the content in which the two people whom she was in the lift in were conversing. They were speaking in mandarin about how they hate these people and making fun of her. Deep inside, my friend’s mind was to beat them up but she did not. She managed to tolerate it for 17 years and that was nothing as compared to the rest. Through this incident, I want to appeal to those majority races that we should accept everybody’s differences. Even though one may not like that person race, they should not say it out loud but just bring it with them to their deathbed. Every thought counts.In conclusion about racial harmony, I feel that I should start with myself not to discriminate anybody regardless of race, language or religion. Everybody has their own rights to be who they are and we are not to judge them. To all those whom I have make fun of, I sincerely apologize