For 40 years, Singapore – in particular the government – has acted to make ethnic harmony the state’s priority.

But it is the impact of internalisation and the big influx of foreign immigrants in recent years that have helped achieve commonality among the different races here faster than anything else.

With more and more skilled foreigners working here, many Malays – along with other races – are preoccupied with the ‘foreign threat’ to their jobs and earnings.

Instead of viewing each other with suspicion as their parents once did, the Chinese and Malays are now more concerned about losing out to the imported challenge.

The foreigners who come from poorer countries are ready to accept lower salaries for the same work, thus undercutting wage levels.

And instead of dabbling in race politics as some of their parents did, today’s Singaporeans are busy getting an education or a skill that lets them compete in the New Economy.

In recent years, I noticed several confirmation of this.

The arrival of mainland Chinese here has, for instance, evoked some angry reactions from Singaporeans, but mostly from ethnic Chinese – not Malays as one would expect.

And recently local Indians and new arrivals from India have been throwing verbal punches at each other over petty issues.

The opening of Singapore to the world has removed much of the local race friction here but it has by no means eradicated all differences.

One of the complaints is job discrimination based on race. Some advertisements openly recruit workers who are ‘Mandarin-speaking’ or Christians.

At the recent May Day rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Malays and Indians had complained that it was harder for them to get jobs and appealed for fair treatment from employers.

The future is not all free of potential trouble.

Some sociologists have warned that proposed population expansion to 6.5mil through immigration could upset the current racial balance and revive minority unhappiness.

For one thing, the millions of outsiders may not have the same level of rapport that has been carefully established for so many years.

Much of today’s stable environment is the result of sound long-term government policies supported by various communities since the race riots in 1964.

For example, schools, residential estates and even fielding slate candidates for Parliamentary elections had long come under race quotas that require the presence of a minimum proportion of minorities.

This ensures that the different races can mix freely rather than in isolation of one another from an early age and so prevent the formation of racial enclaves in the state.

The group election, in which five or six multi-racial candidates stand (and win or lose) as a team, was started with the expressed aim of ensuring that minorities are adequately represented in Parliament.

Today’s intermingling of youths are the products of this process from school to the residential estate, from national service to the workplace.

These youths are so familiar with one another that they may have become oblivious to the dangers of acts that can upset the current balance. None has any living memory of the violence in the 60s.

It has spawned some online racial bantering that teens see as innocent and fun, but the worried authorities think otherwise. They recently prosecuted several people for race incitement.

With a bias for the skilled and talented, globalisation works against Singapore’s lower educated, including Malays.

A community leader, Imran Mohamad, fears the Malays, who are behind the others technologically and are less competitive, may have a bleaker future in a globalised world.

“For 15 years, we have been helping our community tackle problems faced by those with low incomes or in dysfunctional families, but they keep recurring”, he said. “The community has not responded well to the new economy and is not poised to meet the stiff competition.”

He described the Malay-Muslims' socio-economic situation here as “far from satisfactory”.

The proportion of Malay students in tertiary institutions, the government said, has increased from 18% in 1995 to 33% now. Their grades in Maths, Science and English are also rising.

The academic gap between the Malays and other races has narrowed but officials say it will not likely disappear in the foreseeable future.

The number of drug addicts arrested dropped 90% from 3200 in 1994 to fewer than 350. Other social statistics are, however, less rosy.

Malays suffer from terrible statistics in terms of failed marriage, school dropouts, single-parent families and juvenile delinquency.

Of late, there were reports that more qualified Malays are being absorbed into the civil service, especially in education (as teachers and principals), public health-care and the uniformed groups.

There is a political incentive in doing so.

In the aftermath of the 2006 general election, grassroots reported that the Malays (14% of the population) had voted substantially for the ruling People’s Action Party.

The reason? The PAP had a bigger slate of Malay candidates who were seen as better placed to help them compared to the opposition. The Workers’ Party was regarded as too Chinese-based.

The government is fighting to keep this support for the 2011 election, but then so will its rivals.

o Seah Chiang Nee is a veteran journalist and editor of the information website littlespeck.com

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