Yi Lin / tjc09_violence

The author states that of passage 1 states that "rates of criminal violence are higher in mobile and heterogenous societies". This is not very applicable to my society as Singapore is also a country made up of people of many different races, cultures and religions but Singapore still enjoys low crime rates. These shows that as long as people can respect one another, and not create social segregation, the differences between people will not result in criminal violence. For instance, the government enforces strict law and punishments to people who make negative remarks to other races or religions to ensure peace in the country. Events and programs are also organized by grassroots organizations such as People's Association, Residents' Committees and Community Centres help develop greater common space for Singaporeans to interact. With greater interaction, this enhances racial understanding which can prevent violence to result from misunderstandings. Even though what the government has done is limited as there is still a group of people in Singapore who remains biased towards certain racial or religious groups, criminal violence can be avoided through practicing tolerance.

Next, Oliver Roy states that violence is due to "anger fuelled by unemployment and racism”. This shows that unequal rights will lead to discontentment amongst people. This is true in my society where racial riots broke out due to suspicion and unhappiness among the people. In 1946, Singapore experienced race riots which resulted in 36 dead and 560 injured. It happened as the Malay paper Utusan Melayu was used to arouse feelings of dissatisfaction among Malays by portraying the People's Action Party as anti-Malay. However, if the people are able to clear their misunderstandings towards one another violence would not have broke up. Thus, it is important for the different racial groups to interact and make friends with one another.