I DISAGREE that Singapore should abandon CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others) stereotypes ("Forging a cohesive national identity" by Dr V. Subramaniam; Tuesday, and "S'pore must 'embrace diversity as its strength'"; April 10).
It would be naive to think that Singapore has become a vibrant, First World, cosmopolitan city and, hence, residents should be treated as individuals of different socio-ethnic identities, like in London or New York.
It is not. Singapore is still a very Oriental-centric, conservative country, with a Western-friendly society living with more than one million foreigners of different socio-economic-ethnic identities.
Intrinsically, CMIO groups speak different dialects, write different languages, eat and dress differently, and have different faiths.
The newcomers are not like the native CMIO who were born here and have lived here for the past half-century.
It was our guiding principle of recognising, understanding and respecting our cultural and religious differences that allowed us to live harmoniously as a cohesive society.
We still need schools to teach mother tongue languages, and society has to accept various types of places of worship and burial sites in our midst.
It is oversimplistic to assume that we can change our social fabric and hope to maintain our hard-earned social harmony.
Singaporeans should continue to work hard to maintain the kampung spirit as a cohesive society. Multiracialism and social harmony are key to national identity.
Paul Chan Poh Hoi
