From Jan 2 this year, the race of Singapore new born children will have to be indicated on their birth certificates. Parents who are of different races can choose either the race of the father or mother for their children.
Originally, before the child turns 15 and gets his Singapore identity card, the race can be changed again with the consent of both parents.
However, after much public debate, this policy was amended to allow the race of the child to be changed at any time, without any limit as to how times the change can be made during a person’s lifetime.
What are the implications of this policy change?
Public housing ethnic quotas
Every year or two, Singapore MPs would raise the issue of their constituents who are affected by the Housing Development Board’s (HDB) ethnic quota policy for public housing apartments.
The issue is that, when the quota for a particular ethnic group is reached within a HDB apartment block or neighbourhood, the said ethnic group’s members may encounter difficulty in selling their flats, or see their flat’s resale price some 10-plus to 20-plus percent lower than their neighbours’.
Imagine you buy a public housing HDB flat at the same price as your neighbour, but when you try to sell the flat years later, the price of your flat may be much less than what your neighbour’s would fetch.
This is a by-product of the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP), that was implemented to promote racial integration and harmony by ensuring a balanced ethnic mix amongst the various ethnic communities living in public housing estates. The policy also aims to prevent the formation of racial enclaves.
The EIP applies to Singapore citizen households with at least one Singapore citizen listed as a buyer, and a Malaysian PR household with no Singapore citizen listed as buyer and at least one Malaysian PR listed as buyer.
The Maximum Ethnic Limits for neighbourhood and block respectively are Malays (22 percent, 25 percent), Chinese (84 percent, 87 percent), and Indians & Others (12 percent, 15 percent).
For example, if the market valuation of a HDB flat is say S$400,000 (RM959,860), a flat-owner who may be affected by the ethnic quota, may only be able to sell for say $320,000 (RM767,915), a difference of $80,000 (RM191,796).
In the years to come, and if HDB prices continue to increase, the differential due to the ethnic quota may be in the hundreds of thousands. However, the probability of being affected by the ethnic quota may not be very high, as I understand that only about 25 percent of HDB flats have exceeded the quota.
The status of the quota can be checked via the HDB’s website by entering the block number and street name.
This poses a question for HDB flat buyers of mixed race: should they change their race to the one that may least likely to be affected by the EIP, before they purchase a HDB flat?
I asked a friend who works in a Family Service Centre (FSC), and she told me that there were only about five ethnic quota households who could not service their HDB loans last year, in that particular constituency. There are 36 FSCs in Singapore.
In this connection, I understand that the only exception to the ethnic quota rule that is applied to both HDB flat sales and rentals, are the HDB blocks that are entirely rented out to foreign workers.
Financial assistance
The monthly contribution deducted from workers’ salaries to help fund the various self-help groups like the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), Eurasian Association, Mendaki and Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda), range from S$0.50 (RM1.20) to S$1 (RM2.40), S$2 (RM4.80) to S$10 (RM24), S$2 (RM4.80) to S$16 (RM38), and S$1 (RM2.40) to S$7 (RM17), respectively, depending one’s salary.
One can also choose to contribute a different amount or opt-out altogether. These self-help groups fund tuition and financial assistance schemes that vary from one to the other. Additionally, tertiary education financial assistance offered that are subject to means-testing, may also be different for an ethnic group.
So, arguably, ease of getting assistance may affect one’s decision on the child’s race.
Race is fundamentally about one’s heritage, ancestry, culture and future generations. Will we see a situation in the future, whereby parents and children may want to decide to consider the merits of the “benefits” in their “race”?
Will there come a time in the near future, when some people may for all practical purposes say that they belong to one race, only to identify with another with their identity card when they apply for a HDB flat, apply for an education bursary, financial assistance, etc?
After all, since we are all citizens – should race matter at all?
