home 쐽 THE STRAITS TIMES THURSDAY, JULY 16 2009 PAGE B6

Newcomers’ big role in HeritageFest

For the first time, 20%
of performers at event
are new citizens, PRs
BY ANG YIYING
NEW citizens and permanent residents
will be coming together in a big way for
this year’s Singapore HeritageFest.
Over 12 days until July 26, they will
dance or make music alongside Singapore-
ans, lead heritage trails or cook tradition-
al food in demonstrations.
Into its sixth year, the annual event by
the National Heritage Board (NHB) in-
volves 1,400 performers, of whom about
20 per cent are new citizens or PRs, the
first time they are involved on such a
large scale.
At the event’s opening ceremony yes-
terday at Suntec City Mall, Minister for
Community Development, Youth and
Sports Vivian Balakrishnan said that glo-
balisation had increased the number of
newcomers and that Singaporeans should
recreate the graciousness and open-mind-
edness of their ancestors and enhance ra-
cial understanding and tolerance.
He is the latest minister to issue a call
for Singaporeans to be more inclusive.
At a People’s Association seminar on
Sunday, its deputy chairman and Minis-
ter in Prime Minister’s Office Lim Boon
Heng listed one of its tasks as helping resi-
dents new to Singapore to integrate and
understand the sensitivities of a multira-
cial, multi-religious society.
And in a ministerial visit this month to
Punggol Central, in which an estimated
10 per cent of residents are new citizens
or PRs, Law Minister and Second Home
Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam encour-
aged Singaporeans and new residents to
mingle and to get to know one another.
Last year, 20,513 foreigners became
Singapore citizens, and 79,167 took up
permanent residency.
One HeritageFest performer who felt
welcome enough to stay, get married and
start a family here is Israeli-American
Amit Gilboa, 40.
“Compared to other places, people
here mix more easily. The class and racial
differences are not as stark,” he said.
The full-time musician and former
business writer came to Singapore in
2001 for a one-month contract writing
and research job but stayed on, becoming
a PR at the end of 2006. His wife, a
32-year-old Chinese national, is also a
Singapore PR, and they have two chil-
dren. “Step by step, I am putting down
my roots here,” he said.
NHB chief executive Michael Koh said
that the idea of reaching out to new citi-
zens and PRs is captured by the event’s ta-
gline of Who’s Your Neighbour?
Besides taking the festival to six loca-
tions beyond the main festival location in
Suntec City, the board also wants to
reach out to different age groups, such as
youth and seniors.
It is hoping to reach young people
through new media platforms like social
networking site Facebook and micro-blog-
ging service Twitter. Users can now go to
newly launched portal MyStory.sg to
share stories and photos, create and plan
virtual historical and community walking
trails, among others.
To let grandparents share their herit-
age with their grandchildren, all Singa-
pore citizens and PRs aged 60 and above
will now be given free access to the per-
manent galleries of the main NHB muse-
ums: the National Museum of Singapore,
the Asian Civilisations Museum, the Sin-
gapore Art Museum, 8QSAM and the Per-
anakan Museum.
Next year, the festival will partner the
Singapore Youth Olympic Games 2010.
For more details on HeritageFest and
events, visit: www.heritagefest.org.sg The Aspire Dance troupe from Apsara Asia performing an Indian contemporary piece called Pulse
ayiying@sph.com.sg at the launch of the Singapore HeritageFest 2009 yesterday. ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA

Forum zooms in on recession’s impact

FOREIGN workers and their impact on the
job market dominated the minds of stu-
dents yesterday at a seminar on the global
financial crisis, where they got a chance to
quiz politicians and industry experts.
More than 300 students from a dozen
schools attended the event at Anderson
Junior College.
Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, the
guest-of-honour, spoke about the impact
of the economic crisis.
While the economy has shown signs of
recovery, jobs could still be lost in the com-
ing months, he said.
This is why the Government is focused
on helping workers keep their jobs and
training laid-off workers so they can se-
cure other opportunities, he said.
He said initiatives such as the Jobs Cred-
it scheme are fairly new and their impact is
not yet clear but “if necessary we will intro-
duce new programmes”.
He was confident Singapore would ride
out the crisis and said: “Our challenge is
how we can capitalise on opportunities in
the new global environment and retool our
strengths to position Singapore for the fu-
ture.”
He urged students to welcome foreign-
ers in the same way their forefathers were
welcomed when they came to Singapore.
South West District Mayor Amy Khor,
Singapore Management University eco-
nomics professor Davin Chor and media
consultant Sunny Goh spoke on issues
ranging from how people were handling
the crisis to how it had come about.
Questions, primarily related to the im-
pact of foreign workers, came fast and furi-
ous from students.
One student who identified himself as
Kenneth from Catholic Junior College,
spoke about the plight of older unskilled
food and beverage workers displaced by
Chinese nationals.
Dr Khor, who took most of the ques-
tions, said the Government had legislation
to ensure businesses cannot simply replace
local staff with foreigners.
A Cedar Girls Secondary School student
wanted the panellists to recommend her a
“respectable, recession-proof” job.
Dr Khor thanked her for her “practical
question”, but said there was no such
thing in this fast-changing world.
Her advice: “Do what you love.”
CHUA HIAN HOU