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Racial Harmony Promoted at Singapore's New 'Void Decks' Reflect Racial Rainbow
In similar places across the island, Malay weddings were taking place and Indian children shared playgrounds with kids from other races, including the occasional white boy or girl from expatriate families renting public flats.
Just a typical weekend in Singapore's "void decks" -- the shared open spaces under high-rise government-built apartments scattered across the densely populated city-state.
With more than 80 percent of its ethnically diverse people staying in public flats -- and foreigners now accounting for a third of the population of five million -- void decks are an important part of daily life in Singapore.
Like blank canvasses on which Singapore's ethnic rainbow is painted, void decks host everything from weddings and funerals to romantic trysts and day-long chequers sessions that draw retirees from all ethnic groups.
"The void deck is a place for 'collective idling'," said Chua Beng Huat, a professor with the National University of Singapore's sociology department.
More than that, sharing the space is also part of Singapore's strictly enforced social policies aimed at ensuring harmony among the races in a region often torn by religious and ethnic strife.
Flats in every public housing estate are apportioned in accordance with Singapore's ethnic mix -- 77 percent Chinese, 14 percent Malay and eight percent Indian, based on a 2000 census -- to prevent racial enclaves from forming.
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