ETHNICITY ON IDENTITY CARD

ETHNICITY ON IDENTITY CARD: 10.

Mr Hri Kumar Nair asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs why a child whose parents are of different races cannot have both races reflected in his or her identity card.

The Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs (Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee) (for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs): Sir, the Government does

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not assign race to a person but follows the general rule that a child's race would follow that of his or her father. Nevertheless, recognising that the diversity of Singapore's racial demographics has increased in recent years due to the inflow of immigrants and the rise in the number of locals marrying foreigners, with effect from 2nd January this year, our birth registration forms were revised to provide for declaration by the parents on their child's race during birth registration.

Previously, such a child would be registered following the general rule as having the race of the father. The recent change gives parents who are of different races the flexibility and choice to decide how their child's race should be recorded. The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) is not the authority or expert on "race". It will accept a race declaration so long as it falls within generally accepted notions of ethnicity by lineage. For example, a Caucasian-Chinese couple may decide to have their child's race recorded as Caucasian, Chinese or Eurasian.

In fact, the Singapore birth certificate gazetted under the Registration of Births and Death Rules does not require a child's race to be recorded. The child's race is recorded provisionally at birth registration in ICA's system until the child turns 15 and is required to register for an identity card. At this point in time, registration of the identity card will entail a registration of race declared and this will then be used to update the existing record of the individual in the ICA system. Changes of race declaration can also be made at any time by the parents or by the child himself when he is no longer a minor.

In short, the system, especially with the recent changes, already provides for an appropriate level of flexibility and choice to parents who are of different races. Ultimately, however, parents who are of different races should come to a decision as to which of their races they

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would like their child to be recorded as belonging to.

Mr Hri Kumar Nair (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Sir, I should declare my interest that my child has parents of mixed race. Will the Senior Minister of State clarify his answer? Will his Ministry allow parents of different races to reflect both races on their child's identity card?

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: Sir, the Government has considered this matter carefully and has decided to allow parents of different races reflect both their races as a double-barrelled race in a child's identity card. This is on top of existing expanded options of choosing only one of the two different races for the child. Some examples could be Indian-Chinese, Caucasian-Chinese or Malay-Indian. This policy change will be subject to certain rules. We all know that societal trends suggest that a child of a mixed-parentage tends to identify himself or herself more closely with one of the two races. So, for parents who prefer their child's race to be double-barrelled, they will have to decide the dominant racial identity for the child, and this will be put as the first of the two components of a double-barrelled race. Take the example of an Indian father and a Chinese mother, which I believe Mr Hri Kumar is of that category. The parents decide that Chinese will be the dominant racial identity for the child, the race will be Chinese-Indian. So Chinese becomes the dominant race which is reflected first. If the mixed-parentage parents have not decided on the race to be reflected but still prefer the child's race to be double-barrelled, ICA will reflect the race of the father first (Indian-Chinese) and that is when the parents do not make a choice. Of course, parents can still go with the default option of following the father's race, which is Indian, if they are undecided on which race to choose or follow the mother's race (Chinese), if they so decide and need not go for the double-barrelled race option. So, flexibility is now greater and there are more choices.

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But let me just add that there is really no need for parents to rush to register the child's double-barrelled race classification at birth because even after that point in time, there will be other points in time when they can do that. Indeed, they can change the race classification. For children going to school, the natural point in time will be when they register for Primary One – I think we had a discussion here in the House – and, also, when they register for their identity card at age 15.

One other caveat is that for practical reasons, this relaxation cannot be allowed to go on ad infinitum .

I think Members will appreciate that. So if the child goes on to marry someone of another race or indeed of a mixed race, what happens is that when they have children, then they will have to choose which two of the three or four races to be declared as the child's race. Let me also say that the public should not rush because Government agencies will need time to make the necessary system changes to accept double-barrelled races. Once the changes are in place, ICA will allow such registration and we will announce the details in due course and when this new approach will be come into effect.

Assoc. Prof. Paulin Tay Straughan: Thank you, Sir. May I follow up with a supplementary question? My kids are also one of these double-barrelled things. I am so glad to hear that the Ministry has decided to allow registration of both the parents' cultural heritage. I am trying to understand why you need to have a declaration of a dominant race. So, perhaps, the Minister can help us to appreciate the implications of registration in real terms.

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: The key reasons are, first, practically, I think, a child even of mixed parentage will be acculturalised and probably will identify

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better with one race. Indeed, how the parents bring the child up would probably be a situation where they have decided in their mind whether the child would embrace one race more than the other. But the other key reason is that we have ethnic linked policies, for example, HDB's ethnic integration policy. In Singapore, these are key policies. So we do need to know which classification to put the child under. So we need the parents, even though they have a choice now, to still indicate the dominant race.

Mr Hri Kumar Nair: Thank you, Senior Minister of State. I suspect that the answer is going to lead me to have long discussions with my wife which I always look forward to. In light of the many different permutations and now the greater flexibility of choices given to parents, is the selection of race on their identity cards going to become an artificial exercise, ie, you pick a race of convenience?

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: Sir, in multi-racial Singapore, we still need the race classification. In fact, we celebrate our diversity and this is our strength. Unlike other societies, for example, in France, to be politically correct, they do away with recording and reflecting race, but that does not mean that race problems will go away. So I think our approach is better where we give more choice and flexibility but still continue with the current practice of recording the child's race.