JOINT CELEBRATION OF LUNAR NEW YEAR AND HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI

Mr Zulkifli bin Baharudin asked the Minister for Community Development whether the Government plans to have official and national functions to celebrate the Lunar New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri to be jointly organised this year, to highlight racial harmony and understanding and multi-culturalism in Singapore.

Mr Abdullah Tarmugi: Lunar New Year, Hari Raya Aidilfitri and indeed all major public holidays are good occasions for Singaporeans of all races to celebrate together. We encourage activities which promote racial harmony and bring the various races closer to understand and appreciate each other's culture and tradition. Organising joint functions on this special occasion where the Lunar New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri fall so close together would certainly be appropriate. However, I feel that it would be more meaningful for such activities to be organised spontaneously by community groups rather than done at official or national levels. This is in fact already happening. I am told that several community centres, RCs and CCCs will be organising functions to jointly celebrate Lunar New Year and Hari Raya this year. We should encourage such initiatives.