J. Allen Williams

Book Review: Three Perspectives on Ethnicity in America: Blacks, Chicanos, and Native AmericansThree Perspectives on Ethnicity in America: Blacks, Chicanos, and Native Americans. By CortésCarlos E., GinsburgArlin I, GreenAlan W.F., and JosephJames A., eds. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1976. Pp. 429.

Singapore is an interesting example of a political unit artificially created through circumstance, in which the ruling government is wholeheartedly endeavoring to create a feeling of solidarity and nationhood within its diverse citizenry. Chinese, Malays and Indians exist in, at times, an uneasy physical proximity to each other, brought together by the vagaries of history and the impelling economic needs of their former British colonial masters. These ethnic groups have long standing grievances concerning each other, with the Chinese and Malays especially abrasive in the expression of their feelings towards one another. Peter A. Busch of Yale University provides an interesting exposition of the results of his research into Singapore ethnic attitudes in this book and the effects of these attitudes towards the idea of the State. During 1970 he conducted a survey of 3,316 secondary school students of Chinese and Malay ethnic background in an effort to ascertain on a quantitative basis and attitudinal relationship between ethnicity and national loyalty. Although his findings are burdened with statistics which are difficult to follow at times, the author provides enough narrative explanation to make his study readily comprehensible. With continued national survival at stake, the ruling Peoples Action Party (PAP) of Singapore, headed by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, has understandabl yfocused much attention on ways and means by which the idea of legitimacy of the exisring nation can be inculcated into the population. The almost accidental establishment of the nation of Singapore. its economic vunerability and its location between the hostile enti ties of Malaysia and Indonesia, mandated the continuing drive to foster a feeling of solidarity amongits citizens. The Chinese population, constituting roughly 76 per cent of the total population, occupies the commanding heights of the economy of Singapore as well as the more significant positions of power within the ranks of the PAP. The economic success of this ethnic group has not only engendered a feeling of superiority among many Chinese but has also had the effect of feeding feelings of inferiority among the more disadvantaged Malay population. This study not only revaled these feelings among the students surveyed, but the findings also indicate that economic success, or at least well being, has a very definite positive influence on attitudes toward the existing political order. The author further uncovered evidence to the effect that the existing educational system in Singapore, which was designed to cater to the diverse ethnic feelings of the population, actually fosters ethnic hostility and consequently a weakening of positive linkages to the State. The author is less certain about thepositive attitudes presumably generated by residential proximity of different ethnic groups. His survey revealed that those Malays, for instance, having the most positive attitudes towards Chinese tended to be those living apart from members of that group. Drawing upon these findings as well as upon studies of a similar nature conducted within the United States, the conclusions of Busch as to the virtues of building hugeethnicall yintegrated housing projects by the Singapore government are somewhat ambivalent. He appears to emphasize the fact that similar social and economic status is most conducive to ethnic amity in integrated neighborhoods. This volume represents an important first step towards the analysis of the problem of ethnic differences within new states and the means by which governments can deal with these differences in order to preserve the survival of the nation. His ideas are provocative and should be instructive to observers concerned in the process by which ethnic groups can achieve positions of moral and structural integration within political units.