Practice of Allocating by Ethnic Group Public Holidays for Gazetting
Ministry of ManpowerSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Associate Professor Jamus Jerome Lim’s inquiry into whether public holiday gazetting follows a colonial-era practice of allocating two days per ethnic group. Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng explained that the current configuration was established in 1968 through consultations with religious groups to ensure national economic competitiveness. He noted that religious groups made difficult compromises, such as Muslims and Christians giving up specific observances and Hindus choosing Deepavali over Thaipusam. The Minister highlighted that Buddhists retained Vesak Day as their only holiday, while other groups consolidated their festivals to reduce the total number of public holidays. He concluded that the current calendar reflects these historical consensus-based outcomes and that maintaining this established balance remains the most sensible approach.
Transcript
77 Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the current approach to gazetting public holidays retains the historical colonial-era practice of allocating two holidays per ethnic group; (b) if not, what considerations led to the abandonment of this principle; and (c) if so, whether the Government can explain the current mapping of holidays by ethnic group.
Dr Tan See Leng: The current configuration of public holidays in Singapore has been in place since 1968. At the time, faced with the British withdrawal and the need to compete in global markets, the Government decided to reduce the number of public holidays.
The Government conducted consultations with the various religious groups and reached a consensus on which religious festival should be gazetted as a public holiday. Difficult compromises were made as religious groups had to give up observing some of their significant festivals as public holidays. Muslims chose to give up Prophet Muhammad's Birthday as well as an extra day for Hari Raya Puasa. Christians chose to give up the Saturday after Good Friday and Easter Monday. Hindus had to choose between Thaipusam and Deepavali, and chose the latter. Buddhists, who comprised the largest faith and had only one public holiday to begin with, Vesak Day, were not asked to give it up.
Our calendar of public holidays thus reflects the outcome of these consultations with religious groups. Maintaining this balance has served us well and it continues to be the sensible approach.