Challenges of Singapore. Different racial groups.

For example, the July 1964 racial riots involved Malays and Chinese due to the misperceptions of many Singapore Malays regarding the PAP government, resulting in 36 people dead and 560 others injured. They believed that the PAP government was anti-Malay and did not care about the Malays. Some UMNO members even made fiery speeches and used the Malay newspaper, Utusan Melayu, to highlight the poverty of the Malays and to claim that the PAP governments resettlement programme aimed to uproot the Malays from traditional Malay areas. Therefore, this is a need to handle such racial diversity as relations among different ethnic groups can be very volatile and fragile as exemplified by the 1964 riots. Difference in races may cause a lack of understanding among different groups, and misunderstanding can create suspicion and unhappiness among the people, thus lead to outbreaks of violence among racial groups.

Differences religious groups. For example, the Maria Hertogh riots in 1950 as the Muslim community felt that the British legal system was unfair to Muslims. The final court verdict gave custody of Maria who had been brought up as a Muslim by her adoptive mother, Aminah, to her natural parents who were Dutch Catholics. The court also annulled Marias marriage to a Malay teacher. This misperception the Muslim community had led to violence. This shows that if religious issues are not handled carefully, hostility and distrust could occur. Due to the distrust among different religious groups, riot will be easily triggered.

Transnational terrorism. It refers to acts of violence which are global in terms of aims, organization and impact. For example, in 2001, Singapore arrested 34JI members for their involvement in JI training in terrorism. Due to this issue, some Chinese became irrationally suspicious of Malays while some Malays became unnecessarily worried that the police would now be targeting them. This shows that terrorism can upset social bonds of the people in Singapore as multi-ethnic, race and religion can be used to create ill-feelings and threaten ethnic harmony. Due to the suspicions, distrusts and unnecessary social distancing, they unity of the country would be put to the test.