EIP

Question 1

strengths of EIP

Answer 1

According to Leong Chan-Hoong, policy researcher and professor at NUS, the EIP has been very successful at integrating the city.

One in every three HDB blocks has achieved a balance between Chinese, Malay, Indian and other residents, reflecting Singapore’s population

Common spaces in the HDB block offers additional areas for chance interactions, like the void deck

The EIP has been successful in its main aim of preventing the ‘racial enclaves’ it was engineered to avert. Each HDB estate is a melting pot of races, with a certain degree of interaction and integration amongst the different races.

As quoted from Senior Minister Tharman, people living in the same housing estates usually send their children to the same neighbourhood schools
→ Mr Edwin Tong: “Schools will always remain an important common ground to develop cross-cultural understanding and friendships from a young and early age. And this will be relationships, mindset and philosophies that we hope will last a lifetime.”

Question 2

Limitations of EIP

Answer 2

1. Minorities bear ‘direct and real’ financial burden from EIP: Pritam Singh
2. A home owner of a minority race can only sell his or her flat to another member of a minority race, once the quota for the majority race has been reached
   - -> Over the years, Workers’ Party has heard their fair share of feedback from minorities of all races having to lower the price of their flats to effect a sale, minorities bear a direct and real financial burden in the name of the EIP
3. Leads to some Build-To-Order units being left unpicked in land-scarce Singapore
   - -> Eg. there are unfilled Chinese quota leftover flats in cheaper, non-mature estates like Tengah and unfilled Malay quota leftover flats in more expensive, mature estates such as Geylang
4. Might lead to price differences in the same property
   –> According to a 2012 study, Chinese-constrained HDB resale units (i.e. only Chinese buyers eligible) were 5 to 8% more expensive than Malay or Indian-constrained units, which were 3 to 4% cheaper than the average resale price. This could mean that flats owned by the Chinese were more likely to sell at a price over HDB valuation, whereas flats owned by Malay or Indians were more likely to sell at below HDB valuation.
   Besides the rather unfair situation of two — almost identical — flats being sold for a huge difference in price simply because of the ethnicity of the person to whom the flat could be sold, this fact also highlights the possibility that the ethnic quota could be making racial income inequality worse.
5. Could make it harder for people to sell their flats, sellers who are ready to and willing to sell their units have to turn away willing buyers, because the buyer is of the ethnicity whereby the quota has been maxed out
   Many sellers being unable to sell their flats, even when they’ve had offers, just because of ethnicity
   –>Despite the high application rate, a total of 42 four-room units from the Dakota Breeze and Pine Vista BTO were put up for sale during the Nov 2020 SBF, and three units are still available for selection, but they’re only available for Malays, no Chinese can buy these vacant units under the EIP
6. Might miss certain marks with increasingly mixed heritage. In Singapore, children of mixed race marriage are entitled to register a double-barrelled race
   –>Eg. daughters of Malay and Chinese parents can register as malay-chinese or chinese-malay, but under the EIP policy, only the first race component of a double-barrel may be used
   If the hypothetical daughter above has registered as a chinese-malay, she would be restricted by the quota restrictions imposed on Chinese occupants, regardless of the fact that she technically is also half Malay
7. Assumes living together means integration
   Singaporeans, by and large, tend not to mix around or even acknowledge their neighbours
   –> Eg. recent gong incident, in which a Chinese woman started hitting a gong while her Indian neighbour was carrying out a prayer ritual
   –> Case of Amy Cheong back in 2012, who took to social media to complain about her Malay neighbours who were holding a wedding at the void deck and went on to disparage the Malay society as a whole
8. Clusters form due to the disparity in the purchasing power of the different races
9. Sellers may see a smaller pool of eligible buyers, resulting in them having to lower their asking price, reducing the capital gains on their property
10. Potentially means that people have lower chances of meeting others of a different race or socio-economic class

Question 3

Suggestions

Answer 3

1. Instead we could fine-tune the system
2. What needs to be championed instead are “common spaces” or” bridging social capital” between communities
3. Having events and encouraging community participation between people of different races, rather than maintaining a strict focus on housing quotas
4. On top of appeals, a little more flexibility should be allowed, taking into consideration the market when enforcing the EIP
5. More work needs to be done to put in place actual initiatives to encourage the mixing of the races in sg, rather than hoping that mere proximity will do all the hard work
6. Ms Sun from orange Tee suggested that the ethnic quotas in neighbourhoods that experience clustering can be readjusted if it will not significantly erode the mix of races there