SINGAPORE - To help citizens appreciate one another's cultures and practices, the then newly elected People's Action Party (PAP) Government in 1959 organised a series of multicultural concerts, called Aneka Ragam Rakyat, or People's Variety Concerts, with the first launched at the Botanic Gardens that year.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cited these concerts in his National Day message on Sunday (Aug 8) as he noted that strains over race and religion that have surfaced recently were not completely new.
"When Singapore became self-governing in 1959, different racial groups lived separately, attended different schools in different languages, and worked in different types of jobs and businesses," he said.
Those free concerts, which were also held all over the island, helped bring together people from the various ethnic groups. Over 200 concerts were held until the early 1960s.
"I remember my parents bringing me to watch the first Aneka Ragam Rakyat, which was held here at the Botanic Gardens," PM Lee said, speaking from the Symphony Lake at the gardens.
"These concerts were an early start to our journey to becoming one people, one nation."
The first performance on Aug 2 in 1959 attracted an estimated 22,000 people. It was opened by PM Lee's father, founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.
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The usual line-ups in these outdoor programmes represented the four major cultural streams in Singapore - Malay, Chinese, Indian and Western. They included Tamil devotional songs, Malay drama, Peking opera, Western classical music and Indian classical dances.
Led by then Minister for Culture S. Rajaratnam, the performances aimed to foster mutual understanding among different groups as well as a multicultural identity, and the most popular shows attracted tens of thousands of people.
In October 1959, the first performance in a rural location - Bukit Panjang Village - was staged before 7,000 people, with many travelling from nearby villages to catch it. Later that month, a concert was held on an offshore island for the first time, at Pulau Bukom Kechil. It drew a 3,000-strong crowd, some of whom specially made the trip from other islands.
The performances aimed to foster mutual understanding among different groups as well as a multicultural identity. PHOTO: ST FILE
The concerts continued to be organised until 1964, at places including the City Hall steps, Hong Lim Green, Geylang Serai, Sembawang and Pulau Tekong.
While they began as a weekly event, the concerts were eventually held on special occasions such as the State National Day, which marked Singapore becoming self-governing on June 3, 1959; the opening of a new maternal and child health clinic in Kranji in 1962; and celebrations for Malaysia Day after Sept 16, 1963, when Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak merged with the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia.
However, irreconcilable differences between leaders in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur over the issue of race led to separation - and the Republic's independence - on Aug 9, 1965.
National Day Message 2021
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