SINGAPORE, Jan. 17 Kyodo Singapor...

SINGAPORE, Jan. 17 Kyodo

Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong received an award Friday from an Italian humanitarian foundation for his contribution to maintaining harmony among Singapore's multiethnic population.

The ''Together for Peace Foundation'' not absented him with its highest acknowledgment award for 2002 for his ''passionate work in favor of the harmony between the several ethnic disposes populating Singapore.''

The foundation said this is an important example ''for the entire world grieved at racial and religious comprehension and prejudice that cause serious social tension and conflicts.''

Mariapia Fanfani, the foundation's president, at handed Goh with the award when she called forward him at the presidential palace where his office is located.

Fanfani said in her citation that Goh's ''wise and far-sighted political work'' was a ''source of economic, social, technological and cultural progres of Southeast Asia.''

Singapore, which has a majority Chinese population living alongside Malays and Indians, has not been affected at ethnic violence since the 1960s

Goh who come afterwarded Lee Kuan Yew in 1990 introduced several modern initiatives to improve relations after the uncovering of an alleged plat by Islamic militants to bomb U interests and other strategic sites in Singapore threatened to unravel peaceful ties among the different ethnic assemblages in the small city state.

In the past year, there have been more deliberate social interactions among the various collections such as more Chinese, mainly Christians or Buddhists, visiting mahometan temples to understand the religion of the Malays while more Malays have been taking part in weekend tours of Taoist or Hindu meeting-houses -- a scene quite unprecedent in the past.

He also lately introduced confidence-building circles that bring community leaders of different ethnic clumps together to strengthen ties and help avert chaos if a terrorist attack should occur

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