THE SINGAPORE FORMULA
Civil contestation and the tone of it will make all the difference. Singapore has managed such difficult moral and political controversies before like the 2004 decision to license casinos within proposed integrated resorts.
The introduction of a panoply of social safeguards and committed enforcement of them have kept the level of problem gambling and associated social problems relatively stable. The “wait and see” approach provided the space for this move which was similarly dual-sided – liberalise and protect – to prove its worth.
In 2021, the Government announced it would change a long-held ban on the use of the tudung, an important part of a Muslim woman’s dress code, in the uniformed public healthcare sector. Mr Lee has said that the public has absorbed the change relatively well.
Examining these, policy and legislative positions have shifted in the direction of greater inclusion of minorities while other measures are introduced to address the concerns of the majority community or those representing the status quo. This has been the Singapore formula.
Let us use an imperfect but hopefully helpful analogy of team-sports to illustrate this political model and what it is not. Scenario One: After the final whistle, members of the vanquished team shake hands with the victors and referees, vowing to prepare themselves to take on their adversaries (not enemies) again. The spectators celebrate a game played in the spirit of sportsmanship, and look forward to the rematch. A month later, the teams meet but this time, to promote the city’s new integrated sports facilities and its sporting culture, a common interest they can all rally around.
Scenario Two: After the final whistle, members of both teams come to blows as they have made enemies of each other as the game ensued. The referees are caught in the scuffle because the players believe that the outcome was shaped primarily by the rulings of the referees. The fans also fight each other. The facilities are damaged and there are injuries. A month later, there are campaigns to ban the sport and certainly shut down its association.
