Opening of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB) Regional Academy

Opening

• Let me first start by thanking the organisers for organising this event.

  • Professor Dr Nazila Ghanea, the UN Special Rappoteur for coming down to Singapore and joining us. Fernanda, for setting all of this up. I want to also thank Irshad for all that you do for Roses of Peace. James Low, for organising and hosting us today. It is truly a great honour and privilege.

• I want to thank all the members who are here, particularly ASEAN members for taking the journey down to Singapore to learn from us, what we do. We have much to learn from you as well based on what you do and how you organise your respective countries and your respective societies.

• I thought I should frame my discussion in two to three different topics. First is what is happening in the world as a whole, what was Singapore’s response over the years and what was some humble comments we can have and options that other countries could also consider. We are mindful of where we are – a very small country - and perhaps some ideas might be useful to the international audience as well.

Multiculturalism globally and in Singapore

• Multiculturalism is in retreat, this is something that we have seen. I think it all starts from the demographic profiles of the countries, particularly those in the west, especially in Europe.

  • You would notice with the changes in demographic structures would have a direct impact on a country’s economic structure, and therefore create a need for migration.

  • Once migration takes place, what happens at the end of the day, is that you have people who have been there longer and people who are new immigrants.

• How does the equation then fit in societies that are not well organised. This could very well be a polarising factor. Rise in fascism, the extreme ideologists that are coming in, the lack of religious tolerance and the fracture of society. Hence, multiculturalism is in retreat in many parts of the world.

• This is something we got to watch and study very carefully. We have something good going on in the eastern part of the world, particularly in Southeast Asia – young dynamic economies, young countries in general. But we have to watch for the future as to what we need to do to prevent ourselves from fraying as well.

• The second part is what has Singapore done and what is so great about what Singapore has done. I think that is a function of two different trajectories. One, where you have an extremely diverse population, not only based on religion but also race.

  • The race part is clear about 75% Chinese, 14% Malay and 9% Indians and other races as well.

  • From a religious perspective, we are quite evenly spread around 30% Buddhist, 19% Christians, 16% Muslims and other religions as well in smaller denominations.

  • In other words, the portfolio is quite diverse and not having a dominant religion per se, so evenly spread.

• Second factor that has not necessarily in Singapore's favour is a very small land mass where everyone is concentrated.

  • Unlike other countries, where you can retreat to the suburbs, the suburbs to us is the water. So, there is no suburbs in Singapore, it is a city state, and therefore we will have to live with all the different parts of society all within a same framework of a very, very small land mass, barely about 700 to 800 square kilometers of land.

  • The places where our population practices religion are also far more concentrated, whether it's 700 to 800 square kilometers, this is no bigger than a small city in many of the states that you may be coming from.

• The is the geographical structure of Singapore, something that we have inherited and something that we're very proud of, despite the limitations.

• How did we turn a limitation into a strength? It started really many years ago, from 1949 when the Inter-Religious Organisation was formed.

  • This is a remarkable entity. If you think about it, it predates even modern Singapore.

  • We are now where we are because of a group of people who have come together, who were tired of what they saw in World War Two and decided that an interreligious organisation is the best way to reduce fear and anxieties among religions, and the best way to do is to come together.

  • That started here in 1949 barely after the war, which was devastating to a small country like Singapore that was occupied for three and a half years and saw the death of tens of thousands of our residents.

• The question then was: is it only organisations like the Inter-Religious Organisation? But that was the genesis – that was the start.

• But really what happened thereafter was the way Singapore organised itself, particularly post-independence. And that, in my mind, has made a profound difference in how our religious and racial harmony has been forged, and how multiculturalism continues to remain the way it is.

• It starts first with legislation. So, the acts that we have for racial and religious harmony is important. We believe very strongly that everybody should be able to practice his or her religion in Singapore without fear or favour, and that has been enshrined into the law, that has been enshrined into the constitution. So, that legal framework becomes very important.

• But beyond legal frameworks, we have also dealt with a couple of social policies that has also allowed for the integration to take place.

  • First of all, of course, is the fact that our housing estate has to mirror the racial population in Singapore. It has worked pretty well.

  • This also has a direct impact on the school system, because these are folks who will be going to the schools and the school system therefore mirrors the national population.

• Now, if you think about it, not very many places in the world where you will have Malays, Chinese and Indians sitting together, celebrating one another and being able to appreciate the cultures, religions and languages of each other.

  • That happens here. Whereas in certain parts of the world, they are usually at a border, staring at each other, depending on the racial groups that they are in.

  • That is something that we have forged through social and education policies.

• For the males in Singapore, they go to national service. When they go to national service, once again, when you have a mission to do, or when you are asked to do certain things, or when you're trained, usually it happens, quite interestingly. It does not happen where you segregate Malays from Chinese from Indians.

• Everybody is blended. Everybody comes together. Everybody deals with the situation that's at hand, be it training, which can be extremely tough, or operations that we need to go for as well.

• Of course, in Singapore, every male citizen above the age of 18 has to go for national service. That becomes another area where that integration takes place.

• So that's the national policies and social policies and legislative perspectives. Once again, that on its own, is insufficient. You can't just have laws and you say, well, it's supposed to happen in this way and magically, things goes on. It doesn't happen that way.

• We've created self-help groups, either for the Malays, Indians, Chinese and Eurasians.

• This is not because the policies that Singapore professes are racist. The best form of self-help is from the respective racial groups who may know themselves the best, and hence you know how to tune your messages, how to be a bit more inclusive, what else do you need to do to deal with your respective group? That's how we started.

• There are four self-help groups. Mendaki for the Malays, this is for educational upliftment. For the Indians, called SINDA. For the Chinese, it's called the CDAC. And Eurasians, we have the Eurasian Association.

  • All of these self-help groups aim for educational upliftment, by allowing focused attention on the respective racial groups.

  • That is ground up, again, supported through different channels, through government, through private funding, etc, but the whole idea is to allow for a ground up movement.

• You've heard of the top-down policies, social policies, legislation, et cetera. You've heard a bottom up. But that, again, on its own, is insufficient. We need to find ways to bind everybody together.

• This was done by the Inter-Religious Organisation, the group that I've mentioned at the start of what I've said, and also the Racial and Religious Harmony Circles.

  • Now, the Harmony Circles are grassroot level groups that will help to understand one another and forge the identity and inclusion that happens at the precinct level.

• It's almost like a rubber band that ties the various sticks together. One stick on its own is very easily broken. But when you have all the sticks together, both top down and bottom-up sticks, and when you bind it together with string called the Inter-Religious Organisation, or the Racial and Religious Harmony Circles, you now have a slightly stronger perspective.

Looking Forward

• What do we see moving forward in the future? Is this sufficient?

• We do see a world that is increasingly contested, where religious harmony, where inclusion, where multiculturalism will continue to be stretched.

• If you look at what's happening in different parts of the world, it's reflected by the various conflicts that we see, the statements that are being put out. All of these does not help with religious harmony and it does not help with inclusion.

• Therefore, we hope that the Singaporean model, not just based in Singapore, but for us to be able to share what we do with like-minded partners, particularly our friends and brothers and sisters from ASEAN and beyond, would be an important first step that we can take.

  • We have started the International Conference on Cohesive Societies, the third iteration that we just had earlier this year.

  • Some of us, we met there, but that was the perspective of bringing people from other parts of the world.

    • Firstly, to understand each other.

    • Secondly, to use Singapore as a neutral platform for that discussion to take place on cohesiveness, religious harmony, social inclusion.

    • And at the same time for us to share our precious model with the rest of the world. For us to show what Singapore has done and how have we developed ourselves.

• Do we have the perfect model? I don't think so.

• It really depends on whether we are able to stand the test of time, and when the challenges take place, when there's a real pulling along the seams, will we hold together, or will we fray apart?

• Here is where we've had many, many tests.

  • Most recently, we had discovered a person who had sent meat to the mosques that are in Singapore. And that has resulted in a lot of concerns among the Muslim community, and lot of concerns among the Muslim community, and

  • But immediately, when that happened, many other communities came together and stood in harmony with our Muslim brothers and sisters.

  • We said that an attack on one is an attack on all, and that was how we were able to get past this particular episode, not over yet, but at least we have been able to get past that and we were able to maintain that level of cohesion that we have today.

• It might be meat today. It might be something else tomorrow.

• How do we then ensure that we continue to remain strong and cohesive? Be the beacon of multiculturalism in a country in a world that is increasingly divided? How do we then allow for these tests to make us stronger?

• Our method of multiculturalism is something that others may find useful to study – even from a small country like Singapore - where our density has, in a way, helped shape what we have today.

  • Whether aspects of this can be shared with others, through our explanation of our process, structures and policies.

  • And whether other countries might partner with us to explore what more we can do together- not just for Singapore, but for the region and, hopefully, the world – to build stronger, more cohesive societies.

• I wish you the very best and have a great day ahead.

• Thank you very much.