singcitizen, on June 4th, 2009
Source: The Straits Times 4 Jun 2009 Page B6
Second Minister for Finance and Transport Minister Lim Hwee Hua addressed some 360 students from 54 secondary schools
Asked by a student to elaborate on laws to protect secularism here, she referred to the recent leadership tussle in the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) and said, “In this common space, we cannot impose our religions on others. All of us have to carefully guard against that.”
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singcitizen, on May 27th, 2009
Source: The Straits Times 27 May 2009 Page A18 (Edited excerpt from a speech by NMP Thio Li-ann in Parliament yesterday.)
What is the situation in Singapore? DPM Wong emphasised the secular nature of the political arena and how keeping ‘religion’ and ‘politics’ separate was a key rule of political engagement.
What this means specifically is that laws and policies derive their legitimacy not from divine sanction but from a democratically elected government. Law generally applies to and equally protects all citizens, regardless of race, religion or social status. Clearly, the Singapore model of secularism is anti-theocratic in that religious tenets and secular law are separated, not conflated.
While anti-theocratic, the Singapore secularism is not anti-religious. This is a vital distinction.
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singcitizen, on May 20th, 2009
Source: The Straits Times Page A22, 20 May 2009
Article by: Kishore Mahbubani
Imagine that there is a religious organisation in Singapore which believes that it is immoral for teenage girls to be forced to expose their arms, legs and faces when they go to school. They say: ‘There’s a line that God has drawn for us, and we don’t want our nation crossing that line.’ Hence, since the teachers of Singapore are enforcing the rule, this religious organisation marshals its members, takes over the Singapore Teachers’ Union and uses it to advocate the argument that female teenagers should be ‘free’ to choose whatever dress they want to wear to school. They argue that it is wrong to impose the corrupt Western school uniforms on young women of their religion.
Please note that the above is not a hypothetical example. This argument over school uniforms has been played out in France. Should we allow this to happen in Singapore too?
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singcitizen, on May 14th, 2009
Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/specialreport/view/1525/1/.html, retrieved 14 May 2009
As I said, Government policy on homosexuality is settled, and will not change as a result of lobbying by pressure groups. However, the Government was worried about the disquieting public perception that a group of conservative Christians, all attending the same church, which held strong views on homosexuality, had moved in and taken over AWARE because they disapproved of what AWARE had been doing. This raised many qualms among non-Christians, and also among Christians who believed that this was an unwise move in a multi-racial, multi-religious society. It was much more dangerous because now religion was also getting involved, and it was no longer just the issue of homosexuality.
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