of high office-holders, with a report released in January 2012.
19
While pledging
‘inclusive dialogue’, he urged that politics not become confrontational or divisive.
20
The PAP continues to control 93 per cent of parliamentary seats.
PM Lee, since taking office in 2004 , has demonstrated an understanding that, in
the move from Third to First World in terms of economic development, a more
educated citizenry demands greater political participation. Singapore is one of the
leading proponents of the ‘trade-off’ theory, that young nations require stability
and social discipline to create economic development, translating into a strong
state with weak civil–political rights. This position is not static and the government
is managing political liberalisation through incremental concessions and the
will to ‘become messy selectively’,^21 cordoning off exceptional spaces such as
Singapore’s ‘Speakers’ Corner’, where licensing requirements for public speaking
do not apply.
In a speech delivered just before taking office,
22
PM Lee established his vision of amore participatory culture in lieu of a ‘nanny state’ with a disengaged citizenry,
setting a new trajectory for the evolving political culture. The declared intent was to
‘raise the level of engagement between government and people’. It was preferable to
manage ‘honest issues’ where people ‘debate issues with reason, passion and convic-
tion’ rather than have ‘an apathetic society with no views’, where citizens were
‘passive by-standers’. Serious debate should be issue-specific, ‘based on facts and
logic’, not emotionalism, to reach ‘correct conclusions’. The government would
continue to engage constructive critics seeking to improve policies but would rebut
‘destructive’ dissenters out to score political points and undermine the government.
Even ‘long-settled issues’, such as the casino issue, would be openly discussed. The
ability to discuss ‘gut issues of race and religion’ and how to ‘build trust between
Muslims and non-Muslims...openly and maturely’^23 was described as a progressive
development in the post- 9 / 11 era, when ethnic tensions were exacerbated after the
Malay members of the fundamentalist Jemaah Islamiyah group were preventively
detained in December 2002 after a bomb plot was uncovered. Political space was
opened up for discussing matters pertaining to social mores as the government
would pull back from ‘being all things to all citizens’ and be ‘increasingly guided’
by community consensus ‘on questions of public morality and decency’.^24
(^19) See White Paper, ‘Salaries for a Capable and Committed Government’ (Cmd 1 of 2012 ,
10 January 2012 ). Available atwww.psd.gov.sg/content/psd/en/white_paper/white_paper.html
(^20) Speech, PM Lee Hsien Loong, Swearing-in Ceremony, State Room, Istana, 21 May 2011.
(^21) ‘PM Lee Highlights Wild Boars, Graffiti on Need to Be Messy Selectively’, Channelnew-
sasia.com, 13 July 2012.
(^22) ‘Building a Civic Society’, speech, Deputy PM Hsien Loong, Harvard Club of Singapore’s
thirty-fifth anniversary dinner: http://unpan 1 .un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/
APCITY/UNPAN 015426 .pdf.
(^23) Ibid.
(^24) Thio Li-ann, ‘Can We Disagree without Being Disagreeable?’,Straits Times, 26 October
2007.