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Our Divided City

Societies have been always divided, and cleavages are traditionally most obvious across class, race, gender, and religion. Singapore is no different. We have made strides in overcoming identity faultlines since the riotous era of the 1960s, but new faultlines emerge. Whether we are debating about LGBTQ rights, immigration protections or the urban underbelly, these conversations at once challenge perceptions of what Singapore is while also reflect the changing needs of society.

These tough questions require participation, and we put together a new series of articles exploring these issues. We hope this series provides an avenue for us to think deeply about these issues and critically examine some of the assumptions that have couched debate thus far. Cosmopolitanism and xenophobia runs through the pieces: how did they form, what sort of normative values do we assign to these terms, and how might society move forward, together?

We invite you to enjoy and engage in our new series: Our Divided City.

Inequality Migrants in Singapore Spotlight Multiculturalism Op-Ed Our Divided City Social Capital 

The politics of language: How can we mainstream social justice vocabularies?

How might we mainstream social justice ideas and language, beginning a national conversation that extends beyond more recognised civil society actors? Reflecting on the discourse surrounding migrant rights, Quah Say Jye draws upon philosopher Miranda Fricker’s concept of “epistemic injustice” to propose a shared vocabulary that might allow migrant workers into our linguistic community. He suggests that our semantic choices need to accurately represent the lived experiences of migrant workers, be accessible to them and the general public, and have the potential to pivot towards broader structural critiques.

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Government Administration Inequality Op-Ed Our Divided City Our Future Population Social Capital Solutions Toolkit 

The Case For Incorporating Social Analysis Into Policy Design

Paul argues that policymakers need to move beyond numbers-driven, utilitarian logics of decision-making and incorporate a human-centered approach to policy-making. Drawing from Teo You Yenn’s seminal work on the need to understand issues like inequality as lived experiences rather than just statistical data, Paul considers the benefits of a social analysis approach and examines the ways in which it can be implemented in Singapore.

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Education Inequality Op-Ed Our Divided City Social Capital 

The Legitimization of Inequality

Meritocracy is generally celebrated as an ideology that promotes equality of opportunity, and hence, seen as just. Xuan Yee interrogates this view by exploring the moral, psychological, and intellectual ramifications of meritocracy when taken to its extreme. He argues that an unquestioned belief in meritocracy is dangerous, for it encourages the successful to justify their own moral deservingness of their position in society, and thus, legitimizes inequality.

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Op-Ed Our Divided City Social Capital Who are we? 

The Loving Critics Have Votes, What They Want Is Voice

While recent events have triggered concerns over democracy and fundamental freedoms in Singapore, Seow Yongzhi argues that these debates conflate the terms “democracy” and “liberalism”. Democracies, as Yongzhi points out, can be highly illiberal. Instead, what Singaporeans want is not necessarily democracy, but liberty – the right to voice their disagreements.

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Government Administration Op-Ed Our Divided City Social Capital Who are we? 

Imagining Utopias: The Importance of Moral Idealism in Singapore

“It is tempting to believe that the cynic is, somehow, more intelligent than the dreamer. But in truth, pragmatism is no smarter than idealism.” Lee Chin Wee argues that, in discussions about Singapore’s future, we should leave room at the table for idealists and dreamers. In his view, it is a mistake to treat the government’s growth-oriented and metrics-focused narrative of pragmatism as gospel truth. When Singaporeans present and grapple with competing visions of the ‘good’, this strengthens social inclusion and improves policy-making.

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Education Inequality Op-Ed Our Divided City Social Capital 

The Limitations of Subject-Based Banding: What About Single-Stream Schools?

Much of the debate on MOE’s recent moves to integrate schoolmates of different academic streams via Subject-Based Banding (SBB) has focused on whether SBB will be effective, or what the implementation of SBB will look like. However, one underdiscussed aspect of MOE’s policy change is its lack of impact on single-stream schools. Izzah Haziqah Haris explores why this is a problem, and potential policy options to deal with this issue.

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