Building a more harmonious and inclusive society which balances the diverse needs of its various members with the overarching guiding principle being mutual respect for fellow members and the continuous pursuit of finding more common spaces in the society. This is perhaps the biggest challenge mankind has ever had to deal with and will ever have to in future.
Two events in these past weeks have put the spotlight on this challenge in a striking way.
The first is the Israeli air strikes on Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip following its conflict with Hamas which governs the territory. Hamas is widely seen as a terrorist organisation by many Western countries chiefly because of its failure to outrightly recognise Israel’s right to exist as an independent nation with Jerusalem as its spiritual and religious centre.
This is an age old conflict complicated further by historical territorial claims and the movement of the native peoples due to invasions and wars in the political tinderbox that is the Middle East.
Here is a classic case of different groups of people with different religious backgrounds and ethnicities (Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims) who are are fighting each other for what they both claim is their homeland. There is no easy solution especially when religious beliefs frame and even define the crux of the conflict.
Faith which is a central foundation of any religious belief does not conform to any rational or logical reasoning or line of argument. In short, faith dictates that followers of any religion, take the leap of faith and do not question the main tenets of their religious beliefs. What’s more – these religious beliefs have been in practice for thousands of years and many thousands of lives have been lost in the defence of these beliefs. It is naive and dare I say, wishful thinking, to dismiss these beliefs with purely intellectual salvoes.
Let’s switch the microscope to Singapore. In the past couple of weeks we have witnessed the country splitting effectively into 2 camps in the aftermath of the National Library Board’s (NLB) decision to “pulp” 3 children’s books which contain narratives pertaining to alternative or non-traditional family structures centred around same sex parents/partners.
After vociferous protests from both the LGBT quarters and people who are not gay or pro-LGBT but just pro-books, the Singapore Minister for Communication and Information, Mr Yaacob Ibrahim, overturned the original NLB decision to pulp the children’s books and directed NLB to place 2 of the children’s titles in the adult’s section.
Placing the books (And Tango Makes Three and The Swan Express) in the adults section gives the opportunity for parents to exercise discretion in allowing their children to read the books under their supervision. This was seen as a better solution to directly “pulping” the books which is tantamount to censorship.
This “middle ground” decision, however, did not find favour with some members of the pro-family camp which was quick to express its disappointment that the LGBT movement appeared to have made a small inroad in its quest to being part of Singapore’s mainstream culture.
But where is this pro-family camp’s anger and disappointment coming from? Could it be because this camp believes, as do many Singaporeans, that the traditional family structure is the basic building block of our society and is the cornerstone of Singapore’s growth as a strong and prosperous society? Wasn’t the traditional family structure put forward as part of our national value system which all Singaporeans should strive to uphold? Or have things changed so much that we have to review our national value system?
Whatever it is, I believe Singaporeans have to deal with issues such as this in a calm, sensible and inclusive manner while respecting our fellow Singaporeans, no matter what their beliefs and value systems are.
Noone can change the fact that s/he is of a particular race or religious background. These irrefutable facts about a person do frame how one thinks about issues especially those pertaining to morals, value systems and lifestyles. And no person should have to apologise for the way s/he leads his/her life according to his/her beliefs and value systems.
My National Day wish for Singapore is for us to arrive at a consensus on how we resolve conflicts, to design a framework to discuss and debate issues and settle competing and diverse needs in a rational and sensible manner. We need to make space for more middle ground. We need to create more room and time for common space. We should be a nation with an insatiable appetite to find things that unite us and are common to all of us and in time, we will be able to create a mountain of commonalities which will dwarf the things that divide us. Majulah Singapura!
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