Sticks, Carrots, and Attraction:
Singapore's Experience in Promoting Religious 'Moderation' in a Post-9/11 Era'

by

Eugene Tan '95
Singapore Management University

Thursday 19th October, 12 noon
Lee Sheridan Conference Room


Synopsis

Islamist attacks in Madrid and London have since brought increased urgency to the question of how to contain or moderate Islamic radicalism among a local minority of Muslims, many of whom are citizens of the country in which they carry out terrorist attacks. Singapore's response to terrorism post September 11, 2006 and to the arrests of Jemaah Islamiyah suspected terrorists has been grounded by the quest at developing social cohesion and national resilience against terrorism. Indeed, having declared itself an 'iconic target,' Singapore is gearing itself for the impact of a terrorist attack on its social fabric.

The focus of the state's efforts has been at reaching out to the moderate mainstream Muslims as a bulwark against the fraying of harmonious ethnic relations. But the nature and impact of a terrorist attack or of religious radicalism requires that efforts towards social cohesion and resilience must extend towards society at large.

In this seminar, Eugene Tan examines the broad-based endeavour towards 'religious moderation' within Singapore's multiracial and multireligious society. These include using coercive means and hard law against extremists and radicals ('sticks'), incentives for 'moderate' behaviour and attitudes, inter-religious dialogue and community efforts ('carrots'), and the mobilization of soft law, aspirational norms and values, and foreign policy ('attraction').


About the Speaker

Eugene Tan is an assistant professor of law at the Singapore Management University where he teaches the university core curriculum course in Ethics and Social Responsibility. He is also an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore. Eugene is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore, the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK), and Stanford University (USA) where he was a Fulbright Fellow. His inter-disciplinary research interests include the mutual interaction of law and public policy with particular reference to ethnic conflict regulation. He has published in internationally-refereed journals such as The Australian Journal of Asian Law, The China Quarterly, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Ethnopolitics, Hong Kong Law Journal, and Journal of Asian Business. Eugene is also a keen observer of Singapore politics and government and commented actively in the local media on Singapore’s May 2006 general elections