Book Title: Secularism, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Abstract: Religion and religiosity have flourished as Singapore has modernized and industrialized, bucking the secularization thesis originating from the particular context of the post-sacred West. While the government is committed to an anti-theocratic rather than anti-theistic model of secularism, which is pragmatic, not doctrinaire, there are hints of a growing form of militant secularism from sectors of society, which is inimical to democracy and human rights such as religious freedom and free speech. The government has had to devise rules of engagement to deal with the role of religious views in public policy making, particularly given the increasingly confrontational stance adopted by those with religiously and secularly influenced views in the ‘culture wars’ over matters implicating public morality. Formerly authoritarian, the government and style of governance based on the Westminster parliamentary system is in a transitional state, with increasing democratization in the promotion of a more participatory and consensualist political culture.