IPS Update Issue June 2016

IPS-Nathan Lectures: Bilahari Kausikan on “Can Singapore Cope?”

In his fifth and final IPS-Nathan Lecture last month, Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan examined the extent to which Singapore’s political system, civil service and people are prepared to cope with a more complex global environment with contradictory forces at play. He is not pessimistic about Singapore’s future, he said, but cautioned that we will have to be clinical and hard-headed about what needs to be done.

IPS Corporate Associates Breakfast: Ensuring the Singapore Economy is Future-Ready

What opportunities do the growth of the region and technological advances bring to Singapore, and how are industries and businesses in Singapore preparing themselves for these developments? These and other questions were discussed by Yeoh Keat Chuan, Managing Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board, in the most recent IPS Corporate Associates Breakfast.

Managing Diversity in Singapore: Policies and Prospects

How is Singapore adjusting to new factors affecting the management of diversity here? Is the ideology of multiculturalism being challenged? A new book by IPS Senior Research Fellow Mathew Mathews and former researcher Chiang Wai Fong provides an updated account on the tensions posed by diversity in Singapore, how this is managed by the state through policies and programmes, and how communities have attempted to negotiate these tensions.

Singapore: A Democracy of Deeds and Problem-Solving

The 2016 edition of Commentary, an annual publication by the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS), has just been published. Edited by IPS Deputy Director (Research) Gillian Koh, it trains the spotlight on Singaporeans who have participated at all levels of society to solve problems, effect positive social change, and address the evolving social and cultural needs in Singapore.

Let’s Get off the “Euphemism Treadmill”
By Justin Lee

Society’s constant search for new euphemisms to describe people with disabilities is ultimately pointless, as the problem is not with words but with attitudes. There is no need to whitewash someone’s disability to show them respect. Instead, why not recognise that people have multiple identities, and that their disability is but one of these identities?

Amid Economic Headwinds, New Measures to Build Human Capital
By Faizal Bin Yahya and Wilfred Lau

New policy measures to help Singaporeans build human capital and remain employed amidst cyclical changes and structural demands were introduced in Budget 2016. However, we should also pay attention to reforming the education system, as it is a main mechanism through which the young develop their human capital. 

Why Reading Should be a Compulsory Subject
By Tan Tarn How

Singapore is not a nation of readers, and there have been anecdotes of parents telling their children not to waste time reading. But there are countless benefits to reading. Perhaps a radical idea to make reading a compulsory — and examinable — subject could get more people to pick up the reading habit from a younger age.

A Nudge for Singaporeans to Counter Racial Prejudice
By Mathew Mathews; and

A Speed Bump for Our Multiracial Ideals
By Gillian Koh and Tan Min-Wei

IPS researcher Mathew Mathews believes that a reserved election for minority candidates is worth considering, as part of possible tweaks to the Elected Presidency (EP) system. On the other hand, researchers Gillian Koh and Tan Min-Wei suggest that this would be a step back for multiracialism. Their arguments, made at the public hearings of the Constitutional Commission that is reviewing aspects of the EP, were published in TODAY on 9 June 2016.