Conduct and Counter-conduct in the “Nonliberal” State: Singapore’s Headscarf Affairs

Abstract

Identifying forms of conduct and counter-conduct in Singapore speaks to debates about governmentality’s relevance to presumptively “nonliberal” societies. Examining the headscarf affair in Singapore demonstrates the shared utility of governmentality where the governance of religiosity bears similarity to how it plays out in the Anglophone West through the conduct of conduct, manifest within forms of racial and civic conduct. Closer scrutiny further reveals counter-conducts that, while diffuse, subvert and reformulate the conduct of the governed “multiracial” subject. Acts of counter-conduct take verbal, aesthetic and silent forms, reappropriating multiracial norms, reclaiming public space and reasserting a sense of belonging as compatible with Singapore’s multicultural nationalism. Where they reveal failures, suppression and the continuity of governmental power, acts of counter-conducts in Singapore’s headscarf affairs draw attention to new subjectivities and a desire to be other than governed.