Conservative Government and Support for the Religious Institution in Singapore: An Uneasy Alliance

Abstract

During the 1 980s various conservative governments tried to strengthen the public role of religion. This is understandable, given that there are affinities between political conservatism and religion. The argument developed in this paper is that when conservatives act in support of religion unforeseen problems develop that lead the conservatives to withdraw their support. The case of Singapore is considered in detail. In 1982, a conservative government passed a law requiring all secondary students to study a religion; in 1989, the same government effectively terminated the religious studies program. The reasons for this change of heart are analyzed. The article concludes with a discussion of which reasons may be peculiar to Singapore or Chinese societies generally and which reasons are likely to trouble any conservative government. During the 1980s conservative political parties in control of governments sought to strengthen the social role of religion. In the United States, Republican leaders courted the Christian right (Tamney and Johnson, 1987). In England, Thatcher's government passed an educational reform act meant to halt the decline in the prominence of Christianity by requiring, among other things, Christian worship services in most schools (Cox and Cairns, 1989). In Singapore, an avowedly secular government passed a law requiring all secondary students to study a religion. These examples suggest that during the last decade conservative governments welcomed alliances with the religious institution. However, in this article I argue that even conservative governments are not likely to stay with policies that reinforce the public influence of religion. After discussing the nature of political conservatism and its affinities with religion, the