Walking the Tightrope: Civil Society and the Singapore State

Speaker: Suzaina Kadir, Assistant Professor, Political Science, National University of Singapore

Consider the paradox: Singapore's economy is well developed, yet civil society in the city-state has

failed to generate significant pressure for greater openness and more democracy. Nor does Singapore

appear to have been affected by the "Third Wave" of democratization that has swept other parts of the

world. Scholars have tried to account for the conundrum by noting the deterrent effect of extensive

state power, including the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for detention without trial. The state

in Singapore has been likened to a large banyan tree whose omnipresent foliage casts shadows so wide

and deep that no other organisms can take root or grow.

In her talk, Prof. Kadir will challenge this explanation as overdrawn. She will question the extent to

which the Sinagpore state has remained immune from societal pressures, and explore the increasingly

complex dynamics of society-state interaction. Based on a review of different civil-society actors and

actions, she will highlight two modes in which social groups are proactive toward the state: by engaging it

through interest advocacy, and by resisting it through efforts to protect their own autonomous space. The

conventional wisdom is partly correct: Civil society does suffer the stunting shadows of the banyan tree.

Yet social pressures are being felt. Ironically, some of these pressures, far from undermining the state,

have helped it to remain strong.

Suziana Kadir, currently a fellow at the Asia Research Institute in Singapore, is writing a book on state

power and religious authority in Indonesia.