Electoral Secularism in Singapore: Political Responses to Homosexuality

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the interventionist self-avowed secular state of Singapore, like many non-Western countries, has had to wrestle with the issue of homosexuality and Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual and Bisexual (LGBT) rights. Managing the demands of the conservative elements of society alongside the increasingly vocal liberal factions is a priority for a state whose legitimacy depends, in large part, on maintaining social order. This article makes the following argument. Contrary to what has been suggested by some commentators, the Singaporean state does not have an ideological preference in this matter. As such, it is willing to pander to both the liberal and conservative segments of society, and does so by retaining the anti-homosexuality law (known colloquially as §377A) while promising not to enforce it. This is what I term “electoral secularism”: in cases involving religion whereby the state has no firm predisposition, it attempts to adopt a position that is likely to please as many of its citizens as it can, or at least one that will antagonise as few as possible. The concept of electoral secularism is antithetical to the notion that secularism necessarily and always entails a principled stance of separation between church and state.

KEYWORDS:

• Electoral secularism
• homosexuality
• Singapore
• PAP
• LGBT

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr Michael Buehler from the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, London, for his useful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Notes

1. Massad (2015) critiques the prevalent idea that secularism and Protestantism are necessary for human progress. Other authors (e.g. Bruce, 2004) have argued that Protestantism is conducive to democratisation and promotes higher levels of education.

2. I argue that the banning of foreign donors is due to the state’s wariness of foreign involvement in its domestic affairs, rather than to an aversion to Pink Dot itself, as the other pieces of evidence will demonstrate.

3. An Ustaz is an Islamic teacher.

4. To be sure, I do not make the claim that all individuals who identify themselves as liberals put as much stock into promoting the LGBT cause, and that all conservatives oppose it. Indeed, there are ambivalent persons who may not bother too much about this particular matter.

5. In 2016, the population comprised approximately 74.3 per cent Chinese, 13.4 per cent Malay, 9.1 per cent Indians and 3.2 per cent other ethnic groups (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2017).

6. In 2016, Zulfikar was arrested in an unrelated incident under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for expressing support for terrorist groups, namely Daesh, via his personal Facebook postings.

7. The third had already been disposed of.