case study of a moral issue in singapore

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Commentary commentary

Commentary: On homosexuality and cohabitation - differences on moral issues need not lead to polarised society

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commentary Commentary

Whether differences in opinion on issues of morality will lead to a fragmented and feuding society is something we can guard against, say the Institute of Policy Studies’ Mathew Mathews and Leonard Lim.

A woman holds a rainbow flag at the Pink Dot rally, Singapore's annual gay pride rally, at a park in Singapore July 1, 2017. (Photo: REUTERS/Darren Whiteside)

Mathew Mathews

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans remain generally conservative on issues of morality, as a recent Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) paper on Religion, Morality and Conservatism reported.

This was based on a comparison of results from the 2013 and 2018 waves of the IPS Survey of Race, Religion and Language.

There remains strong opposition to extra-marital sex (81.2 per cent felt this was wrong in 2018, compared to 81.4 per cent in 2013), having a child out of wedlock (64.9 per cent vs. 73.5 per cent) and gambling (74.4 per cent vs. 70.1 per cent).

Still, this 2018 edition (which polled over 4,000 Singapore residents) showed significant shifts in social norms on some issues over the last five years. 

These include pre-marital sex (45.4 per cent felt this was wrong in 2018, down from 58.2 per cent in 2013) and cohabitation (36.1 per cent, down from 46.5 per cent).

Singaporeans were also more liberal towards homosexuality issues. Slightly more than 20 per cent of those polled last year said gay sex was not wrong at all, or not wrong most of the time, up from about 10 per cent of those polled in 2013. About 27 per cent felt the same way about gay marriage, up from 15 per cent in 2013. 

The differences were particularly stark among the young, suggesting that this shift may persist with time. Half of those aged between 18 and 25 felt gay sex was not wrong at all or not wrong most of the time in 2018, up from less than 20 per cent five years before.

Perhaps as a consequence of moves to champion gay rights in many countries, in Singapore, rather than abortion, cohabitation or pre-marital sex, public discussion in recent years has been dominated by this particular subset of moral issues.

The annual Pink Dot event is the most visible of attempts to highlight gay concerns here. It has for a decade attracted large crowds with its tagline that celebrates individuals’ freedom to love.

However, the vocal LGBT community and its advocates have also drawn out an equally conservative segment, led by religious groups who believe that liberalising laws on homosexuality is not good for society.

This wave of our study found that Christians and Muslims over the age of 55 chose stronger positions when compared to the 2013 wave, which also surveyed over 4,000 respondents. For instance, 84.6 per cent of Muslims in this age bracket felt homosexual sex was always or almost always wrong in 2018, compared to about 73 per cent in 2013.

EMERGING DIVERGENCE OF VIEWS AND THE STATE’S ROLE

It is clear that there is growing divergence in views on moral issues based on individuals’ age, religious affiliations and backgrounds. Whether this will lead to a polarised, fragmented and feuding society is something we can guard against.

Singaporeans greatly value social cohesion and stability. That is why many have accepted intrusive government policies in areas such as race, religion and language which have been fault lines in our multi-cultural and diverse society. So this divergence, and how it is sometimes played out in public with petitions, can be disconcerting.

Recent examples in Singapore, many of which relate to homosexual rights, highlight this divide. They include dueling petitions when Adam Lambert was invited to headline a 2016 New Year’s Eve concert in Marina Bay. Pink Dot has also attracted substantial concerns from conservatives.

LGBT advocates have also tried to silence religious conservatives who take a strong stance against homosexuality. These range from calls to ban church pastor Lawrence Khong from performing a magic show in Ikea in 2015, to condemning the European Union when it invited law professor Thio Li-ann to speak at a human rights seminar in Singapore in 2014.

In private (and sometimes this is vocalised in the public sphere), both LGBT rights advocates and religious conservatives would prefer that authorities manage the other side and persuade them to stop promoting their agenda or impose their views on others.

But society will not benefit if authorities prevent either side from using legitimate methods to discuss the strength of its opinion. These issues will remain important matters to one’s identity, and it is to be expected that some will want to persuade others to see an issue from their point of view.

This, however, does not preclude us from trying to establish certain norms to preserve a common space so that we can continue to live peacefully despite our differences. We should also bear in mind that identity politics can be a zero-sum contest that has hardened faultlines and fractured other societies.

HOW CITIZENS AND OTHERS CAN PRESERVE COMMON SPACES

First, we should not allow either side to dominate the debate when it comes to issues of morality, which can be deeply emotional and difficult to back down from.

Importantly, we should also avoid having religious groups to form distinct blocs lobbying for or against policy moves, for instance in areas related to having a child out of wedlock, or gay rights.

Singapore is much more diverse religiously than other countries, and there are sizeable portions which may coalesce into blocs along religious lines.

Second, we must decide on rules of engagement. This involves articulating and acknowledging what is civil and mature behaviour in our context. There should be no place for disrespectful name-calling, knee-jerk tit-for-tat moves to prove how sizeable a certain camp may be, or disruptive campaigns that veer into strident activism.  

Those in other societies, especially liberal democracies with a vastly different political culture, operate with a different set of norms. But using or adapting their antagonistic methods of engagement – which may include social mobilisation and concerted campaigns - might not guarantee the type of stability the vast majority of Singaporeans cherish and desire.

Finally, we should stress overriding goals that Singapore society holds dearly, and how some of the debates and considerations should seek to address those goals.

One goal must be that national unity is paramount, and that holding on to strongly held opinions should not translate into excluding others from our social circles or speaking to them disrespectfully.

Another goal has been the importance of family and the welfare of children. Unlike many developed societies, the great majority of the young in Singapore continue to aspire towards marriage and parenthood.

READ: Want more babies? Help couples build stronger marriages first, a commentary

Any consensus on, for instance, gay rights issues and having a child out of wedlock, will be influenced by how the principles towards family and what constitutes a traditional family unit play out.

The years ahead will, if present trends continue, likely see increased contestation in the public sphere. But we are optimistic that the majority of citizens remain mindful that in Singapore, thumping hard on the door to advocate an issue is generally less productive than a more patient, non-confrontational approach.

Dr Mathew Mathews is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies and Head of IPS Social Lab. Leonard Lim is Research Associate at the Institute of Policy Studies.

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Moral education in a plural society: A singapore case study

• Published: June 1980
• Volume 26 , pages 171–185, ( 1980 )

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• S. Gopinathan  

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Conclusions

When one looks at the discussion of moral education issues in Singapore today, one cannot fail to be struck by the urgency and earnestness which characterize the debate. In common with many other Asian nations aiming at stability and growth without losing “national character”, Singapore too places great faith in the education system. Unlike other countries, however, which are fortunate in having a homogeneous cultural tradition, the complexities of managing moral education in a plural context bedevil Singapore's educators. The very richness of the cultural tradition here imposes the task of selection, and subsequent justification, of the core values to be taught; both the values and the manner of teaching, touching as the latter does upon the school's relationships with the home and, in particular, religious institutions, come under close scrutiny. In addition there is the need to win the benefits of modernization and to implant notions of loyalty and sacrifice while retaining the best virtues of the migrant mentality. The challenges, then, are formidable, but the judgement on current efforts in moral education must be that it is an inadequate response. The authorities seem unable to utilize in full measure the potential of a rich and varied cultural tradition to enrich moral education in the nation's schools. The over-riding concern to ensure political stability, and the need to be sensitive to ethnic sensibilities, have produced a cautious reliance on generalities —when the need, given the youthful nature of the population and the uncertainties of life in the latter half of the twentieth century, is surely for a more forthright acceptance of the challenge. A re-assessment of current moral education ventures is necessary but a useful one will have to await greater clarity in the analysis of Singapore culture and its goals.

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Gopinathan, S. Moral education in a plural society: A singapore case study. Int Rev Educ 26 , 171–185 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01433586

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The Hastings Center

Bioethics Forum Essay

Singapore case notes: in the community, who is ethics education for.

For previous posts on the Singapore Casebook project, a collaboration among the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the National University of Singapore, The Hastings Center, and the Ethox Centre at the University of Oxford, see here and here .The first edition of this public, web-based casebook, “Making Difficult Decisions with Patients and Families,” was published in 2014. The second edition, “Care Transitions in Aging Societies,” will be published in 2017.

In February, our team held six workshops with Singaporean health care professionals to discuss the cases we’d developed, based on discussions during earlier visits, to illustrate common ethical challenges in the care of aging, often frail or chronically ill people in Singapore. Piloting workshops is always exciting, because we get to see what real people make of our fictional characters and situations. Do they seem “realistic” as well as “typical”?

One case is structured as a dialogue between an elderly woman determined to live independently despite deteriorating health and a case worker who is trying to figure out whether he should support his client’s choices or try to change her behavior. This case prompted participants in several workshops to ask the same question: What language are these people speaking? The characters’ names were Chinese – but would a young case worker speak the same dialect as a client who is 50 or 60 years his senior? Or should we imagine that the elderly woman had attended English schools as a child and was accustomed to speaking British-influenced English? Or did they both speak Singlish ? Would the case worker call his client “ ah po ” (Grandma)? Or “Auntie,” the Singlish equivalent for addressing an elder in a friendly yet respectful way?

As we worked with our local colleagues to fine-tune the case narratives and get small, meaningful, local details right, we gained fresh insights into how members of different health care professions perceived our project’s goal. The first edition of the Singapore Casebook focused on medical decision-making and on doctors as moral agents. The second edition, with its broader focus on ethical challenges arising in an aging society, explores situations that involve illness and aging, therefore health, but not necessarily health care.

In Singapore, engagement with the ethical challenges of care and care work– arising for leaders and staff in community-based organizations or in collaborations with health care professionals, families, and foreign domestic workers– is new.  Singapore is home to many pilot programs in health care delivery for its aging population, but resources remain centered in hospitals or are allotted through care transitions originating in the hospital. The ethics of providing and receiving care “in the community” – to a frail or chronically ill person living at home, in a family member’s home, or in a nursing home – is a new area for bioethics here. Case-based ethics education, as a way of reflecting on and strengthening practice, is more familiar to physicians than to social workers and nurses, and may be unfamiliar to case workers, program administrators, and others. As our focus broadens from clinical and professional ethics, to organizational and social ethics, we ourselves are reflecting on how to adapt teaching and learning tools so they are useful and appealing to broader audiences.

This project is also raising intriguing questions about how to use realistic fictional narratives to help people new to ethics see and reflect on the moral dimensions of their daily work. For example, at what point does a person, by accepting a neighborly offer of help, become a client receiving “community care,” and object of scrutiny? As we imagined that fictional, realistic encounter between an old lady who is trying to live her life and an earnest, imperfect young case worker who is trying to do the right thing, we first had to imagine how these two people found each other. The “bedside” encounter is easy to see. Imagining the effort to keep things as they have been at home, as an aging person’s health changes, as a caregiver’s patience frays, is more difficult.  Considering how and why to support ethics teaching and learning in the community, close to the lives of aging people, is an ongoing question for our project team, and for health care ethics in aging societies.

Nancy Berlinger is a research scholar at The Hastings Center. Michael K. Gusmano is a research scholar at The Hastings Center and an associate professor of health policy in Rutgers University School of Public Health. Jacqueline Chin is an associate professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics of the Yong Loo Lin Medical School at the National University of Singapore. Michael Dunn is director of undergraduate medical ethics and law education at the Ethox Centre of the University of Oxford. The Singapore Casebook Project: Care Transitions is directed by Jacqueline Chin and is funded by the Lien Foundation.

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Case Study From Singapore: Inspiring the Next Generation of Leaders to Prioritize Well-Being

• Published: November 2020
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Introduction

In the decades since Singapore’s independence in 1965, the nation has transformed from one facing basic challenges related to sanitation and disease prevention, to a world-class economy and a gold standard for health care. Factors that contribute to this trajectory include a stable government with a long-term vision of how Singapore should grow economically, guided by a high-level Economic Review Panel of global and local business leaders, international and local academics, and political officeholders. This group meets periodically to chart the direction of Singapore’s economic growth by projecting two to three decades into the future.

While this approach has brought tremendous gains for the country and its people, an unintended consequence of this economics-first approach has been the reinforcement of values and narratives that equate financial wealth with success . And while health has improved across a range of indicators in the process, it nevertheless remains a distant second as a values driver in both national decision-making and in the choices Singaporeans make daily. In many instances, young working adults often pursue wealth at the expense of their health, not recognizing that their current unhealthy lifestyle will result in chronic diseases as they age.

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Ethics and Morality

Morality, Ethics, Evil, Greed

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

To put it simply, ethics represents the moral code that guides a person’s choices and behaviors throughout their life. The idea of a moral code extends beyond the individual to include what is determined to be right, and wrong, for a community or society at large.

Ethics is concerned with rights, responsibilities, use of language, what it means to live an ethical life, and how people make moral decisions. We may think of moralizing as an intellectual exercise, but more frequently it's an attempt to make sense of our gut instincts and reactions. It's a subjective concept, and many people have strong and stubborn beliefs about what's right and wrong that can place them in direct contrast to the moral beliefs of others. Yet even though morals may vary from person to person, religion to religion, and culture to culture, many have been found to be universal, stemming from basic human emotions.

• The Science of Being Virtuous
• Understanding Amorality
• The Stages of Moral Development

Those who are considered morally good are said to be virtuous, holding themselves to high ethical standards, while those viewed as morally bad are thought of as wicked, sinful, or even criminal. Morality was a key concern of Aristotle, who first studied questions such as “What is moral responsibility?” and “What does it take for a human being to be virtuous?”

We used to think that people are born with a blank slate, but research has shown that people have an innate sense of morality . Of course, parents and the greater society can certainly nurture and develop morality and ethics in children.

Humans are ethical and moral regardless of religion and God. People are not fundamentally good nor are they fundamentally evil. However, a Pew study found that atheists are much less likely than theists to believe that there are "absolute standards of right and wrong." In effect, atheism does not undermine morality, but the atheist’s conception of morality may depart from that of the traditional theist.

Animals are like humans—and humans are animals, after all. Many studies have been conducted across animal species, and more than 90 percent of their behavior is what can be identified as “prosocial” or positive. Plus, you won’t find mass warfare in animals as you do in humans. Hence, in a way, you can say that animals are more moral than humans.

The examination of moral psychology involves the study of moral philosophy but the field is more concerned with how a person comes to make a right or wrong decision, rather than what sort of decisions he or she should have made. Character, reasoning, responsibility, and altruism , among other areas, also come into play, as does the development of morality.

The seven deadly sins were first enumerated in the sixth century by Pope Gregory I, and represent the sweep of immoral behavior. Also known as the cardinal sins or seven deadly vices, they are vanity, jealousy , anger , laziness, greed, gluttony, and lust. People who demonstrate these immoral behaviors are often said to be flawed in character. Some modern thinkers suggest that virtue often disguises a hidden vice; it just depends on where we tip the scale .

An amoral person has no sense of, or care for, what is right or wrong. There is no regard for either morality or immorality. Conversely, an immoral person knows the difference, yet he does the wrong thing, regardless. The amoral politician, for example, has no conscience and makes choices based on his own personal needs; he is oblivious to whether his actions are right or wrong.

One could argue that the actions of Wells Fargo, for example, were amoral if the bank had no sense of right or wrong. In the 2016 fraud scandal, the bank created fraudulent savings and checking accounts for millions of clients, unbeknownst to them. Of course, if the bank knew what it was doing all along, then the scandal would be labeled immoral.

Everyone tells white lies to a degree, and often the lie is done for the greater good. But the idea that a small percentage of people tell the lion’s share of lies is the Pareto principle, the law of the vital few. It is 20 percent of the population that accounts for 80 percent of a behavior.

We do know what is right from wrong . If you harm and injure another person, that is wrong. However, what is right for one person, may well be wrong for another. A good example of this dichotomy is the religious conservative who thinks that a woman’s right to her body is morally wrong. In this case, one’s ethics are based on one’s values; and the moral divide between values can be vast.

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg established his stages of moral development in 1958. This framework has led to current research into moral psychology. Kohlberg's work addresses the process of how we think of right and wrong and is based on Jean Piaget's theory of moral judgment for children. His stages include pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional, and what we learn in one stage is integrated into the subsequent stages.

The pre-conventional stage is driven by obedience and punishment . This is a child's view of what is right or wrong. Examples of this thinking: “I hit my brother and I received a time-out.” “How can I avoid punishment?” “What's in it for me?” 

The conventional stage is when we accept societal views on rights and wrongs. In this stage people follow rules with a  good boy  and nice girl  orientation. An example of this thinking: “Do it for me.” This stage also includes law-and-order morality: “Do your duty.”

The post-conventional stage is more abstract: “Your right and wrong is not my right and wrong.” This stage goes beyond social norms and an individual develops his own moral compass, sticking to personal principles of what is ethical or not.

For beauty, we paint our faces, starve ourselves to the bone, feel the burn, suck out our fat, freeze our faces, cut into our skin, and place foreign bodies into our skin.

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