PM TOUTS GOVERNMENT'S COMPETENCE, WARNS OF

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SINGAPORE 000776 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS - M. COPPOLA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ECON SN SUBJECT: PM TOUTS GOVERNMENT'S COMPETENCE, WARNS OF RELIGIOUS DISCORD IN ANNUAL SPEECH REF: A. SINGAPORE 671 ¶B. SINGAPORE 80 ¶C. SINGAPORE 563 ¶D. SINGAPORE 460 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered his annual National Day Rally speech, Singapore's equivalent of the U.S. State of the Union address, on the evening of August 16. He asserted that government policies have cushioned Singapore against job losses but predicted a "subdued" recovery from the economic crisis. On health care, the PM addressed fears about Singapore's ability to cope with an aging population. He then highlighted Singapore's racial and religious fault lines and laid down ground rules defining a limited place for religion in public life. Finally, the PM celebrated the ruling party's physical transformation of Singapore over the last 50 years and previewed the opening of new casino resorts next year. Public reaction to the speech split along familiar lines. Many people posted approving comments on the government's feedback website, but critical bloggers tore into the speech, while opposition parties largely ignored it. End Summary. Prime Minister Delivers Annual "State of Singapore" Speech -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered his annual National Day Rally speech, Singapore's equivalent of the U.S. State of the Union address, to an invited audience on the evening of August 16. He gave three versions, in Mandarin, Malay, and English. The speech reached a wider public by telecast and webcast, and through extensive reporting in the next day's government-linked print media. Delivered in the casual, colloquial style that is traditional for this speech, the PM focused on four major themes: the economy, health care, racial and religious harmony, and drawing inspiration for Singapore's future from its achievements over the past five decades. He did not discuss foreign policy, terrorism, or the recently controversial topic of Singapore's immigration policy, and he mentioned environmental and education issues only in passing. The Economy: "We Can Be Confident of Our Future" -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) Leading with the economy, the PM drove home the message that the situation has stabilized and growth is resuming. Briefly acknowledging that Singapore's economy 
shrank by 6.5 percent in the first half of 2009 (Ref A),the PM forecast third-quarter growth and an uncertain long-term outlook in the context of a "subdued" global recovery. Singapore will be able to grow even during a slow recovery, he said, thanks to the competitiveness of local companies, successful development of new sectors like electronic gaming and animation, the Economic Development Board's continuing success in attracting investment by multinational companies, and government spending to upgrade and retrain the labor force. ¶4. (U) The PM claimed success for the Government's job-protection policies, which were announced in January as a "Resilience Package" to be paid for partly by tapping into the country's vaunted reserves (Ref B). Singapore's labor situation has stabilized, and "there is no need for a new prescription now," he said. The Government will review its policies by the end of the year and decide whether any new economic initiatives are needed for 2010. At the same time, the PM cautioned that there may be further job losses while the recovery takes hold. He presented even this threat as a growth opportunity, using the example of computer peripherals manufacturer Seagate's recently announced disk drive assembly plant closure: Singapore will replace the lost jobs, the PM claimed, with higher-value jobs. Health Care: Preparing for an Aging Population -------------- -- ¶5. (U) Turning to health care, the PM focused on the Government's preparations to deliver adequate care to an aging population at a sustainable cost. He lauded Singapore's existing health care system, which he said makes high-quality care affordable to all Singaporeans, including those with low incomes. Some of his praise for Singapore came at the expense of health care systems in the United States and United Kingdom, which he said deliver worse outcomes at far higher cost. To prepare for Singapore's projected demographic changes, the PM announced plans for a network in which acute care hospitals will deliver high-value care and then shift patients seamlessly into more SINGAPORE 00000776 002 OF 003 cost-effective follow-up institutions such as community hospitals, therapy centers, and nursing homes. Influenza A(H1N1): "The Whole of Singapore Responded" -------------- -------------- ¶6. (U) Touching briefly on the H1N1 influenza outbreak, the PM implicitly answered critics who have claimed that the Government overreacted. He justified the early use of temperature scanning and home quarantines by emphasizing the uncertainty that prevailed as to the flu's lethality and susceptibility to treatment. When it became clear that H1N1 was less dangerous than the SARS virus of 2003, the Government shifted its focus to delaying community spread, he said. The PM thanked the medical professionals and others who contributed to that effort, which he pronounced successful. Religion the "Most Visceral and Dangerous Fault Line" -------------- -------------- ¶7. (U) The PM identified "social cohesion" as a critical factor in Singapore's long-term success. Against a backdrop of rising religiosity throughout the world, he said, the "most visceral and dangerous fault line" in Singapore society is race and religion. (Comment: In Singapore, where nearly all Malays are Muslim, over half of ethnic Indians are Hindu, and most ethnic Chinese are Buddhist, Taoist, or Christian, "race" and "religion" are not entirely distinct classifications. End comment.) He noted three principal dangers arising from this source: aggressive proselytizing, religious intolerance, and self-segregation. As an example of dangerous proselytizing, the PM pointed to the recent convictions of two Protestant Christian Singaporeans for sedition for distributing pamphlets offensive to some Muslims and Catholics (Ref C). The Public Square Must Remain Secular -------------- ¶8. (U) Admonitions about religious harmony are commonly heard from Singapore's leaders, but in his National Day Rally speech the PM broke new ground by prescribing four "basic rules" to govern the place of religion in Singapore's public life. First, racial and religious groups must exercise tolerance, and "rules which apply only to one group cannot be made into laws that apply to everyone." Second, religion must be separate from politics. Singapore, said the PM, cannot be like the United States, where religious groups exercise strong influence on the major political parties. Likewise, members of Singapore's Parliament must not use their churches or religious groups to mobilize electoral support. Third, the Government must be secular, and public policy must be based on "secular, rational considerations of public interest." Finally, Singaporeans' "common space" - notably schools and workplaces - must accommodate members of all religions. ¶9. (U) When religion strays beyond these boundaries, the PM said, it threatens the fabric of Singapore society, as shown by the recent leadership struggle between Christian and secular factions in the women's NGO AWARE (Ref D). As the PM characterized it, "this was an attempt by a religiously motivated group, who shared a strong religious fervor, to enter civil space, take over an NGO it disapproved of, and impose their agenda." Although the Government did not intervene in the contest, the PM said he spoke to religious leaders afterward - and to Christian leaders twice - to enlist their aid in preventing similar controversies. ¶10. (U) Despite the announced restrictions on religion's public role, the PM denied that the Government is hostile to religion. On the contrary, he declared, "Religion is a positive force in human societies." For emphasis, he gestured to the leaders of Singapore's major religious groups, whom he had invited to attend the speech. They sat in the front row, highly visible in full regalia every time the television cameras turned toward the audience. Celebrating the PAP's 50-Year Transformation of Singapore -------------- -------------- ¶11. (U) Ending on a celebratory note, the PM reviewed Singapore's physical transformation over the 50 years since self-government began in 1959. Using "then and now" photographs, the PM touted the city-state's progress in areas including housing, sanitation, the armed forces, education, and public transport. Unlike the other parts of the speech, in this portion the PM repeatedly mentioned the ruling SINGAPORE 00000776 003 OF 003 People's Action Party (PAP) by name - noting, for example, that "the PAP was determined to move the people out of the slums into proper housing." The speech concluded with an elaborate computer-generated "fly-by" showing the projected completion of Singapore's new Marina Bay casino resorts and surrounding developments. Public Reaction: Many Approving Comments, Some Raspberries -------------- -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Public reaction to the National Day Rally speech divided along predictable lines. Many people posted approving or congratulatory comments on the Government's web portal, REACH, or on the Straits Times website. Bloggers who normally criticize the Government wasted no time attacking the PM. Some noted that the PM did not use his speech to announce any political reforms, as he has in past years. Others complained that he dwelled on issues that, they said, most Singaporeans do not see as urgent (such as religious harmony) while avoiding others that do worry them (such as the need to compete against "foreign talent" for jobs, or Singapore's high level of income inequality). Frequent blogger "Mr. Wang" dismissed the PM's remarks about religious harmony as sounding like "the nation-building chapters of my Primary 3 Chinese language textbook, many, many years ago." The "Temasek Review" blog mocked the notion that debates like the one over AWARE pose any threat to Singapore's stability. Meanwhile, opposition political parties mainly ignored the PM's speech, trying instead to publicize their respective platforms with their own National Day speeches and blog posts. Visit Embassy Singapore's Classified website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eap/singapore/ind ex.cfm SHIELDS