HAVING CONVERSATIONS WHEN THE HEAT RUNS HIGH
As Chair of REACH, Senior Minister of State Tan Kiat How said at the Singapore Perspectives conference in January: "If we do not talk about differences, friction will escalate." The key word is talk – talking to, not past each other, and without assuming the worst about the other.
This is how social capital is built. At the same conference, IPS Director Janadas Devan spoke of the "retreat into insularity" we are witnessing everywhere: the reluctance to trust or interact with anyone different from ourselves.
The consensus conference was a small act of resistance against that retreat. As Mr Devan reminded us, "No person, no group, no nation even, can exist other than in a web of relationships." For four weekends, 24 people chose to stay in that web together.
Singapore is not yet polarised the way some other societies are. That is the fruit of decades of patient and quiet work of institution-building, of a shared commitment to keep talking even when it is hard.
The question is whether we continue to strengthen that foundation, especially on topics where the heat runs high. This pilot suggests we can.
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