Civil society is burgeoning in Singapore, but not many Singaporeans bother to show up to talk about it

"WHERE is everybody?" I wondered as I walked into the Guild Hall at Kent Ridge on Monday, a few minutes before the Conference on Developments in Civil Society was due to start.

Other than Dr Ooi Giok Ling, senior research fellow with the Institute of Policy Studies, which organised the forum, no one else remotely related to civil society was in sight. Bad sign.

This was despite the fact that the conference was a follow-up to one two years ago, when the then Information and the Arts Minister George Yeo delivered the keynote address.

Seen widely as an update on his landmark 1991 speech on the importance of civic groups, his remarks at the May 1998 forum signalled to civic groups that their role would grow as the state's monopoly over power declines.

But where were these groups on Monday? Other than a handful of players, a few diplomats and academics, some undergraduates and assorted individuals, few rank and file members from the more well-known civil society groups were there.

This is despite the fact that in the past two years, more young people have been joining groups like The Working Committee, Sintercom, Aware and The Roundtable.

Perhaps it was the timing: 4 pm on a Monday afternoon is not a time when people want to talk about an issue as abstract as "civil society".

Perhaps it was also the fact that there were no big draws among the panelists, who comprised political researchers James Gomez and Leon Perera, artistic director Alvin Tan, and lecturer Kwok Kian Woon.

And with the economy recovering strongly and dot.com fever on the rise, Singaporeans have more profitable things to do than attend the kind of talkfest, which, in the words of Mr Tan, has a tendency to be "just a lot of hot air going round and round".

Dr Kwok quipped: "We should have a 'Not another civil society forum' forum!"

But despite the slow start, the 120 people expected did turn up, and the discussion that followed was decent enough.

Dr Kwok, who also heads the Heritage Society, noted that there was "something about the present historical moment" that was significant.

Noting Singapore's preoccupation with becoming a hub, he said: "A hub is empty at its centre. It is a shell. It's the spokes that make it turn."

He likened its people to the spokes, and said this was why individuals mattered, "even if that sounds suspiciously like something from Singapore 21!"

"There must be a strong sense of social capacity, especially among the young," he urged, adding with a twinkle that these must "by definition be idealistic and foolish enough to spend, or mis-spend, their youth chasing after dreams".

Citing reports in The Straits Times on the "muted" response to architect Tay Kheng Soon's plans for the Bras Basah Park, he noted that there was a climate in Singapore in which people were socialised into being realistic and not fight for lost causes.

"But, every Singaporean matters! Every Singaporean can make a difference!" he said.

He quoted from the James Stewart movie, Mr Smith goes to Washington, in which a simple, honest citizen goes to the American capital to petition the president: "Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for."

He added: "If there is a very strong feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, it can't be very good for Singapore."

Taking up Dr Kwok's point later, Mr Tay Kheng Soon, who was in the audience, noted how in his student days in the 1960s and 1970s, "pressure groups" were frowned upon by the government.

"But today, you have the IPS organising a seminar on the same thing, although it goes by the name of civil society. The winds are changing," he noted.

Agreeing, Mr Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage said the paranoia of the past was past, and today there were clear signs that the government was opening up.

If Singaporeans were not claiming the space, it was for lack of leadership, money and political will, he said.

"When small spaces open up, you dance like mad and try to create utopia in these small spaces," he said.

Mr Leon Perera, who is setting up a market research firm, urged civil society groups to collaborate more.

This, he said, would improve their relationship with the state, because they would have a louder voice.

Economies of scale would also help them deal with the public better, while among themselves, collaboration would bring about synergy and better ideas.

Dr Gillian Koh, an IPS research fellow, asked how civil society groups would react if they had to sit across the table from each other and arrive at common ground on certain issues.

Citing protesters and stone throwers at last year's World Trade Organisation summit in Seattle, she added: "To what extent did civil society organisations embody the civic and democratic ideals they preached, like tolerance, inclusion, non-violence and commitment to the common good?

"The questions are many, but the answers are few... Do we have to leave it to history to decide?" she asked.

We'll have to wait for the third civil society conference for that.

	P21