What role do you think religion has to play in the public sphere in Singapore? Justify your stand.

i feel that although religion should not be playing a pig part in the public sphere. however, it is necessary that religion has to be involved in public sphere, and it must appeal to secular arguments.

since Singapore is a multi-racial country, religion would have to play a part in the public sphere, in one way or another. as said by Devan : "but in some respects, singapore is less strictly secular. the state helps to fund mosque building, and mission schools, for instance. suh compromises, can reassure the malays. especially after the seperation;or from the pragmatic public policy considerations."
thus i feel that religion would have to be involved in the public sphere, because we should not be so rigid in our policy making. sometime, we would have to compromise to those other religions, to ensure there would be peace in the country. for example, in singapore, where our ministers make an effort to attend religious celebrations like hari raya, vesak day, deepavali. this shows how religion does have a part to play in the public sphere.

however, as Chua says, "in other words, religion may influence your viewpoint, but when arguing your case in the political arena, you need to present arguments understandable, and accpetable to those of different faiths" thus i feel that religion cannot have every part to play in the public sphere. if it does, which religion should the political arena follow? it will not ever be possible, for the political arena to cater to every religion since all religion are not the same.

thus n conclusion, religion would have to play a part in the publi sphere but not a very big part.