Maintaining ethno-religious harmony in Singapore

Kuah, Khun Eng

doi:10.1080/00472339880000061

Cited by 27 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…‘If the distrust becomes deep-rooted, people will have serious doubts about the institutions, about governance,’ the committee claimed (Seow, 2017). Such declarations clearly position fake news as a potential danger to ethno-religious harmony – a value enshrined in the national pledge and deemed as one of the most vital elements of the Singaporean national identity (Kuah, 1998). Similarly in Malaysia, given the country’s history of ethnic and religious conflict over the past decades, social stability and racial harmony are also considered sacrosanct in society (Collins, 1998).…”

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

A cudgel of repression: Analysing state instrumentalisation of the ‘fake news’ label in Southeast Asia

Neo

2020

Journalism

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Fake news has been recognised as a pressing issue by scholars, who have highlighted the destabilising impact it portends in societies. Beyond an understanding of the empirical effects of fake news on democratic institutions that recent scholarship has shed light on, emergent research also points to the potential of fake news being weaponised as a discursive tool to achieve political ends. In that light, this study sets out to analyse the discourses of fake news as advanced by states. Results from a critical discourse analysis of articles relating to fake news ( n = 450) from four countries – Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam – reveal four key findings: first, fake news is being framed as an existential security issue that directly threatens foundational societal values. Second, fake news as an issue is constructed as a new and unprecedented contemporary problem, and compared on equal terms to other security threats such as terrorism, chemical attacks and cyberwarfare. Third, the threat of fake news is used to justify the passing of broad-reaching legislation and curbs on free speech that are construed as aligned with global democratic norms. Lastly, the term is used to facilitate unsubstantiated ‘lying press’ accusations against media outlets. Overall, this study suggests that fake news can be damaging to the quality of democracies not only as a result of its dissemination, but also through the discursive instrumentalisation of the term to curb civil liberties and justify crackdowns.

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Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

A cudgel of repression: Analysing state instrumentalisation of the ‘fake news’ label in Southeast Asia

Neo

2020

Journalism

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“…Similarly reflecting the state's concern with regulating and managing reli gion, a large body of writings has developed on the topic, ranging from con tributions by legal scholars (Thio 2009a), sociologists (Kuah 1998;Hill 1997Hill , 2001Hill , 2004Nasir, Pereira and Turner 2010;Sebastian 2010), anthropologists (Sinha 1999(Sinha , 2003, geographers (Kong 2006b), and political scientists (Ramakrishna 2010). Much of this literature examines the specific legal and policy instmments put in place to regulate and manage the various religions in Singapore.…”

Section: The Production Of Knowledge About Religion In Singaporementioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupting “Asian Religious Studies”: Knowledge (Re)production and the Co-construction of Religion in Singapore

Kong

2015

Numen

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In this article, I begin with the position that knowledge production and reproduction is partial and situated. Through an examination of academic research on and teaching of religion in Singapore, I demonstrate how scholarly interventions at once re-present and conceal religion as experienced and lived. I posit that the partiality of such interven tions is due to the influential official narrative about religion in Singapore, so that what is studied and taught reflects certain dimensions of religious life and religious-secular relations that dominate official discourse. In particular, through academic writing (and to a lesser extent, teaching), religion in Singapore is constructed as a particular mosaic of social, cultural, and political life, socially relevant, culturally rich, spatially mani fested, transnationally linked, politically delicate, and historically steeped. Drawing from this reflection on Singapore, I emphasize the need to recognize the geography, sociology, and politics of knowledge (re)production, and to decenter the notion that there is an emerging "Asian religious studies."Keywords religious studies in Asia -Singapore -local theory -knowledge production Religion is not an a priori category. It is geographically and historically con tingent. The study of religion is similarly contingent, reflective of the social, political, and historical conditions in which such academic study is conducted.

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Propagating Digital Dharma: The Possibilities and Politics of Reinventing Buddhist Meaning in a Digital Age

Shee

2024

Springer International Handbooks of Human Geography

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Maintaining ethno-religious harmony in Singapore

Cited by 27 publications

References 9 publications

A cudgel of repression: Analysing state instrumentalisation of the ‘fake news’ label in Southeast Asia

A cudgel of repression: Analysing state instrumentalisation of the ‘fake news’ label in Southeast Asia

Disrupting “Asian Religious Studies”: Knowledge (Re)production and the Co-construction of Religion in Singapore

Propagating Digital Dharma: The Possibilities and Politics of Reinventing Buddhist Meaning in a Digital Age

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