More feel greater govt role in race, religion issues is needed: IPS survey

These issues are seen as most volatile fault lines, with more potential to trigger unrest

- Ng Keng Gene

More Singapore residents felt in 2024 that there should be greater government involvement in managing issues of race and religion, compared with six years ago.

An Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) report released on Feb 4 said that in contrast, a smaller proportion felt there should be greater government involvement in the areas of immigration, socio-economic class differences and LGBT issues.

The IPS survey conducted in 2024 found that among those polled, race and religion were seen as the most volatile societal fault lines, with a greater potential to trigger unrest.

The IPS paper, which presents findings on public perceptions of societal fault lines in Singapore and how they are managed, comes as Parliament on Feb 4 debated the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill that seeks to consolidate and strengthen the Government's powers to maintain racial harmony in Singapore.

About 30.5 per cent of the respondents said there should be more government involvement in race issues, compared with 27.3 per cent in 2018. As for religious issues, 28.4 per cent of those polled felt government involvement was needed, compared with 23.2 per cent in 2018.

The 2024 survey, conducted from April to August, involved a nationally representative sample of 4,000 Singapore residents.

The findings build on data gathered in a 2018 survey, which had 4,015 respondents, and detailed public sentiment on five issues: race, religion, immigration, socioeconomic status and LGBT issues.

The latest survey found that Chinese respondents were more likely to feel that the current level of government involvement with race issues should stay the same (66.9 per cent). Just over half of the Malay, Indian and Other respondents felt this way.