YOUR VIEW: Recognising non-religious Singaporeans

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Two years ago, a social work volunteer rang up my organisation. A 95-year-old man, she said, had a dying wish to join my humanist group – currently Singapore’s only organisation for non-religious people.

The man, Mr Ang Hock Guan, lived alone and had been non-religious for over 50 years. Unfortunately, hours after becoming our oldest ever member, he passed away.

Like many Singaporeans of the pioneer generation, he died before his stories could be recorded and told. Mr Ang was a young man when Singapore experienced the deadly racial riots of 1964, but lived to see Singapore transform from a Third World to First World country.

As Singapore prepares for its 50th anniversary next year, it is worth remembering that non-religious Singaporeans have a long history on this multi-religious island and gave their fair share to nation building.

Mr Ang was already a free-thinker before Singapore’s independence, although non-religious Singaporeans were not classified as so in the national census until 1980.  While violent tensions existed between religious groups back in the 1960s, Mr Ang was free to be non-religious for most of his life, in a country where more than eight in 10 citizens have a religion.

This is because safeguards were put in place to ensure secularism and the freedom of belief in public spaces such as schools, community centres and Government offices. Housing, healthcare and education policies contain no discrimination on the basis of faith.

Strained family relations

Yet Singaporeans may not be as accepting of their loved ones’ having other religions. A recent Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) survey on race and religion found that while people here were comfortable having bosses, colleagues and neighbours of other religions and being close friends with people from other religions, they were less comfortable when it came to close relatives such as spouses and in-laws.

This can lead to strains in family relations. Those who convert to a new religion for reasons such as marriage or personal conviction are able to find emotional support in new religious communities to tide over painful transitions.

Such transitions can be harder for some Singaporeans who leave their religion when they no longer believe in it and rely on science, evidence and empathy to guide their lives. They are an under-represented group without support from any large network or organisation. Some who become freethinkers face hostile disapproval from religious groups for leaving the religion.

In more extreme cases, their morality is also questioned at workplaces and some are forced to leave home for their refusal to participate in the family's religious activities. Others have to take on pseudonyms to express their feelings. Fearful of strict laws governing criticism of religion, a few are even considering migration.

While their numbers are probably small, it is regrettable some freethinkers have to hide their views to gain social acceptance within their families and communities in Singapore, a multicultural nation which prides itself on inclusiveness.

Part of such hostility stems from a misconception that freethinkers lack moral codes. This is not true. Many freethinkers still share universal human values with the religious, such as the cardinal rule of treating others as one would like others to treat oneself.

Understanding free-thinkers

As Singapore prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, I have two suggestions which can help religious Singaporeans better understand their non-religious countrymen and free them from any existing prejudice.

The first: Stronger recognition for non-religious Singaporeans and their contributions in the national narrative.

Singaporeans have always embraced religious traditions as part of our moral code, heritage and national identity. Religious buildings, monuments and festivals can be seen easily around the country. With no temples, monuments or festivals of their own, freethinkers leave behind only individual memories and ideas for posterity.

For a more holistic narrative, non-religious Singaporeans should be given a stronger mention in school textbooks and local literature, alongside the various modern religions.

My second suggestion: More academic research should be done on non-religious Singaporeans. What do they believe? What motivates them to do their best in life? When they marry or die, what kind of rites do they go through?

Such research will be timely as non-religious people are becoming more common in Singapore. In 2010, they made up 17 per cent of resident population – or about 640,000 Singaporeans. This is up from 13 per cent in 1980 according to the Singapore Census of Population.

Regretfully, we are not able to turn back the clock and listen to Mr Ang share his life experiences.

But there are many more Singaporeans today, like Mr Ang, whose non-religious world view has helped shape our nation over the past 50 years in big and small ways.

Paul Tobin, 53
Engineer

Paul Tobin, together with 11 others, founded the Humanist Society (Singapore), a community of freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and humanists, in 2010.