POLITICS OF CONSENSUS IN SINGAPORE : THE NATIONAL IDEOLOGY ISSUE

Abstract

This Academic Exercise analyses the People's Action Party (PAP) government's attempts to foster national unity through consensus-building, In this, the recent National Ideology initiative is the focus of the study. While political and social consensus had existed from 1965 to 1981, political consensus started crumbling in the 1980s as a more assertive and pluralistic younger electorate started articulating new demands. Social consensus was also perceived by the PAP as being fragile. In the midst of these developments, the National Ideology initiative was advanced by the PAP leadership in an apparent attempt, if not to forge a new consensus, then certainly to strengthen the one that already exists. The question is "To what extent will the PAP leadership be successful in this?'' The Academic Exercise concludes that because the approach to the National Ideology does not address certain underlying tensions of the body politik, such consensus-building with a purpose to foster national unity has its inherent limitations.