RE-INTERPRETING THE GRACIOUS SOCIETY PROJECT

Abstract

Over the past two decades, Singapore has witnessed tremendous economic growth. This has allowed the standard of living of its people to improve by leaps and bounds. However, it was noted that the economic progress was not matched in the social arena. The gracious society project unveiled by PM Goh in 1996, is meant to address this neglect. But is there more to this project than the above officially cited reason? In this thesis, I contend that the project is an instrument to instil a sense of community among Singaporeans as well as to facilitate the growth of a gracious Singaporean identity among the people. Ultimately, these programmes, namely the annual National Courtesy Campaign and the Singapore Kindness Movement are tools to forge a more cohesive nation. In other words, programmes under the gracious society project are tools for the purpose of nation building. The mass media and schools are widely regarded to be agents of socialisation for state-sponsored values in Singapore. This academic exercise thus attempts to make explicit state's initiatives to transcendentalise the populace. A small scale study on the attitudes and potential behaviour of a group of interviewees was conducted. Together, the findings, though not definitive, will provide a fair indication on the progress of achieving a more gracious society.