RELIGIOUS PHILANTHROPY IN A GLOBAL CITY-STATE: A HISTORY OF THE SINGAPORE BUDDHIST FREE CLINIC, 1969–2019

Abstract

Across the history of Singapore, Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) has played an integral role in providing support for the less fortunate in a society which emphasised on self-reliance and a fiercely anti-welfare approach towards their social policies. As of December 2020, religious charities in Singapore numbered 1072 and made up 46.2% of all organisations in the charity sector.1 This thesis traces the institutional history of the Singapore Buddhist Free Clinic (SBFC) from 1969 to 2019. It argues that the key to the success of the SBFC rested on its ability to function as an organisation that identified and actively responded to the gaps in the government social and healthcare policies while using Buddhist principles of compassion as their moral and spiritual backing to raise financial and social support for the organisation. Over these 50 years, the SBFC have established a total of 8 clinics island-wide, providing affordable Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) services to the population. By studying the evolution of the SBFC against the wider context surrounding the government’s social-welfare policies and developments in the healthcare sector, I show that the SBFC’s success rests on 3 factors: (1) its ability to identify and respond to the needs of society which were not met due to gaps in government policy, (2) their use of Buddhist principles to garner social and financial support from the Buddhist community, philanthropists and private corporations, and in their later years (3) their ability to complement the government’s policy of Many Helping Hands. Overall, this thesis hopes to provide a foundation and methodology for future studies of Buddhist and religious philanthropy in Singapore.