ABSTRACT
A human rights issue is the legal situation affecting persons belonging to sexual minorities in Singapore, where consensual sexual activity between male adults continues to be a crime. The core argument of the Singapore School on human rights and the Singapore government's opposition to sexual minority rights lies in the alleged communi-tarianism/individualism divide in the modes of governance largely inferred from Singapore and Western countries. Constitutional comparativism, provided that it is consistent and principled, has intrinsic values and advantages as a juridical enterprise and engine for thoughtful judicial, and even legislative, decisions with carefully discerned insights and experiences from other jurisdictions. At the heart of the 'shared values' discourse within Singapore and the 'Asian values' debate transnationally, the fundamental question Singaporeans ought to ask is what kind of society they want their country to be, in relation not just to sexual minority rights, but to all aspects of governance.
