ABSTRACT

The worldviews and modalities of governance of Singapore’s political elite, to a large extent, shape the vicissitudes of life of the Republic’s citizens, including its minorityMuslim community. Governing a city-state continuously since 1959, and transformingSingapore into a prosperous cosmopolis, enabled the Peoples’Action Party (PAP) elites to shape the Republic’s nation-building agendas according to its mould and ideological preferences. The imprint of these preferences is more than obvious when one studies the State’s record in managing its multi-religious polity, especially its minority Muslim population, which, in recent years, has evinced an assertive Muslim identity. This latter factor assumes greater significance post-911 when Islam and its adherents have received added attention, if not scrutiny, from many governments.