Interfaith America was invited to help facilitate a Youth Leadership Program breakout session on interfaith dialogue in the workplace. This session was among the most popular, and attendance needed to be capped at around 40 participants to ensure that small-group activities could occur. Attendees discussed the role of negative stereotypes in a variety of work environments from healthcare to education, and workshopped strategies for addressing these challenges such as empowering leaders to advocate for specific work policy changes, and revamping diversity trainings to be more representative of minority communities. I provided examples from my own experiences of educating physicians about religious practices that may affect their patients’ health.
The majority of conference attendees, especially in the Youth Leadership Program, were from member countries of ASEAN (an economic cooperation organization comprising 10 Southeast Asian nations). While the format of the session was similar to workshops at Interfaith America Interfaith Leadership Summits, I found the international perspectives refreshing and informative. Singapore approaches diversity quite differently from many North American and European countries. Although the country is officially secular, many religious institutions work directly with the government in order to set policies. For example, during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, faith leaders collaborated with public health scientists, doctors, and government officials to determine official guidelines for religious services. The government also enforces racial quotas in several areas including housing and education to guarantee representation from ethnic minorities.
As a student of both public policy and healthcare, I find Singapore’s example fascinating. The small size of the country enables the government to directly intervene in the private sector in ways that would be anathema in the United States. As a Muslim, I also found it refreshing to see many high-ranking government officials in the hijab, and it was convenient to have halal food available throughout the entire country.
While critics may find these approaches heavy-handed, Singapore stands out from its peer nations in social cohesion; a 2021 Pew Research Survey of 17 advanced economies found that Singaporeans were the most likely to say that their society was more united after the pandemic (86%), while the United States ranked dead last in this category (11%). The vast majority of Singaporeans also expressed that they had confidence in their nation’s public health infrastructure for future emergencies (93%).
In keeping with an International Conference on Cohesive Societies goal of fostering international collaboration that extends beyond the ICCS conference, my most memorable experiences occurred outside of the formal meetings. I developed strong working relationships and friendships with delegates all over the world including Buddhist and Taoist priests and rural medicine doctors. Even my mother, who traveled with me, was able to reconnect with many of her grade-school friends from Hong Kong who represent a wide variety of religious backgrounds.
I look forward to implementing some of the best-practices learned from Singapore’s example towards creating a more cohesive society in the United States and in the healthcare setting. One of my ideas for future conferences is to create an additional healthcare track and focus on sharing international perspectives on social cohesion in medicine. Here’s looking at the 3rd ICCS!
