{"id":14027,"date":"2022-09-23T13:49:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T13:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.interfaithamerica.org\/?p=14027"},"modified":"2022-09-23T13:53:36","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T13:53:36","slug":"why-social-cohesion-matters-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.interfaithamerica.org\/article\/why-social-cohesion-matters-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Social Cohesion Matters, and What I Learned on My Journey to Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n American Civic Life<\/span>\n

Why Social Cohesion Matters, and What I Learned on My Journey to Singapore<\/h1>\n
\n By
Aamir Hussain<\/address><\/a>\n <\/div>\n

September 23, 2022<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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International Conference on Cohesive Societies attendees. Photo courtesy of ICCS<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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Earlier this month, I had the honor of speaking at the 2nd International Conference on Cohesive Societies<\/a> in Singapore. This conference occurred from September 6-8 and was the second iteration of a conference that was started in 2019 with the purpose of bringing together thought leaders from around the globe to discuss strategies to foster social cohesion.<\/p>\n

The Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth partnered with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore to organize the conference. The goal is to establish international relationships among participants that can help mobilize common action on key issues. Interfaith dialogue was one of the main subject areas, along with climate change, and prevention of terrorism. This year\u2019s conference also had several sessions dedicated to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on these various topics.<\/p>\n

The conference was organized into two main tracks: the plenary sessions which involved lectures from high-ranking academics and government officials; and the Youth Leadership Program, a series of workshops focused on mentorship, leadership, and issues more salient to youth such as the role of social media.<\/p>\n

The Youth Leadership Program was the brainchild of Her Excellency Halimah Yacob, the first female and first Muslim president of Singapore. Born to an Indian father and a Malay mother, Yacob has spent much of her tenure advocating for gender equality, and racial and interreligious harmony. Such work is especially necessary as Singapore is quite ethnically diverse<\/a> given its size; with a population of about 1.3 million, roughly 74% of Singaporeans are ethnic Chinese, 13% are Malay, 9% are Indian. The country is even more diverse when categorizing religious diversity: according to the U.S. 2020 Report on Religious Freedom<\/a>, \u201c33.2 percent of the population of Singapore citizens and permanent residents are Buddhist, 18.8 percent Christian (including 6.7 percent Catholic), 14 percent Muslim (predominantly Sunni), 10 percent Taoist, 5 percent Hindu, and 18.5 percent identify as having no religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

As such, President Yacob made it a priority to connect with the youth at this conference and held a networking session with the program speakers. As a Youth Leadership Program speaker, I had the opportunity to meet several government officials including President Yacob; Edwin Tong, Minister of Culture, Community, and Youth; Ambassador Ong Ken Yong, Ambassador-at-Large at the Singapore Ministry for Foreign Affairs and fellow Georgetown alum; and Rahayu Mahzam, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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