Public policy debates should include reference points like moral principles

Public policy debates should include reference points like moral principles

I AM sure many would agree with Ms Felicia Tan's statement on Thursday: 'An argument about a policy or social issue should be based on its own merits.' I would modify her statement '...should be first based on its own merits' and these same merits should, in turn, be based on some reference points such as basic moral principles. Other merits to be subsequently taken into consideration for the argument in question may refer to social, health, security, economic or political stability issues.

Regarding the assertion by Nominated MP Thio Li-ann that religion is appropriate in the public sphere, German philosopher Jurgen Habermas affirmed it in his lecture, Religion In The Public Sphere, at the University of Lodz in Poland in April 2004. A notion Professor Habermas advocates in his lecture is, as he calls it, 'discourse ethics', which highlights the importance of the learning process as prompted by people of different religions engaging in public dialogue.

Singapore is proactive in this area, as seen by the recent Global Interfaith Seminar at the National University of Singapore, and other dialogues such as the Building Bridges Seminar.

In 2007, I attended Dr Rowan Williams' lecture, Religious Diversity And Social Unity, in which he maintained that 'the presence of diverse religious groups in a society, allowed to have a voice in the decision-making processes of society without embarrassment, is potentially an immense contribution to a genuinely active and interactive social harmony and a sense of moral accountability within the social order'.

Michael Yap

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