State, Society and Religious Engineering: Towards a Reformist Buddhism in Singapore (review)

SOJOURN Vol, 1 9, No, 2 (2004), pp. 31 9-23ISSN 021 7-9520 State, SocietyandReligiousEngineering: Towardsa ReformistBuddhism in Singapore. By Kuah-Pearce Khun Eng. Singapore: Eastern University Press, 2003. viii + 328 pp. In 1976, Vivienne Wee published Buddhism in Singapore, her paper on the rituals and beliefs ofthe Chinese, her concern being mainlywith the disparity between the canonical (the great tradition) and the practised (the little tradition) forms ofBuddhism. Wee notes that the label "Buddhism " as used in Singapore then did not correspond with those found in the Buddhist canon (1976, pp. 157-88; quoted byTong 2002, pp. 382). Up to that time, Buddhism was summarily classed by scholars and statisticians under AJ.A. Elliots (1955) term "Shenism" (pp. 250, 266). In 1998, Michael Hill published his paper, "Conversion and Subversion: Religion and the Management of Moral Panics in Singapore", which gives a good background to religious engineering in Singapore. Kuah-Pearce's State, Society andReligiousEngineeringis a very timely and insightful follow-up to Wee and to Hill, marking a new milestone in the history of Buddhism in Singapore. Kuah-Pearce's valuable contribution provides a comprehensive overview of"Reformist Buddhism" (though I would prefer the simpler term "Reform Buddhism") in Singapore, where it is now statistically the most dominant religion. In her book, Kuah-Pearce focuses on the following: (a) "how Chinese religious syncretism was invented during the early colonial years and continued to be the main religious beliefsystem ofthe Singapore Chinese until recent challenges by the Reformist Buddhists" (pp. 3-4); (b) "the role ofthe modern state in religious engineering", that is, the social control ofreligion (pp. 4-6); (c) "the role of religion in the life ofmodern individuals [specifically the Chinese in Singapore]" (pp. 61 1); (d) "the relationship between society and state in the process ofreligious modernisation" (pp. 1 1-12); and (e) "the impact ofglobalisation on the local Reformist Buddhist movement in Singapore" (pp. 13-14). The keyword in Kuah-Pearce's book title is of course "religious engineering", which is synonymous with social control ofreligion. She begins her bookwith a long and useful socio-historical account ofChinese religions in Singapore, mainly summarizing the works ofprevious 320Book Reviews scholars on the subject. In chapter 4, she explains the reasons behind the government's efforts at religious engineering in cosmopolitan and multireligious Singapore. These reasons could be summarized as aggressive Christian proselytism and racial riots, namely, the 1950 Maria Hertogh Incident and the 1964 racial riots that stemmed from religious-political reasons. To prevent such incidents from recurring and to maintain social stability and political power, the government introducedvarious measures, such as the White Paper on Maintenance ofReligious Harmony (January 1989) and the White Paper on Shared Values, and launched an ongoing policy ofreligious engineering. In January 1990, the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Bill was introduced in parliament, and passed in November. Its first main provision was the formation of a Presidential Council of Religious Harmony, containing a majority ofrepresentatives ofthe main religions in Singapore, its function being to monitor religious matters and to consider orders made against individuals. Its second main provision empowered the Home Minister to issue restraining orders against an official or member of a religious group who was suspected of causing antagonism between such groups, or engaging in activities to promote a political cause (under the pain of a fine or imprisonment or both). (Hill 1998, p. 20). In view of space constraints, I shall now limit my main comments to two important notions presented by Kuah-Pearce. First, that the rise of Reformist Buddhism in Singapore is significantly the result of Christian proselytism and claims ofmodernity. Besides relating the various educational and welfare work of the Reformist Buddhists, the Mahayana order, the Buddha Sasana BuddhistAssociation, and the Soka Gakkai (now Singapore SolcaAssociation), she provides a ground-breaking summary of the work on one of the major inspirations behind Singapore's Reformist Buddhism, die Singapore Buddhist Youth Fellowship (SBYF) and the Community of Dharmafarers (founded by the Theravada monk, Piyasilo, now PiyaTan). However, here Kuah-Pearce fails to mention thatwhile the Communitycomprised full-time layBud- Book Reviews321 dhist ministers (Dharmacaris) or "lay monks and nuns" (p. 233), the SBYF was in...