If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, it could have been lost there as well. What that premier English public school did was to instil in its students those attitudes of mind, particularly leadership, which enabled the forces opposed to Napoleon to prevail over his army. Without, of course, equating today's terrorists with the French then, it can be said that every school must act like Eton now if society is to be protected from the aftermath of a terror attack. Children must learn to fight with their minds. Losing a new Waterloo is not an option.

The problem, though, is this. Teachers, who are a natural target of CEP messages, can be attracted to the programme through exposure to the shocking consequences of a terrorist attack. Students, however, are naturally not similarly mature; their young minds cannot easily deal with the terrible wickedness of the adult world. Hence, the challenge is to tailor the same programme to the differing needs of teachers and students.

This is the work of the Ministry of Education's Security and Emergency Planning Office (SEMPO) and its National Education Branch. They have identified initiatives that support CEP goals and have positioned these initiatives within two main strands: peacetime education; and incident handling/security measures that are more operational in nature. The target audience for the initiatives is the school at large, but special emphasis is placed on school CEP teams. Training workshops seek to equip these teams with the knowledge and skills to sense, identify and manage racial and religious issues at the school level. Feedback from participants who attended twenty-eight CEP training workshops suggests that they gained insights into aspects of CEP management, such as sensing what is occurring on the ground and developing mediation skills.

There are also scenario-based table-top exercises — Exercise Octopus — for newly appointed principals and vice-principals in which they finesse the skills required to handle the racial and religious aftermath of a terrorist incident. The number of principals, vice-principals and school staff who have undergone Exercise Octopus and CEP training workshops is 1,804 and 1,962, respectively.

Dr Tan Ern Ser is confident that Singapore will remain peaceful after a terrorist incident because “we have been tested”. What he means is that Singapore's substantial Muslim population did not respond to terrorist incidents abroad like some Muslims elsewhere, whose sympathies were clearly with terrorists. Consequently, he says, “our Muslims will not be targets” in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, which occurred elsewhere. “Our Muslims are Singaporeans first and foremost”, he notes.

The Government deserves some credit for this attitude because its policies have enabled Muslim Singaporeans to feel at home in their country. For example, Singapore has good relations with both Israel and Muslim countries in the Middle East because it does not take sides in the Arab-Israeli dispute. Singaporeans understand and appreciate that lack of bias. The CEP contributes to this social resilience by demonstrating that peace and security are not only about law and order, about control and regulation, but also about people connecting with one another and collaborating on their own. This process is, of course, work in progress.

In 2010, the Institute of Policy Studies published a study, “Citizens and the Nation: National Orientations of Singaporeans”, based on surveys carried out the previous year. The fourth such survey in a series that tracks Singaporeans' emotional bonds with their nation, the study found that the sense of national loyalty and pride remained constant in spite of changes in economic performance and the social landscape over the years; that the norms of active political participation appeared well entrenched even if actual political participation was relatively low; and that, while Singaporeans' sense of community seemed to have strengthened, as seen in respondents' stated willingness to interact with and provide social support to fellow citizens, there was some concern about how the increased number of foreigners in Singapore might affect the sense of being “one nation, one people”.

The media, along with the arts and academia, are crucial to the outcome of the battle for hearts and minds waged in the struggle with extremism and terrorism. Even in peacetime, the media deeply influence, on an hourly or daily basis, public perceptions of threats and danger, safety and security. The arts are another form of communication that conveys to people busy with their everyday lives a sense of their place in the scheme of things. Academia offers intellectuals and teachers an opportunity to flesh out this larger picture, one in which we all have to find our places and seek our roles.

It is important, therefore, for the Singapore media to understand the importance of the CEP, and to be mindful of its purpose in their coverage and programming. Fortunately, the local media in Singapore are a part of the solution. Together with members of the Arts and Media Cluster from the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), many journalists play an essential role in communicating with the Singapore public and helping to maintain racial and religious harmony.

When Marshall McLuhan coined the expression “the medium is the message”, he meant that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message and creates the basis on which the message is received and perceived. In this sense, the content of a message depends greatly on its form. This realization is important for the work of the CEP, particularly if Singapore were to come under sustained terrorist attack. With many forms of communication down, radio would play an essential role in telling citizens what is going on around them, what they should do, and what they should not do. And radio disc jockeys (DJs) would form the cutting edge of that role. Their accessible, conversational and trusted style would form the medium that would convey the message in a plausible way.

Nanyang Polytechnic has established a clear CEP Framework to facilitate the reporting of racial/religious incidents, Mr Thambyrajah says. For example, it conducted an exercise to test its CEP operational readiness. The scenario was the discovery of a racist remark made by a student on an NYP blog. The exercise took place in a restricted blog which is accessible only by password. What occurred during the exercise was that the Personal Mentor (PEM) of the student who found the remark alerted school-based CEP Team members. The remark was assessed to be racist, and immediate action was taken to alert the Communications Division (COMMS) to remove it. Then the CEP Team and community leaders decided on follow-up action.

If the instigator was identified as an NYP student, the team recommended counselling for the student by an NYP counsellor and an NYP community leader. If it was not possible to identify the instigator, the team recommended that NYP seek Police advice. Also, the impact of the remark on the student informant and other known students who had seen the blog remark would be assessed, and counselling would be provided if required. If the instigator was identified and the remark had been made owing to an incident related to NYP, the CEP Team would gather ground sentiments from students and staff through PEMs and student leaders. An e-mail advisory would then be issued to students on responsibility in the use of online media. COMMS and the CEP Team would scan and monitor online media for a week.

According to Mr Thambyrajah, the exercise achieved certain objectives. The PEM alerted the relevant CEP member; appropriate and immediate action was taken; the CEP Team and the relevant community leader were immediately contacted for discussions on follow-up action; the nature of the follow-up action was established and the suggestion was forwarded to the CEP Lead for approval for implementation.

Mr Azman bin Kassim has a “secret talent” that comes in very useful in a school environment that is largely Chinese. He can play the kompang, a Malay drum, knows how to participate in the dikir barat, a Malay group performance, and can make ketupat, a traditional rice dumpling. Sharing these talents with his largely Chinese students allows him to open for them doors to an essential part of Singapore's multi-racial culture. Those activities are supplemented through assembly talks on the basics of Islamic culture, such as the Islamic calendar, and guest lectures by MUIS officials on subjects such as halal food. The response has been heartening, he says. Like young people anywhere, his Singaporean students take an interest in tangible activities and interactive sessions more than they respond to abstract lectures. In this way, the CEP message of bonding and trust gets spread naturally. Helping to create an atmosphere of real understanding gives him great satisfaction as a teacher.

The same attempt to create understanding is apparent in his work as IRCC chairman. “Attending courses, seminars and talks in the CEED Programme helped me understand more seriously how to engage the community effectively and diplomatically to promote racial harmony as part of our culture in Singapore”, he says. Personally, his involvement in the programme helped him build networks of trust with various community leaders, all of whom shared his stake and interest in creating a culture of peace, harmony and happiness regardless of race and religion, he adds, recalling the message of the Singapore Pledge.

Mr Azman's work at Masjid Al-Huda is part of that broader attempt to unite Singaporeans. He is particularly proud that the mosque and Farrer/Holland Neighbourhood Committee organized joint Lantern Festival and Hari Raya celebrations in October 2010. The sight of a Lantern Festival gathering held on mosque premises impressed on those who attended the event the spirit of openness and friendship that is an integral part of Islam.

Teachers look for teachable moments every day during which to foster racial harmony. At New Town Secondary School in Dover Road several years ago, Siti, a Malay student, approached the Head of the Department of Physical Education expressing her interest, but also her hesitation, in joining the Big Drums CCA group, which was an all-Chinese assemble at the time. The HoD encouraged Siti to put aside her reservations and join one of the sessions to just enjoy herself. When Siti graduated from school, not only was she the student-coach of the Big Drums group but she was one of the many non-Chinese members of the CCA group.

To Mr Tan Say Pin, this anecdote reinforces the notion that “as we appreciate the diversity that exists in our society, we lay hold and expand the common space for everyone”. His own contribution to expanding that common space, in collaboration with his colleagues, has been to design a CEP Training Package for Teachers.

It consists of three main sections. The first section presents the CEP overview, background and approach. The second section consists of material designed to conduct CEP-related workshops, training and lessons. These include facilitation guides, lesson plans, PowerPoint slides, videos and worksheets. The last section consists of a repository list of CEP-related material and resources on which schools can tap.

Mr Tan believes that so long as teachers continue to help students see the relevance and meaning of the CEP, their receptivity will grow. Schools seek to create learning experiences that engage the head, heart and hands of every student. In engaging the head, they want students to be involved actively in their own learning, to think through issues and arrive at a deeper understanding of the challenges facing Singapore and what it means to be a Singaporean. For example, New Town Secondary School organizes an annual dialogue session coinciding with Racial Harmony Day.

The CEP's work touches closely on the state of racial and religious relations in Singapore. How solid is that ground?

The Ministry of Home Affairs' CEP 2009 Survey had some answers. It revealed that 74.4 per cent trusted fellow Singaporeans to help them if a terrorist attack occurred here, only 4.1 per cent disagreed and 21.5 per cent were neutral. A large proportion, 78.2 per cent, agreed that Singaporeans of all races and communities would stand united after a terrorist attack, 2.9 per cent disagreed and 18.9 per cent were neutral. A very large number, 86.7 per cent, thought that Singaporeans in general respected other races, 2.6 per cent disagreed and 10.7 per cent were neutral. Similarly, 84.9 per cent thought that Singaporeans in general respected other religions, 2.2 per cent disagreed and 12.9 per cent were neutral.

Along the same lines, in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts' National Security Awareness Survey 2009, 52.4 per cent said that they were mentally prepared to deal with the consequences of a terrorist attack; and 47.7 per cent said that they were aware of practical steps to take should such an attack occur near them.

Much has been achieved in terms of racial and religious harmony, but it is work in progress. In this context, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports' CEP cluster engages racial, religious, volunteer welfare, and foreigner groups and their leaders to build up social resilience and psychological capacity to manage crises that have ethnic/religious overtones. The cluster adopted a three-phased approach at the inception of the CEP in October 2006, essentially to build relationships (Phase I), build capabilities (Phase II), and exercise crisis plans (Phase III). Phase I's objective was to identify appropriate leaders to be represented on suitable platforms; build relationships; and nurture a distinct identity for CEP platforms within the cluster and public awareness of their CEP efforts. It was largely completed by June 2007.

It is one of the playful ironies of Singapore that so much is made about grassroots in a largely concrete city. But what that insistence on the salience of grassroots thinking invokes is an abiding memory of kampung Singapore. Today, there is a need to preserve at least some aspects of the kampung way of life, not in spite, but because of, urbanization and globalization. The hallmark of urbanization in a high-rise environment is anonymity, or the loss of a palpable sense of living in a face-to-face society where the mere fact of inhabiting a piece of land together creates familial familiarity and social intimacy. What the Government has tried to recreate in the high-rise kampungs of Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates is, therefore, the felt sentiment of people being part of the same economic, social and moral environment.

Enter the People's Association (PA). Set up in 1960, it occupies a special position in the grassroots life of Singapore. As a statutory board, it has the weight of the State behind it, but it is not a purely official body like a Ministry. Instead, being involved in facilitating grassroots activism, it acts as a conduit for popular activity and feedback directed upwards at the Government as much as an instrument of State policy towards society. It is this engagement with grassroots activism that creates natural synergy — and, indeed, an affinity — between the goals of the PA and those of the CEP, which is nothing if it is not a bottom-up exercise.

These common goals made the PA emerge as an obvious candidate for forming a CEP cluster. Institutionally, the PA works closely with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the lead agency, and other CEP cluster leads to promote the programme to and through its Grassroots Organizations (GROs). The GROs belong to the traditional domain which has been enlarged with the CEP. This grassroots CEP work involves strengthening inter-racial ties by building confidence, trust and social capital among people in a widening common space that intensifies the shared experience of being Singaporean.

What attracted Mr Ow Yeong to the CEP is its emphasis on the importance of religious harmony. “It is important to avoid underestimating the need for tolerance and understanding, so that any terrorist attack or national crisis won't spark communal violence, as has happened in too many countries”, he says. In general, he believes that the CEP provides a sound structural framework for youth to have a stake in the maintenance and improvement of racial and religious relations in Singapore.

“The fact is that youth today can influence perceptions of religion, especially with the advent of social media. When it comes to matters of religion, ignorance isn't bliss. A single ill-thought blog entry or Facebook post can incite hatred and potentially trigger violence”, he adds. “Youth need to understand the repercussions of their actions when it comes to racial and religious matters, and the CEP can help to promote such understanding.”

Outlining the Buddhist perspective on communal harmony, Mr Ow Yeong says that the Buddhist tradition places strong emphasis on peace and harmony. Particularly emphasized, he notes, is the value of conflict resolution between communities. In fact, the Buddhist scriptures emphasize the importance of resolving conflicts through dialogue. “Buddhism is not a system of dogmas, nor is it a revealed religion that claims absolute monopoly of the truth, so Buddhists are free to learn from other religions to advance their spiritual growth”, he explains.

Mr Ow Yeong and his friends have translated that belief into action on campus. “As president of the NUS Buddhist Society, I'm proud to say that one of my Society's stated objectives is to promote harmony and understanding with other racial and religious groups.”

For instance, when the controversial video clips by Pastor Rony Tan were publicized, the Buddhist Society issued a response addressing misconceptions in them. This response received thousands of page views with many positive comments, providing further evidence of the importance of youth involvement in promoting religious understanding.

Ms See Guat Kwee visited Israel as a tourist with a group of Christians in January 2001. The Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, had begun, and the Singaporean witnessed at close quarters violence and carnage that she had never known at home. She volunteered her services at a day-care centre for the elderly, where she commiserated with Jewish grandmothers who wondered what kind of future their grandchildren would inherit.

Then she went to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where she encountered the despair of youth amidst unemployment and the Israeli blockade of towns. There, too, Palestinian grandmothers wondered about the future of their grandchildren. Ms See helped distribute food to the needy, entering their lives with the same compassion that she had felt for Palestinians. Here was a Singaporean Christian who was acting as a human bridge between Jews and Muslims — two other children of Abraham — in a conflict that had turned the Holy Land — holy to all three Abrahamic faiths — into a cruelly contested site of occupation, violence, suicide-bombings and reprisals.

That experience made her decide to sell her apartment in Singapore to pay for a Master's degree programme at the famed Hartford Seminary in the United States, where she delved deeply into Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim relations. “I started as a Christian with an exclusive view; I am now a Christian with a pluralistic view. I no longer insist that only I have ‘the truth’”, she wrote in a collection of essays, Religious Diversity in Singapore, edited by Lai Ah Eng.

In Israel, she met Jewish interfaith educator Yehezkel Landau, co-founder of Open House, a centre for peace and co-existence among Israeli Arabs and Jews in the mixed city of Ramle. On her return to Singapore, she hosted Yehezkel and other representatives from the Inter-religious Coordinating Council in Israel for a six-day study trip that took them to temples, mosques, churches, synagogues and other religious institutions.

Four suicide bombers struck in central London on the morning of Thursday, 7 July 2005. In the coordinated attacks, known since then as 7/7, bombs went off on trains and a double-decker bus, killing 52 people and injuring more than 770. Exactly a fortnight later, there were four more attempts to attack the city's transport system, but only the detonators of the bombs exploded, and there were no casualties.

What happened was terrifying. The consequences were terrible. Among Londoners at large, many felt stressed and frightened even months after 7/7. Researchers from King's College London who quizzed 574 members of the public seven months after the attacks found that 11 per cent were “substantially stressed”, while 43 per cent thought that their lives were in danger, the British Journal of Psychiatry reported. Lead researcher Dr Neil Greenberg, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said: “Clearly terrorist attacks can have psychological effects on the general public.” Liz Prosser, from a support group offering counselling and legal help, added:

The consequences of 7/7 were terrible. The backlash to it was horrible for innocent British Muslims who were blamed for the acts of four terrorists. The victims of 7/7 were people of many nationalities, both British and non-British, both whites and non-whites, both Muslims and non-Muslims. This was to be expected of London, a cosmopolitan city famed for its multicultural composition. However, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, “this diversity became a target for some individuals who misused the religious background of the bombers as an excuse for racist attacks and abuses against members of minority communities, British Muslims in particular”.

Mr Chan Chong Beng is a successful and busy businessman. What made him participate in the CEED Programme? “So that I stay successful and busy”, the gregarious businessman answers without batting an eyelid. “If you want to continue to be successful and busy, you cannot take peace for granted. You do not want a situation where you have to worry about your family being attacked.” What the CEED Programme did was to give him good insight into operational realities on the ground that will help keep the peace should anything untoward occur one day in Singapore.

As an employer, he is keenly aware of the need to inject a CEP dimension, including communal harmony, into the workplace. “We do not allow staff to discuss sensitive issues of race and religion at work”, he said, referring to the Goodrich management's policy. Indeed, Mr Chan has gone farther than that prohibition. Although his workforce is largely Chinese, he intervened when a Malay worker felt uncomfortable over a tape of Buddhist chants being played in a company vehicle. He advised the Chinese driver to stop playing it.

His sensitivity to the religious needs of others comes from his experience of living through the 1964 race riots as a ten-year-old boy. The curfew and patrols at night induced in him a sense of extreme anxiety that he has not forgotten to this day. “Young people today do not know all this”, Mr Chan says in a refrain that runs like a common thread through the views of people his age.

Another dramatic incident occurred in 1998 after the race riots in Indonesia following the fall of President Suharto. Mr Chan travelled to Jakarta to check on the welfare of the Goodrich staff there. “I was among only three passengers on the flight from Singapore”, he recalls with disbelief. Mercifully, his staff members were safe and his office was untouched, but he saw the broken glass panels of Chinese-owned businesses and other signs of destruction.

Increased food supply from domestic production is a prerequisite for long-term economic growth. Unless there is a substantial increase in food production, there will be a continued drain on foreign exchange to import food and a continued threat of inflation led by upward pressures of food prices. Major increases in food production is the top priority in the Five Year Plan which is currently under preparation.

The food production strategy as presently envisaged consists of a number of elements: Foremost is the creation of an economic climate which will make it profitable for farmers to use increased quantities of modern inputs. Also, to make sure that these new inputs — fertilizers, pesticides, and improved seeds — will be available at the farm level at the right time and right prices. Within this longer-run framework, it is important to choose the short-run courses of action.

In the short run, emphasis is placed on the availability of improved seeds — particularly the new rice varieties — chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation water.

Twenty-five years ago, the prosperity level of the Indonesian people was quite low; the economy was in a mess; the people were engaged in dissonant relations — verging on war — with neighbouring countries. Now, Indonesia, together with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and Hong Kong, is among a small group of developing countries considered successful in their development. However, Indonesia still has a long way to go. There are many goals still to be reached. Many weaknesses are still to be rectified. There is no place for complacency.

Yet, it is clear that Indonesia has done well in its economic development. During the twenty-five years of development under the leadership of Pak Harto (President Soeharto), the living standard, the level of intelligence, and the welfare of the people have gradually increased. At the same time, a sound foundation has been laid down during every phase of development for the next stage of development.

There are many among us who did not experience the time when development had yet to kick-off in Indonesia twenty-five years ago.

Let me first say how honoured I feel to be invited to speak on the topic of sustainable poverty reduction in this conference on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. I would like to express my good wishes to the IMF and the World Bank Group on this most important event. The choice of sustainable poverty reduction as a topic for discussion reflects the commitment of the two institutions to support developing countries in their endeavours to reduce poverty and improve living standards.

As to poverty reduction, I am familiar only with the experience of Indonesia. Therefore, my contribution to this conference will be limited to poverty reduction in Indonesia only. Let me start with a few statistics.

The 1994 Annual Report of the World Bank indicated that:

The analysis of poverty over time is difficult and controversial. Nonetheless, estimates on poverty in Indonesia has reached a fair degree of consensus: poverty has fallen rapidly over the past twenty-five years.