I am not sure if it because we are in Asia and have closer ties in many ways to the Arab Spring. But there is definitely a movement that is making waves, however subtly across the southern hemisphere. As I discuss with my colleagues about the situation in Singapore, as a nation, we are asking questions that ten years ago, we would not dare to ask. Even the old guards, who have been ‘invited’ into retirement, have began to write and publish articles that they never did during their time in the government.
I find that many of these questions we are asking and many of the strategies that we are attempting to develop, do not have answers and there are no prior models that we can look at or modify. Political science does not seem to be able to provide the necessary theoretical or practical support in this movement. I think right now, for Singapore, as we see a government that is struggling to understand a new age and a people of that age, it is the people that have stepped forward: and yet, a study of that does not quintessentially fall under political science or sociology. As I turn back to my notes from the Summer Institute of Civics Studies, I find they do provide me, at least with a theoretical grounding of how civic society and engagement in Singapore can move forward.
The movement is from the ground, from the people, yet it departs from communism or socialism, simply because it is not a course of action decided by a politically governmental body and this ‘people power’ from the ground is attempting to exist across different political systems and structures. Even within China, where once, NGOs were banned, civic societies are growing in number. There is no science currently that seems able to capture the study of this rise in the power of civic engagement.
As an educator, I also find that students need to understand and be a part of this rise in civic power, if I might call it that. Hence, to me, civic studies needs to be a field in itself, because it seems, the world is demanding it, and the traditional fields of political science and sociology cannot contain it anymore. The movement is merely being documented, but there is no theoretical framework in which it can be understood, studied and applied.
I had just returned from Cambodia, where I was conducting a training programme in Negotiations. It was a part of an Initiative for Asean Integration (IAI) programme, where the different Asean countries offer consultancy, training and exchange programmes in areas of national excellence. At the closing, as the feedback came in, there were requests for more programmes on other areas. I found that if I were to see Civic Studies as a field in itself, it is utterly possible to explain the changes in a country and what the people can do about it. It is definitely interdisciplinary and cuts across political systems and is a study of people engaged in their society. Across the world, in the 21st century, it seems that free individuals and emancipated organisations are changing their societies and the world. And it is not about politics.
So my question is not, do we need it, but I want to know how do we start, and where do we start.
