Straits Times: 377A debate and the rewriting of pluralism
In his weekly ‘Thinking Aloud’ column, Janadas Devan writes in response to Thio Li-Ann’s Two Tribes Go To (Cultural) War parliamentary speech which graphically calls for the retention of section 377A.
Excerpt from Thinking Aloud, October 27:
We silly fellows had also misunderstood the nature of secularism. We had thought it meant separation of religion from the state, politics and public policy. We were wrong. As Prof Thio explained trenchantly in her ‘culture war’ speech: ‘Religious views are part of our common morality. We separate ‘religion’ from ‘politics’ but not ‘religion’ from ‘public policy’ (emphasis mine).
I never knew that! I had always assumed that it was necessary to separate religion from politics as well as public policy, for it was impossible to separate public policy from politics, and both from the state. But it turns out my assumption was baseless.
Jawaharlal Nehru, a Brahmin who insisted on untouchability being banned in the Indian Constitution despite the opposition of many caste Hindus, simply did not understand a thing about secularism. Bishop Desmond Tutu, a Methodist who insisted that discrimination against homosexuals be prohibited in the South African Constitution, was similarly clueless. And all those Enlightenment chaps in powdered wigs who insisted on the separation of church and state in the United States - in part, because there was no ‘common morality’ among religions - well, silly fellows, they knew nothing.
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