SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said he is "convinced" that Singapore has strengthened its cohesion and common identity over the past decade.
Mr Lee made this point while delivering a report card on the Community Engagement Programme (CEP) at a dialogue session on Saturday.
He also gave an assessment of the global terror landscape, pointing out that the threat to Singapore is "not significantly less" from five or 10 years ago.
Recent events in Japan have shown the fortitude and resilience of its people in the face of a crisis. Prime Minister Lee said the Japanese responded in a calm and orderly manner. There was no panic, no jostling and hardly any looting.
Mr Lee said: "A terrorist attack on Singapore would be like a tsunami hitting our society. Can we respond like the Japanese? They (the Japanese) are homogeneous, with a long history of natural disasters. We are (of) much shorter history and fortunately we have not been attacked. But if ever we are, we have to measure up and be just as resilient."
The good news is that Singapore has made progress. Mr Lee said attitudes among Singaporeans have shifted.
Different groups, he said, link up to hold joint activities. For example, mosque groups join other communities in a brisk-walking exercise.
The Community Engagement Programme is one key constructive effort. This was launched in 2006 after the London bombings. The aim is to ensure that Singapore is intact even during times of crisis.
Since then the programme has been expanded to cover various segments of society including schools, businesses, grassroots organisations and even the media.
Mr Lee said it is important to sustain the initiative and welcome new ideas as well as proposals.
This is especially so since the global terror threat is evolving, with new challenges posed by radicalisation spread online.
Closer to home, Singapore remains on the radar of terror group the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
Mr Lee pointed to the JI spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, who is on trial in Indonesia.
He said that if Bashir is not convicted, he will be "more emboldened and continue to be a major threat to the region and Singapore".
In Malaysia, Mr Lee said, JI members have tried to regroup and revive their network, even recruiting in Malaysian university campuses.
"It is a challenge for the Malaysian government, or indeed any government, to keep on uncovering such dangers and catching the perpetrators. We watch developments in Malaysia closely, because of our proximity and links," he said.
At the dialogue session with some 700 community leaders, some Cabinet ministers took pains to emphasise the need for community resilience to mitigate any potential fallout from a crisis.
Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said: "We look at Singapore as a precious ball in our hands and the hands holding this ball is the multi-racial Singaporeans...if someone out there is trying very hard to rob this ball from our hands and cause it to drop on the ground, obviously our first defence is to make sure they don't succeed.
"But more importantly is: when this ball is dropped on the ground, what happens to this Singapore ball? One possibility is it drops like a glass ball....broken up beyond repair, can't put them together anymore...Singapore's gone forever. So that's one scenario.
"The second scenario, which is one scenario we are working on under the grassroots CEP is to make sure that this Singapore ball is very strongly bonded and very resilient, so that when it drops on the floor it does not break up and it is able to bounce back, so that we can carry on with our lives as usual.
"This Singapore ball should hopefully never drop out of our palm and if in the event that it does happen, make sure it can bounce strongly like a rubber ball and not break up like a glass ball."
The role of younger Singaporeans also came under the spotlight, after a member of the audience, an undergraduate from the National University of Singapore, described the National Education Programme in schools as being pure "rhetoric".
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said: "We must hear the voices of reason, the voices of balance, the voices in favour of integration, the voices of hope, optimism in the future. And young people have to take a lead in that. I hope that even in the new media space, we actually need more voices to be heard, not less."
That's where the voices of moderation can help counter radical views.
