Remarks By President Tharman Shanmugaratnam At The State Address With Pope Francis On Thursday, 12 September 2024 At University Cultural Centre (UCC) National University Of Singapore

1.  Your Holiness Pope Francis, Your Eminences, Former Presidents Dr Tony Tan and Madam Halimah Yacob, Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. A very good morning.

2.  I am delighted to welcome His Holiness Pope Francis on his first State Visit to Singapore. This will be the second papal visit to Singapore, the first being a brief visit by Pope John Paul II 38 years ago.

3.  The Holy See, under Your Holiness’ leadership, has been a strong and principled advocate for human fraternity and environmental sustainability. Indeed, you have spoken passionately about these issues during your trip in Southeast Asia.

4.  These are critical challenges in the world today. The global order is weakening, and conflict and aggression remain unabated. There has been growing intolerance within societies themselves. At the same time, we are seeing accelerating climate change, making the world less safe for humanity. The global community needs to make more determined and forthright efforts to address each of these challenges.

Making Multicultural Harmony Is Continuous Work

5.  Your Holiness has been an impassioned global voice against war. You have consistently called for efforts to promote harmony and dialogue between different groups and faiths. Your Holiness will speak about this important topic to our youth tomorrow.

6.  This is an issue that resonates with Singaporeans. We are a multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-cultural society. There was a time in our history when these realities gave rise to inter-communal tensions. For us, solidarity and harmony have therefore been at the core, and will remain core features in our national development. 

7.  Today, Singaporeans treasure being in a country where various ethnic and religious communities live together peacefully. The Constitution enshrines their protection from discrimination, and beyond that, ensures that racial harmony be promoted.

8.  Diversity is tolerated in Singapore, but it has come to be more than that. It is embraced, and viewed as bringing richness to our lives. It defines our very identity as a nation and gives us pride to be Singaporeans.

   1.  Our religious communities have each played their part to make this unusual circumstance possible. They respect one another, and the young especially seek out what they have in common. 

   2.  Our religious leaders play a key role in guiding their communities in understanding and practising their own religious beliefs, while also fostering shared norms and values with others.

   3.  It is ultimately this spirit of openness, mutual accommodation and respect that allows different religious communities to thrive in Singapore.

9.  None of this came naturally. It has been the work of nation-building over decades. We have worked hard to promote racial and religious harmony through our schools, public housing estates, and through National Service that our boys go through. It is also a result of Singaporeans themselves being at ease with each other, as fellow schoolmates, neighbours and fellow citizens, sharing common hopes, and working for the good of our country.

10.  Yet, we know that racial and religious harmony is not immutable. Forging a culture of accommodation, let alone trust, takes consistent and continuing effort, anywhere in the world.

11.  We have to build a deeper understanding of each other, strengthen interactions between different ethnic and religious groups, and actively weaken the ground for forces that seek to pull communities apart. 

12.  In this regard, we continue to learn from experiences and practices abroad, both the successes and failures, just as others seek to borrow elements of the Singapore approach. The International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS) that Singapore convenes, seeks to contribute thinking and exchange valuable lessons. I thank the Vatican for participating regularly and actively in the ICCS.   

Taking More Determined Efforts to Ensure Sustainability

13.  The Catholic Church has also been a strong voice for the cause of environmental sustainability. Your Holiness’ support for the 2015 Paris Agreement, and your call to action for an agreement on climate action at COP28, have inspired many. In Your Holiness’ encyclical Laudato Si, you articulated a vision which recognises the interconnectedness of all life and the need to care for our common home. You have also urged people everywhere to recognise that we are caretakers and stewards of our shared home. 

14.  This message is all the more relevant as the world struggles to meet growing energy demand while achieving a transition to clean energies. And a world that must feed a rapidly growing population while avoiding further environmental degradation. 

15.  Singapore has made sustainability a national priority since our independence 59 years ago. As a small city-state, we have sought to balance development with environmental responsibility. This applies to the greening of our city, all the way from Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s “Garden City” vision in 1967 to our current “City in Nature”. It also applies to water and what we have done to encourage its conservation, and ensure sustainable supply not only through reservoirs, but the recycling of used water and desalination.

    1. The Singapore Green Plan 2030 serves as a guide in our concerted efforts to counter climate change. It includes quadrupling solar energy deployment, and reducing the waste sent to landfills by 30%.  Singapore has also implemented carbon taxes, with graduated increases to support our transition to a low-carbon economy.

    2.  Our approach to sustainability and climate adaptation is underpinned by climate science and R&D. It informs the education of our young at all levels, community initiatives, our long-term investments and our climate policies for the future. 

Closing Remarks

16.  I would like to thank the Catholic Church for the direct and concrete contributions it has made to Singapore over the decades. I am referring to Catholic institutions dealing with education, healthcare, and social welfare.

17.  Indeed, our oldest Catholic schools, St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) and Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) have a history going back over 170 years. Many Singaporeans, from all races and creeds, have benefitted from their years in the schools, being imbued with both knowledge and a spirit of compassion and service. And indeed, many of the orphans that CHIJ took in through its gates, and brought up, became sterling members of the community.

18.  In your Message for the World Day of Peace last year, Your Holiness said that the pandemic left in its wake “the realisation that we all need one another”. I share this view and I am glad that Singapore and the Holy See are committed to fostering cohesive societies, peace and an understanding of our common humanity.

19. As we continue this journey of seeking solutions to common challenges, I am confident that the ties between Singapore and the Holy See, as friends and partners, will continue to deepen in the years ahead.