19 Jan 2015
In the first part of a two-part Channel NewsAsia programme, Campaign Nation, which features various national campaigns conducted in Singapore over the last fifty years, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan discussed why it was necessary for the Singapore government to embark on so many national campaigns. He explained that unlike other countries with long histories where norms evolved organically and there is not much governments can do to influence them, Singapore is a young nation and had to tackle many basic needs in society and so there was a lot of social engineering, which was probably necessary, at least in the beginning years of nationhood.