249 State–Civil Society Relations and Tourism © 2005 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore SOJOURN Vol. 20, No. 2 (2005), pp. 249–72 ISSN 0217-9520 State–Civil Society Relations and Tourism: Singaporeanizing Tourists, Touristifying Singapore OOI Can Seng In Singapore, the government has been able to close, absorb, re-define and open up civil spaces. The line separating state and civil society is blurred. This article examines how tourism in Singapore has not only played a central role in shaping Singaporeans’ own understanding of their national and ethnic identities, but it has also helped open up important civil and social spaces. This paper offers three examples — the re-branding of Singapore, the decision to have two casinos in Singapore, and the promotion of educational and medical tourism. These examples demonstrate how various civil and social spaces are managed and transformed through the tourism industry. The government uses tourism resources to engineer local society to turn Singapore into a livelier and funkier city. By serving the interests of tourists, tourists have effectively become a civil group and constituency in Singapore. At the height of the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Singapore in 2003, Singapore Airlines (SIA) pilots belonging to the Air Line Pilots Association of Singapore (Alpa-S) criticized their union’s leaders for giving in too easily to management on wage cuts and lay-offs. When the leaders were eventually ousted, then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (current Prime Minister), stated his support for the ousted Alpa-S leaders and issued this challenge: “the [new] leaders of this group have to think very carefully, do they really want to take on the Government?” (“Govt Will Not Let Pilots ‘Do Singapore In’: DPM”, 29 November 2003). He echoed what his father — the then Prime Minister (now Minister Mentor) Lee Kuan Yew — said in a similar dispute in 1980: “I don’t want to do you in, but I won’t let Reproduced from SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia Vol. 20, No. 2 (October 2005) (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Individual articles are available at < http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg >