The image of a subservient and obedient citizenry in Singapore has probably been derived from a seemingly authoritarian political culture determined largely by the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) that has been in power since the republic gained self-rule in 1959. Under the watchful and paternalistic gaze of its senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew, his son Lee Hsien Loong and their efficient Mandarins, there has been effectively little trace of active dissent in the republic. In reality, the coherence of the PAP-run state is an exception rather than the norm in contemporary Singapore where angry disagreements in country clubs, cultural associations and corporations often spill into the public arena in extra-general meetings (EGMs) reported enthusiastically by the government-controlled media seeking juicier local news than official exhortations and lectures at ribbon-cutting occasions.

In 2009, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), which has been quietly promoting women's rights in Singapore, hogged significant attention in the republic's media. A sequence of sensationalised events within AWARE, beginning from a coup by a predominantly conservative Christian women's group orchestrated by a ‘feminist mentor’ to their unceremonious ejection by secular activists some two months later in a boisterous EGM, to the government's balancing act in keeping the church separate from politics within the next few months, revealed Singapore's undercurrents. In the end, while the prime minister chided the Christian Right openly for trying to use religion to lobby their cause, the government also simultaneously reaffirmed its conservatism by suspending AWARE from the Education Ministry's Sexuality Education programmes. Thinking that this saga deserved to be more rigorously reflected upon, sociologist Terence Chong brought together 11 observers in an edited volume, The AWARE saga: Civil society and public morality in Singapore. The contributors are a mix of academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds — Chua Beng Huat, Gillian Koh, Eugene Tan, Theresa W. Devasahayam, Lai Ah Eng, Alex Tham and Vivienne Wee — as well as journalists and lay observers — Dominic Chua, James Koh, Loh Chee Kong and Jack Yong.

In many ways, the AWARE saga has allowed the contributors to open up new perspectives on the changes surrounding a post-industrial Singapore where an increasingly educated and opinionated populace is contesting the moral economy of a neo-liberal landscape. As Chua and Chong argue, this landscape becomes embodied in the politics of sexuality given the transition towards a cultural economy of creative and entertainment industries, including casinos and gay bars, which has been seen by the Christian Right as legitimising the Babylonian sins of promiscuity and homosexuality in Singapore. Here, a small faction saw an ultra-liberal pro-gay secular organisation (i.e. AWARE's involvement in sexuality education in schools) that should be taken over as one step to stop such trends (in the contributions by Tan, Chua, Koh and Yong). The series of events that developed from the takeover too has provided an occasion for the authors to look into the changing interactions between Church, State and civil society. From Loh's study of the media representation of the event to the strategies of the competing groups by Tham and Lai, and even the government's handling of the affair, as analysed by Ghani and Koh, this volume's contributors are keen to present a more dynamic picture of Singapore's politics. At an ideological level, Devasahayam and Wee argue that the AWARE saga has underlined as much as sensitised the populace to a more pluralistic understanding of different spectrums of feminisms in the republic.

While Chong himself acknowledges that this volume may not be comprehensive, there is insufficient background on the two main parties involved — the AWARE activists and their opponents from the Christian Right. The reader is left pondering exactly who the individuals involved in the saga were. Prior to the events in 2009, both groups were seen as mixed blessings by the state, which valued their provision of social services, but feared their lobbying and proselytising. The individuals and organisations involved deserve to be portrayed in greater depth. In addition, as much as a prologue, one would also hope for an epilogue for continuities to be established beyond the AWARE saga, particularly how the energies of the competing groups have either been released or contained, and how the political model in managing these differences has changed as well.

With the hindsight of the 2011 general elections, which witnessed the biggest fall in the PAP's votes, readers would wonder about the possible impact of the AWARE saga on the macro political arena. An epilogue on this correlation would perhaps have helped to close the loop further; it is also unfortunate that the editor did not provide a clear chronology of events.

Nonetheless, as an event and as an edited book, The AWARE saga heralds a call to establish new perspectives on Singapore society and politics. Even under the watchful eye of a paternalistic government, the taken-for-granted discourses of religious diversity and secularism in Singapore can no longer hold.