section_path: Ideology/Social policies
section_name: Social policies
paragraph_text: Social policies
  
  Since the early years of the PAP's rule, the idea of survival as a small and vulnerable country with hostile neighbours has been a central theme of Singaporean politics. According to Diane Mauzy and R. S. Milne, most analysts of Singapore have discerned four major ideologies of the PAP, namely pragmatism, meritocracy, multiracialism and Asian values / communitarianism. The PAP also advocates nationalism not based on ethnocentrism, encouraging a united Singaporean identity while also recognising the main ethnic groups that make up the country.
  
  In January 1989, then President Wee Kim Wee in his opening address to the 7th Parliament of Singapore stated that Singapore must adopt a set of shared national values. He was of the view that a national ideology was useful to bond Singaporeans together by preserving the cultural heritage of the core communities of Singapore, and upholding certain common values that would capture the essence of being a Singaporean. In response, the government set up a committee as a follow-up to Wee's proposal, and in January 1991, the PAP formally introduced a white paper on "Shared Values" for the country, which consists of five national values to forge a national identity. These values were: nation before community and society above self; family as the basic unit of society; regard and community support for the individual; consensus instead of contention, and racial and religious harmony. They were also set as a contrast against the "more Westernised, individualistic, and self-centred outlook on life" and to uphold the "traditional Asian ideas of morality, duty and society".
  
  At an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) dialogue held on 2 July 2015 and chaired by Fareed Zakaria, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke about the need to maintain a Jeffersonian natural aristocracy in the system to instill a culture of respect and to avoid anarchy. In November 2019, Lee stated at a party convention that the PAP must not allow the "disconnect between the masses and the elite seen in other countries to take root in Singapore". During the election campaign in July 2020, Lee's estranged brother over 38 Oxley Road, Lee Hsien Yang, accused the PAP of elitism as one of his explanations of joining the Progress Singapore Party (PSP). In a 2024 interview, Lee Hsien Loong criticised " wokeness ", claiming that it "causes life to be burdensome" and saying that "he did not want Singapore to go in that direction".