CHALLENGE OF EXTREMISM IN PAKISTAN: ARE THERE LESSONS TO BE LEARNT FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF SINGAPORE?

The failure of the state of Pakistan in effectively dealing with the menace of extremism and militancy - ethnic, sectarian or religious - has not only caused the deepening of societal polarization but also aggravated its economic predicament. This paper examines how Singapore has been able to prevent extremism from threatening the state and societal structures and why Pakistan has not been able to successfully deal with it. The new state of Singapore under the dynamic leadership of its Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew embarked on the road to progress and modernization. Singapore encouraged the process of nation-building by promoting ethnic and religious harmony in the post-independence period. Now, 46 years after its emergence as a new state, Singapore, despite its small size, is an economic giant and is considered a model of ethnic-religious harmony. Singapore is much ahead of Pakistan in the human development index, and the quality of life of the people living in that South East Asian country can match the standard of any developed state. Whereas, in 1965, Pakistan was ahead of Singapore in terms of industrialization and economic growth, it now lags far behind that country in literacy ratio, per capita income, GDP and GNP. The role of leadership, particularly, of its first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew (1965-1990) was decisive in the transformation of Singapore from a developing to a developed state.