In retrospect, Singapore’s management
of the SARS outbreak could be a case-in-point to illustrate
social resilience. Initiatives such as food delivery services
to quarantined families and translation of government communications
to dialects and foreign languages were clearly efforts involving
the populace and community-grassroots leaders. Mass exercises
of taking temperature in schools and at public areas such
as food centres instilled a sense of participation and social
responsibility in dealing with the crisis.
Enhancing a country's social resilience
can be challenging. It surfaces these dilemmas:
| • |
How can communities take greater ownership over crisis
responses, and develop redundancies in the social systems,
so as to build greater community resilience? |
| • |
How to maintain a high level of coordination across
government to ensure coherence in the different resilience
initiatives, and will this run counter to empowering communities
to participate actively in crisis response and recovery? |
| • |
How to measure or assess the degree of resilience in
a society, and ensure sufficient resources allocated to
this important dimension of internal security? How do
the ideas of social resilience and its importance affect
policy-making in this area? |
