At the Aranda Conference held on 25 and 26 May 2022, Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development & Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration spoke about the challenge of resolving disputes arising from relationships among family and neighbours, and frictions between socio-economic statuses and racial groups.
You may read the Minister’s keynote speech delivered at the conference below:
Minister Lee highlighted some successful community mediation strategies in Singapore:
- Embracing diversity. While cultural diversity has advantages such as the richness of diversity and ideas from a variety of perspectives, it also results in differences and disagreements. There is thus a need to create opportunities for different groups to interact with and understand each other to resolve conflicts amicably.
- Building trust. This would be between parties to enable them to see each other’s viewpoints, and between the mediator and the parties for parties to see that the mediator wants to help and not judge them.
- Coordinating support across different partners. This is especially important for disadvantaged groups facing inter-connected and complex issues. Support needs to be coordinated to formulate a more family-centric approach.
To learn more, we invite you to read the full report of the Aranda Mediation Conference 2022.
