The Political Dictionary defines a ‘sacred cow’ as “any programme, policy, or person that is regarded as being beyond attack or untouchable”. Sacred cows in nation-building can take the form of policies, social norms and institutions. Singapore has her fair share of sacred cows covering existential themes such as multiracialism, meritocracy, equality and so on.
From time to time, these underlying premises or foundations of the state are challenged especially in the context of domestic shifts in socio-economic status, changes in societal aspirations and new secular (and non-secular) trends.
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