National Courtesy Campaign (Singapore)

It was seen as a means of ensuring a smooth transition to a new Singapore which would be densely populated, where people lived and worked in high rise towns, offices and factories, while travelling in crowded buses and lifts.

Debates, contests, talks, exhibitions, courtesy courses,[7] where leaflets, handbooks and pamphlets would be handed out, were also arranged to further educate the people.

The lion was chosen because, in addition to the fact that Singapore was a 'lion city', it was believed to paint the picture of the ideal, courteous Singaporean: warm and friendly.

[11] The Courtesy Campaign website [1] was set up as a means of reaching out and staying relevant to a new generation of Singaporeans that used the computer and the Internet regularly.

Additionally, this new generation of Singaporeans is seen to actively use Singlish, an English-based creole language that has strong Malay and Mandarin influences native to Singapore, as a means of casual communication with one another.

This idea of English as a means to communication and one's mother tongue to inculcate desirable values and morals fall in line with the government's language policy on English as a means of communication through racial barriers, while the "imparting of moral values and cultural traditions is best done in the student's own mother tongue".

Various members of the National Courtesy Campaign Working Committee in both the private and public sector also initiate and embark on their own activities.

[13] Examples of such activities include the education of taxi drivers and civil servants through the use of training films, the Retail Merchants Association (RMA) organising role-playing dramatisation of courteous and discourteous scenarios by sales staff and poster-design, jingle and song-writing competitions.

To assess how courteous civil servants were in dealing with the public, the government would hire private companies to perform undercover courtesy auditor.

[1] Residents are thought not to be an important target when constituency-level activities are carried out, as it is believed that regularly held neighbourhood gatherings have already helped to create the friendly and neighbourly environment through which the campaign messages and values are disseminated.