SINGAPORE: The quality of life for the Malay-Muslim community in Singapore has “improved tremendously” compared to 50 years ago, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Dr Yaacob Ibrahim said on Friday (Jun 26).
“Malays are now homeowners, we have a better educated population, wealth has been increasing in the Malay-Muslim community and we collected more ‘zakat’ last year compared to previous years,” he said to reporters at a Mendaki house visit.
“By and large, the state of affairs of the Malay-Muslim community here is quite good.”
Dr Yaacob, who is also the Minister of Communications and Information, was responding to comments made by former Malaysian law minister Zaid Ibrahim in his blog.
On Wednesday, Mr Zaid wrote that he couldn’t “wait for Malays (in Malaysia) to be like Singaporean Malays”, saying that the latter enjoyed a “clean and transparent system of government and a good and fair housing policy, on top of reaping the benefits of the modern advanced economy that is Singapore”.
Mr Zaid said he meant for the post to clarify a tweet he had posted earlier, responding to former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s criticism of current PM Najib Razak.
“I think the most important thing for me as a member of the Malay-Muslim community is to be thankful for what we have in Singapore,” Dr Yaacob said.
While the community does have its challenges, the important thing is to figure out how to go forward, he added.
“We need to preserve what we have and maintain the standards that we have lived by to ensure that the succeeding generations can also enjoy a higher quality of life, for themselves and for their children,” he said, citing values such as meritocracy and the absence of corruption.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
