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Damanhuri Abas: Problems Of Malay-Muslim Isolationism And Foreign-Worker Terrorists Emblematic Of PAP’s Policy Failures

First the Minister made statements that essentially are tacit admission of the failures of the government’s policies towards the Malay Muslim community which has caused the ‘distancing and alienation’.

The more critical question for the Malay Muslim community to ask both the government and the Malay leadership appointed by the PAP is to explain these failures. Maybe it got to do with something called discrimination. Not so smart after all.

Then we hear another bad news, the arrest of foreign workers who are radicals or radicalized. Again, this are glaring examples of risk that the government sadly took at the expense of the safety and interest of Singaporeans by sticking to a policy of cheap labour to shore up declining GDP instead of biting the bullet and invest in our own people to allow for greater innovation to compensate for the shortage of manpower.

Singaporeans must begin to know that the policies of the government are shallow coming from this million-dollar paid brilliantairs and they still want to justify through another warp logic called natural aristocracy.

Wake up lah 70%!!!

Source: Damanhuri Abas

January 21, 2016
Mohd Khair: Singaporean Muslims Have Contributed To Singapore, Why Are We Still Viewed With Suspicion?

I DISAGREE with this view.

Muslims in Singapore have been very active in inter-religious dialogues and other related activities.

I must say that at times some quarters of our community even say that we are even “overdoing” those things because we seem to have to keep on proving to others that we are indeed Singaporeans.

It seems, time and again Muslims in Singapore must always prove themselves to be okay.

Muslims in Singapore have contributed so much in ensuring racial and religious harmony, over and above the contributions we’ve made in other aspects of nation building.

And yet now, we are being accused of having grown more distant.

Why must the authorities cast aspersions on Muslims in Singapore?

Source: Mohd Khair

January 21, 2016
Top 5 Non-Muslim Terrorist Groups In The World

Suffice to say, for the past few days, the spotlight has been on Muslims and Islam in Singapore and around the world. It began with Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam warning that isolationist religious tendencies will lead to a more fragmented and divided Singapore. We were told how greater religious conservatism, if left unchecked, could undermine the racial and religious harmony here.

Before the dust settled on the debate on K Shanmugam’s speech, we learnt yesterday about the repatriation of 27 Bangladeshi nationals. They had subscribed to violent, radical ideology espoused by extremists preachers like Anwar Al-Awlaki. They wanted to carry out armed jihad overseas, including in their own country, Bangladesh.

And so, the spotlight just gets brighter. Muslims just can’t catch a break, can we?

We cannot emphasise enough that Islam is a non-violent religion which preaches tolerance and respect of others. These “Muslims” who carry out violent jihad are also in the minority. There’s more than 1 BILLION of us but there’s less than 100,000 who are, in a word, terrorists. Do your math.

Sometimes, the world forgets that there are other terrorists enemies out there who are non-Muslims. We think it is time to remind the world that terrorist organisations comes in all shapes and sizes and religious beliefs.

We bring you the top 5 non-Musim terrorist groups in the world today:

1 Forcas Amardas Revolutcionarias da Colombia (FARC)

In English, FARC refers to The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. It is a guerilla movement believed to have been formed in 1964 a a result of the liberal-conservative conflict in the country. FARC based itself on communist ideology and sought to protect farmers against capitalist privatisation of their land and other natural resources in Colombia. These days however, FARC is more widely-known for its involvement in the illicit drug trade. Besides making money from narcotics, they also make money from extortion, kidnapping and illegal mining with its operational theatre spanning many countries South America. Needless to say, the members have eraned themselves a reputation as violent terrorists, with their use of paramilitary tactics, bombings, murders and assasinations, to protect and expand their interests.

2 The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)

The Lord’s Resistance Army is a terrorist organization operating in parts of Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and parts of Southern Sudan. Not only is it classified as a terrorist organisation, the movement is also known as a cult led by its charismatic leader, Joseph Kenny. The group started out with noble objectives of creating a peaceful and prosperous Uganda. Now, they carry out murder, child sex slavery, abductions, mutilations, and the recruitment of child soldiers with impunity. During its reign, LRA is belived to have been responsible for about the death of 2,300 people, the abduction of thousands of others and the displacement of many in the central regions of Africa.

3 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)

No this is very different from the Workers’ Party that we have in Singapore. PKK was a student-led initiative; it was formed in 1978 and sought to achieve cultural and political rights and self-determination for the Kurds in Turkey. The group is now based in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan while it operates in Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Guess what? PKK and the Kurds in general, are not fancied by IS.

4 Naxal / Naxalites

The Naxalites is a Maoist rebel group closely associated with the Communist Party Of India. Many states in the country have fallen to the expansionist ambitions of this group. Like the LRA and FARC, the Naxalites also began with the aim of protecting the rights of the workers. They even had support from Mao Zedong in China! The group began to grow rapidly; even university students were dropping out of school to join them. State action in the 1970s crippled the group’s activities but it remains a thorn in the side of the Indian government. They countinue to kill civilians and government security personnel. In recent times, Dr. Manmohan Singh, branded the group as the “biggest threat to national security” in India.

5 The Irish Republican Army (IRA)

The Irish Republican Army was founded in 1913 to wage a war of indepence against the British. Like many of the other terroriss groups above, the IRA was very adept at guerilla warfare. The end of the war caused a divide in the IRA between the Irish National Army faction which supported the treaty, and the other members, who remain commited to to the ideology of the IRA. In the ensuing civil war, IRA suffered massive casualties and eventually lost the war. It has however continued to exist. It harbours ambitions to overthrow the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, in order to establis an Irish Republic. It is not averse to carry out assasinations and car bombings, to strike fear and impose its political will on others.

So there you have it, the top 5 non-Muslim terrorist groups in the world. Terrorists really do come in all colours, creed and religious beliefs.

Give Muslims a break!

Sources: Perfect Insider, Listovative

January 21, 2016
AWARE: Legal, Societal Discrimination Leaves LGBT People Vulnerable To Abuse

I read with dismay that a man extorted large sums from a male teacher by threatening to reveal their sexual relationship to the Ministry of Education and the teacher’s school (“Man pleads guilty to extorting S$197k, gifts from male teacher he had tryst with”, TODAYonline, Jan 12).

These criminal acts were carried out by an unscrupulous individual. But he was enabled by the atmosphere of secrecy that our society has collectively imposed on LGBT people.

While any married person might fear exposure of adultery, the teacher in this case faced further vulnerability because of the legal, societal and institutional discrimination that treats same-sex relationships as invalid and shameful.

Section 377A of the Penal Code stigmatises sexual activity between men, LGBT people are not protected against employment discrimination, and same-sex relationships are routinely censored from media representation.

As long as we demand that these relationships stay furtive, the people in them will remain vulnerable to abuse.

Indeed, the prevalence of sexual blackmail was cited by British parliamentarians in the 1960s as one reason for decriminalising homosexuality.

The experience of the Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC) at the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) reveals a similar disturbing issue: Section 377A can discourage some men from reporting sexual violence against them to the police.

They fear that in describing the sexual assault or their interactions with their attackers, they will reveal that they have, themselves, violated Section 377A, and thus be, themselves, subject to police investigation.

Most people face great social and emotional barriers to reporting sexual assault.

For some, Section 377A adds the fear that the authorities will treat them not as the victim of a crime, but as a perpetrator.

The Government’s position that the law will not be proactively enforced does not adequately allay this concern.

Individuals are understandably nervous about whether such a stand will truly override the weight of the written law, which plainly says they have committed a crime.

Moreover, for someone who has faced a potentially traumatic sexual assault, even if he is not subsequently prosecuted, the prospect of police investigations for an alleged crime can be enough to deter reporting.

His attacker is, therefore, never held to account.

The extortion case and SACC’s experiences show some of the great human costs of a supposed moral stance against homosexuality.

As long as our society continues to discriminate against LGBT people, we will aid and abet their abuse.

The opinion by Jolene Tan, Programmes and Communications Senior Manager, Association of Women for Action and Research, was published in Voices, Today, on 19 Jan 2015.

Source: www.todayonline.com

January 20, 2016
Zulfikar Shariff: Malays’ Non-Confrontational Attribute Prevents Them From Raising Discrimination Issues More Frequently

When we raise issues of discrimination in Singapura, one common response from non-Malays (usually Chinese) is that…

“It cannot be true. Why have I not heard of this before? I know some Malays and they did not tell me this.”

There are several obvious reasons.

1. You may know them but you do not really get to know them. They do not share with you.

2. You are actually not interested to know. You just want to defend the system.

3. You do not understand the culture and interaction style of the Malays.

The Malay culture seeks to avoid conflict. They do not like confrontation.

If saying something may make someone else uncomfortable they will rather keep quiet.

Some accuse Malays of “Tidak apa” attitude. This attitude is actually born out of their desire for peaceful relations.

Two of the main characteristics of Malay interaction are musyawarah and muafakat, usually translated as consultation and consensus building respectively.(Haacke, 2003, p. 4).

However, while these words are translated into English, what they mean have not been fully understood.

They mean much more than their translations.

They miss the subtleties of musyawarah and muafakat as social and political traditions.

Muafakat, which is a desired outcome of musyawarah, exists in the Malay social interaction as part of budi(Chong, 2012, p. 34). Budi in turn, is a key concept of Malay culture, and forms “part of the ethnic “self-image” of the Malay “bangsa, nation, race’”(Goddard, 2000, p. 87).

Wan Norhasniah Wan Husin(cited in Chong, 2012, pp. 10-11) identify budi as a social norm that encompasses the Malay world from the Peninsula to Sulawesi, Borneo and the Malay groups in the Philippines.

It refers to the Malay mode of social interaction that emphasizes harmony, good treatment of others, kindness and peaceful relations(Chong, 2012, p. 10; Goddard, 2000, p. 87).

According to Dahlan, ‘‘budi is composed of virtuous qualities such as hemah tinggi (generosity), hormat (respect), ikhlas (sincerity), mulia (righteous), timbang rasa (considerate), jaga hati (caring), budi bicara (discretion)…’’

He further notes that ‘‘the budi thinking man is never direct and forthright in his ways: his ways are subtle…to be blunt, direct and forthright especially if the end result is negative…is considered rude and out of tune in the Malay polite system…

Hence a budi thinking man is by nature polite and conflict-avoiding’’(cited in Paramasivam, 2007, p. 95) .

Muafakat can then be understood as the outcome of a social tradition that forms the Malay self-image which emphasizes virtue, subtlety, discretion, harmony and peaceful relations. It is not simply consensus building. Decision making has to lead to contentment and peaceful acceptance of every party involved.

Muafakat, musyawarah and budi are part of the Malay identity. It is so strongly held that it is one of the most defining attributes.

And the Malays expect a similar response. They expect those they interact with to similarly show these characteristics they hold as important.

And when they stop showing these characteristics, it is a sign that for them, the relationship may be over.

And do not expect anymore muafakat or budi from them.

References:

Acharya, A. (2003). Democratisation and the prospects for participatory regionalism in Southeast Asia. Third World Quarterly, 24(2), 375-390.

Chong, J. W. (2012). ” Mine, Yours or Ours?”: The Indonesia-Malaysia Disputes over Shared Cultural Heritage. Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 27(1), 1-53.

Goddard, C. (2000). ” Cultural Scripts” and Communicative Style in Malay (” Bahasa Melayu”). Anthropological linguistics, 81-106.

Haacke, J. (2003). ASEAN’s diplomatic and security culture : origins, development and prospects. Richmond: Routledge.

Paramasivam, S. (2007). Managing disagreement while managing not to disagree: Polite disagreement in negotiation discourse. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 36(2), 91-116.

Source: Zulfikar Shariff

January 20, 2016