Category: Singapuraku

They (PAP) wanted to disrupt our plans, but God have a better plan for us (SDP); Damanhuri Abas

“Greetings friends and thank you for coming. What a nice place.. this is. We didn’t plan for this.”

“They wanted to disrupt our plans, but God have a better plan for us.”

Epic round of applause.

That was how Damanhuri Abas started his speech at the SDP’s Campaign Kick-Off 2019 where he spoke on National and Malay issues. Close to 2 years ago if you remember, the man responded to an accusation that he uses religion to incite some ‘untoward things’. Yet today, this opposition politician who is driven by religion is standing on that stage.

You can watch more here.

At the end of his speech, Damanhuri recited a Malay pantun that he wrote sometime after joining politics.

tanah liat, asal usul ku
jasad dicorak, Tuhan yg satu
siapa gerangan, anak melayu
khazanah silam, sejarah lalu

pulau ujong, dikenal dahulu
bumi temasek, pantai membiru
kota singa, nama negeri ku
sergam indah, jasa ayah ku

tempat melabuh, pedagang lalu
gagah berani, laksmana melayu
armada cheng ho, pernah berlalu
duduk penjajah, haram bersatu

kini merdeka, warga negara ku
suratan takdir, kita disatu
bangsa cina, india melayu
minda penjajah, jadi seteru

pelbagai kaum, berkah yg satu
kibar bendera, bangga selalu
merah putih, lambang jiwa ku
kita rakyat, engkau dan aku

maruah dibela, bukti cinta ku
sumpah setia, ikrar sepadu
berbeza acuan, tetap bersatu
langit ku junjung, bumi pertiwi ku

[English translation]:

From clay, I’m made,
shaped, by the One
who is he, the Malay lad
untold heritage, history’s past

Tales of old, isle at the end
Temasek’s soil, with azure sea
lion city, my country’s name
awe and majestic, with my father’s hardwork

A port of call, to traders’ past
courageously brave, the Malay warrior
Cheng Ho’s armada, sailed nearby
colonials came, begins the divide

Free again, my countrymen
destiny’s fate, gathers us
we are Chinese, Indian and Malay
colonial’s divide, we detest and fight

Our racial mix, blessed by One
forever proud, flags raised high
red and white, embodies my soul
we are citizens, you and I

Honour protected, for you my love
loyalty promised, unity pledged
our molds differ, remains united
the sky above I raise, on this land of mine

February 28, 2019
2 real reasons why there are few Muslims in Singapore’s SAF; “it does not discriminate against the Muslims..”

Today, Singapore has a few Malay commandos and importantly, at least one fighter pilot according to an infamous Muslim convert Terence. He shared: “Will we have Malay commandos? We already do. Malay fighter pilots? We have one, and I still remember that there was a huge discussion behind the scenes about whether we could trust him. Common sense prevailed.”

According to the ill-repute man among the Muslim community here in Singapore, there are but 2 real reasons why there are little to none Muslims officers in the SAF.

#1: Bad in MATHEMATICS.

”One of the reasons we do not have more Malay pilots is simply because they fail the selection test – particularly the mathematics test.”

I Malay.

Imalay Math GIF from Imalay GIFs

He added that today, the SAF puts “Malays in many sensitive positions, from SIGINT to MINDEF itself. As long as you are qualified and determined enough, the SAF will take you, regardless of race or religion.”

#2: Navy’s policy of rejecting vegetarians, Hindus, people with food allergies and halal food.

As far as the Navy is concerned, Terence said that Muslims are not present on naval vessels “due to logistics, not religious discrimination. RSN’s policy is to not have vegetarians, Hindus who do not eat beef, or people who have any sort of food allergies.”

He added: “Our naval assets are meant to be ready for extended deployment. We do not have the luxury of stopping in the middle of a war to look for halal food.”

Here is what he had to say in full.

“Singapore’s SAF does not discriminate against the Muslims. We have a lot of Muslims in sensitive positions. I am, myself, a Muslim convert, and I have never felt that I lacked opportunities because of my religion. The issue is Malays, for historical reasons. The real reason why there were no Malays in much of the SAF is not found in our history books. It is no longer classified, but it is a forgotten episode, just like much of the events during the period of our Separation from Malaysia and the Konfrontasi. For those interested, there are people around who lived during that period, and were there when it happened, although all of them are very old.

“When Singapore separated from Malaysia, the divorce was painful. In the election prior, when the PAP campaigned in Malaysia for a a “Malaysian Malaysia”, instead of a “Malay Malaysia”, UMNO were outraged and played the race and religion card.

“The main instigator was Syed Jaafar Albar, the so-called “Lion of UMNO”. He was a radical Malay supremacist, despite the fact that he was clearly Yemeni Arab, and not Malay. He was vehemently against Singapore’s separation from Malaysia, and resigned as secretary-general of UMNO in protest. He went as far as to advocate that Malaysia militarily occupy Singapore.

“At the time of Separation, almost half of the troops based here were from Malaysia. When the British gave control of the various units to Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, they neglected to consider that the units were recruited from all over the Malay Peninsula. We had Singapore-born Malays and Malaysian-born Malays in the SAF and the Police, at SAFTI and elsewhere.

“The 4th Malaysian Infantry Brigade consisted of two infantry regiments of about 1,000 soldiers each. Just over half of them were Malaysian, and they had divided loyalties. They were commanded by Brigadier-General Syed Mohamed Alsagoff, a relative of Syed Albar, and another Yemeni Arab. To say that he did not get along with Lee Kuan Yew is to put it mildly. He claimed it was a joke when he told Lee Kuan Yew that he could have had the PAP leaders arrested and shot. Lee Kuan Yew and his family moved out of the Istana and borrowed the Gurkha Regiment to guard them.

“The Malaysian troops, all ethnic Malays, mutinied. Just over half of them supported Malaysia. One of the Singapore officers was killed. It was Col. Alkaff, BG Alsagoff’s cousin, who negotiated a withdrawal of the Malaysian troops. The 4th Malaysian Infantry Brigade withdrew from Singapore by November of 1967. The murderers of the Singapore officer were arrested. Two were hanged, and the others were only released from detention a decade or so ago.

“As a consequence, Lee Kuan Yew used the Land Acquisition Act to dismantle the Alsagoff family landholdings in Singapore. Conscription was instituted, but no Malays were conscripted at first. The commandos, once dominated by Malays, now have none. The Malay officers and NCOs, even though they did not mutiny, were either never promoted or were let go. This included the entire ethnic Malay cohort of officer cadets. And of course, Singapore invited a few countries to come and train our soldiers. Only Israel accepted. They stood by us when we had nothing, and we do not forget our friends.”

That being said, do you believe the reasons Terence gave? Is he even from SAF previously?

February 27, 2019
What happened to Singapore’s Bumiputra?

What happened to Singapore’s bumiputra?

It is a glaring fact that the Malays are weak economically but the situation doesnt come about naturally. It is the product of a cunning social engineering by the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

It is easy to endorse the notion that the Malays are weak economically because they are lazy. This narrative is used to conveniently obscure the abhorrent policies of the PAP.

There is no denying that our ‘decline’ started post independence once the PAP took power. It tilted the balance of play by starving the Malays of opportunities.

There are many research papers done by professors like Lily Zubaidah and Michael D. Barr, to suggest that the PAP discriminatory policies are aimed at maintaining hegemony at the expense of the Malays.

Our situation is compounded further when we recluse ourselves from political participation. Instead of rising up to the occasion and seek redress, our fathers acquiesce.

Today, if we desire to reverse the damage, we cannot afford to be apolitical. Look at what decades of being indifferent brought us to.

The easiest for us to do is to remove the problem from its core. We have had many Malay MPs in parliament. They have come and gone.

Our current Malay MPs and Ministers are never cut out to bring about a change in the system. They have no real desire to uplift our society as a whole. Their senses are being numbed by the high paycheck they receive every month. Let’s not talk about rocking a boat, i dont think they can even muster the courage to rock a cradle.

When our representative in parliament is a dud, then we have take it upon ourselves to replace these people come next election.

#singaporebumiputra #singaporeanmalay #singaporehistory

February 26, 2019
How Would Muslims In Singapore Bury Their Dead Once Land In Singapore Runs Out?

Someone posed this question on the Internet, hoping to get some answers.

Mohammad Sakib Arifin from Bangladesh opined that land will never run out but if it does then Muslims will bury the dead in existing graves. Burying in mass graves is also permissible he added. As evidence, he quoted the following:

Citing from Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa’imah:

The basic principle in Islam is that each deceased person should be buried in a separate grave if possible, and no one else should be buried with him, whether that is someone who died at the same time as him or someone who died after him. Similarly, the basic principle is that it is not permissible to disinter the dead after a while, remove them from their graves and put them in a single hole.

But if it is not possible (to bury each person in a separate grave) because of lack of space, and there is no other space available, or it will cause a great deal of hardship to bury each person on his own, because there are so many dead people due to epidemic, mass killing and so on, it is permissible to bury more than one dead person in a single grave.

End quote from Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa’imah, 7/285

Another user of the platform, Wei Jun from Singapore replied, “The straightforward answer would be to exhume and allow the re-use of the land to continue to function as a grave site or to redevelop the land for future uses.”

“Did you know that you can dig up an old grave and bury a new body at the same place?,” asked Zawar Mahmood from Pakistan.

He explained that Christians also bury their dead as well other religious folks. “The best option is to bury them in the ground and old graves that no one visits any longer – can be dug up and have another person can be buried there.”

Therefore to ensure sufficient land for future burials, NEA has undertaken exhumation programmes at Choa Chu Kang Muslim Cemetery. Exhumations at Blocks 3, 4 and 5 were completed in 2013. Muslim graves at Blocks 6, 7*, 8, 9, 19 & 20 will be exhumed, beginning 26 Sep 2018. The remains will be reinterred at Choa Chu Kang Muslim Cemetery. National Environment Agency (NEA) has appointed Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (Muis) to carry out the registration, exhumation and reinterment services for Phase 6. Family members are invited to claim the remains of their Next-of-Kin (called the “Principal Deceased”) buried in these sections of the cemetery from 26 Sep 2017 till 25 Sep 2018. The claim period will last for one year. Costs of the exhumation and reinterment will be borne by the Government.

Source: quora/pusarasg

March 21, 2018
Malays, Easily Stereotyped In NS Always Hear: ‘Kita Melayu Jadi Infantry. Don’t Put Your Hopes Too High.’

“Kita Melayukan, jadi …. infantry lah …. don’t put your hopes too high.”

Those were the words uttered to me during my son’s orientation at the beginning of his Officer cadet course almost 10 months ago. Testimony of the effective discriminatory practise embedded for more than 50 years against Malays in the SAF.

Malays are loyal and trustworthy like all Singaporeans to don the colours of any Arms of the SAF, ever willing to lay our life for this land we are indigenous to. We proved ourselves as a race when 153 malay regiment soldiers sacrificed their lives in defence of Singapore at Bukit Chandu, in February 1942, against the Japanese invaders. Their heroism are etched permanently into the memory of the Japanese army and the Colonial authority that surrendered Malaya to the Japs.

The Malays have patiently waited and trusted that this collective discrimination on their race will go away one day as promised to them by PAP leaders behind closed door. 50 years on and the situation has not changed except for mere tokenism to feature on occasional pages of the local press or some magazine covers. We have even tolerated the indignation of watching glittering TV ads promoting careers in the Navy etc., knowing fully well that we don’t qualify just because of the colour of our skin.

This policy of restricting Malays in the SAF has indoctrinated in the minds of other races, the unspoken fallacy that Malays are disloyal and cannot be trusted. Infecting every male serving citizen’s mind during 2 years of full-time national service and later for many more years during reservist, inevitably spilling into the wider society too. This vicious poison of distrust towards the Malays, sown in the minds of the people for more than 50 years must end.

This discriminatory practise towards Malays lies deep in the hypocrisy of PAP leaders who imposed these policies while preaching meritocracy and practising so-called deceptive affirmative actions selectively when it suits their political interest. Think GRC, HDB race quota, Malay President fiasco, etc. This whole policy and mindset originating from the PAP are the root cause of this discrimination.

Singaporeans of all races can end this discriminatory policies that has remained as vestiges of our colonial past. We must revive the vision championed by our brave true anti-colonial heroes who are Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians. They suffered their lives to rid this country off the racist colonial policies of the past, so that we can practice and give equal spaces for all citizens regardless of our individual ethnicity and creed. And to consider celebrating Stamford Raffles and his so-called legacy, is a blatant gross affront and a betrayal of the real spirit of the struggles and sacrifices of our founding fathers.

A proud moment for Fuad and parents as we put his officer rank onto his uniform. A proud and honourable Infantry Officer.

Today, my son, together with his peers are commissioned as Officers of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). Each one of them has earned his or her One Bar through their grit and hard work to be proudly bestowed the dignified role of Officers, leading men and women of the SAF in defending this nation, the Constitution of our Republic and the President. As fellow parents witnessing their Commissioning parade today, we are proud of having our sons and daughters standing in service for our Country and her idealism of a Just and Equal society we all want and love.

Together, we can and must rebuilt our Nation’s true vision embodied in the colours and symbols on our Flag that we have neglected. To strive and struggle to leave a truly worthy legacy to our next generation, of a country united as one, where all races respect one another equally, instead of allowing ourselves to be divided and exploited by race for unjust self-serving political ends. The discrimination of Malays in the SAF must cease.

Source: Damanhuri Bin Abas

March 19, 2018