Category: Singapuraku

Apa Dah Jadi Dengan Masyarakat Melayu Singapura?

Oh Orang Melayu. Bila nak taubat? Bila nak maju?

Semalam saya terbaca pasal pergaduhan di Geylang yang telah mengakibatkan seoang lelaki maut. Betul-betul ingatkan bangsa diorang yang terlibat sebab kan tempat kejadian kat Geylang lorong-lorong bukan Geylang Serai. Saya dimaklumkan Geylang Lorong 2 sampai Lorong 30 tu red light district di Geylang. Tak ramai Melayu did sana. Kejadian berlaku di antara Lorong 6 dengan 8. Di sana kalau ada kes sebegini selalunya bangsa diorang atau bangsa diorang yang diimport dari Cina.

Jadi bila dapat tahu yang terlibat merupakan orang Melayu, saya begitu terkejut.

Apa yang mereka buat di sana? Ada makanan halal ke? Duduk minum kopi je?

Yang lebih buat saya tertanya-tanya, kenapa ada perselisihan faham sampai tak boleh bawak bicara? Satu hilang nyawa tetapi berapa banyak keluarga yang akan musnah akibat perkelahian ini? Keluarga akan berpecah belah, anak-anak susah nak ke sekolah, tiada bembingan, masa depan mereka malap. Kerana apa? Kerana seorang wanita? Maaf cakap lah, wanita yang berkenaan pun bukan lah rupa macam Rahimah Rahim ke…

Mereka akan menyesal tak sudah. Tapi apa nak buat?

Sayang sekali. Saya lihat masyarakat kita ni penuh budaya, penuh pegangan, penuh daya kreatif dan penuh keberanian. Tetapi ciri-ciri in disalurakan kepada initiatif atau usaha yang bukan saja membebankan, malah merosakkan.

Saya teringat dahulu adik saya masuk penjara kerana penglibatannya dalam satu gang fight. Rioting. Mak saya yang susah payah pergi Changi Prison untuk melawat dia. Kita tidak ada duit. Mak pun kurang sihat tapi mak tetap mahu lihat adik saya. Dari Jurong Extension sampai Changi. Perjalanan sungguh jauh setakat nak bertemu adik kurang dari setengah jam.

Yang lagi mebuat saya sedih, ramai jugak nenek-nenek yang ditemani cucu-cucu mereka. Saya tanya diri saya kenapa adik-adik ni tak ke sekolah? Satu ni terangkan yang dia menemani nenek dia untuk melihat bapanya yang di dalam. Dia lah yang tolong nenek dia turun naik bas, pergi register kat Prison Link Centre…budak 10 tahun dah tahu pasal masalh dunia sebegini. Sepatutnya mereka berada di sekolah bersama rakan-rakan, bukan di Prison.

Sudah sekian lama, masyarakat kita masih terjebak dengan masalah sosial. Keluarga pincang, anak luar nikah, masalah dadah, masalah kumpulan samseng. Kenapa masih tak berubah?

Mana daya saingan kita? Mana wawasan kita?

Kalau bukan kerana masyarakat pun, ushalah yang baik-baik untuk mempertingkatkan diri anda demi masa depan kelurga. Jangan buang masa. Zaman kian berubah kalau kita tak ikut sama, kita akan hanyut ditelan arus pemodenan. Insha Allah, dengan berkat doa dan usaha, masyarakat kita akan, sedikit demi sedikit, merubah masa depan.

Reader Contribution: Ismadi

May 7, 2015
What Are Our Universities Doing About The LGBT Community?

Aku terkilan nampak posting dari NTU Kaleidoscope semalam. Makin baca makan hati aku membuak. Bingit siak.

Diorang repost satu article dari Today yang telah ditulis bersama oleh beberapa orang yang associated dengan Inter-University LGBT Network.

Aku ada satu soalan…kenapa cara hidup komuniti LGBT ni harus digembar-gembur dan diterima mayarakat? Nampak macam diorang ditomah lah selalu, macam hidup mereka tu susah merana. Orang-orang Nepal yang merana takda rumah, keluarga hapus keranan gempa bumi pun takda teruk asyik complain macam diorang. Macam kena victimised sangat ke apa sial…

Kelakar siak dapat tau yang ada banyak support groups untuk komuniti LGBT in our univeristies. As a graduate of one of the uni, aku malu siak nampak ni macam punya support for komuniti LGBT ni.

NUS je dah ada tiga kumpulan yang provide support. Tak rasa ada banyak group untuk budak-budak Melayu yang datang dari keluarga susah. Sedangkan korang tengok…NUS Muslim society agaknya ada satu, society Bahasa Melayu pun ada satu. Apa mereka lebih important daripada kita ke? Apa diorang punya problem lebih teruk dari problem masyarakat kita yang bertahun-tahun, tukar Minister ni Minister tu pun tak boleh solve jugak the problems.

Yang ada aku menyampah dia punya anggek macam dia bagus sangat. Tapi yang ada aku respect diorang as individuals. Yang ada mampus dia punya pandai dan konfiden.

Tapi as a Muslim aku tak boleh bawak diri aku nak accept mereka. Bukan aku je fikir macam ni. Ramai lagi orang dari agama lain pun macam tu juga. Ini agama kita tak accept kenapa ni uni-uni pandai-pandai nak force it down our throats? Kita boleh tolog diorang tapi kalau diorang yang tengok kita macam sial, sala siapa siak? Diorang yang suspicious of us. Kenapa?

Memang bukan tempat kita untuk judge diorang, memang terpulang pada mereka…aku pun tak kisah sebab aku pun ni bukan macam malaikat pun. Tapi kenapa sibuk-sibuk sangat pasal hal diorang? Kau tanya diri kau, apa diorang buat untuk be normal. Diorang yang ostracise diri mereka. adakau nampak orang cakap depan muka diorang…eh bapuk pergi berambus…ada?

Orang Melayu diorang suruh integrate. Apasal nak jadikan LGBT komuniti ni separate and distinct? Kena give diorang special treatment? Aapa counsellors kat NTU, SMU atau NUS tak cukup ke atau tak boleh handle?

Aku hope ni universities ni semua do something about this. Nanti tahun depan apa? 10 LGBT support groups in the unis?

Reader Contribution: Faiz S

May 7, 2015
Free Internet Group’s Ideas Destructive To Mutiracialism

I refer to the report “Blogger group slams shutdown of website as blatant censorship” (May 5).

The apparent proponents of a free Internet are fighting for something that may eventually incite hatred between foreigners and Singaporeans and, more destructively, among the various races and religions here.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) was clear that it would have initiated the suspension of The Real Singapore (TRS) with or without the sedition charges and that its move is not dependent on the outcome of the charges.

If one fights determinedly for Internet freedoms with no inkling of the nature of the damage that irresponsible sensitive postings, especially faked news, could cause, one would pour fuel on the MDA’s statement with politically motivated rhetoric.

Here lies the difference, however, between these parties and those who have gone through racial riots and appreciate the real dangers.

If the Internet and social media had been available in the 1960s, the damage Singapore had seen would have been greater or even irreversible, beyond the point of superficial racial self-restraint.

We have benefited from having many people who survived the riots and who can tell us of the tensions and fears during those dark times and of the precious lessons thereafter.

We also have imprudent parties who have no care for responsible media, ever comparing media controls and the latest clampdown with freedom of speech in the West, yet are awkwardly in denial of the disastrous events unfolding there even today.

If one sees the shutdown of TRS as the loss of a feedback channel for the Government and a curtailment of online voices, then one also has no care for multiracial and multi-religious mechanisms, and a denial of various avenues of feedback.

Regretfully, some people should have experienced our past riots to wake up to the fact that this is not a region where audacious free speech may work but where irresponsible utterances might get us or our loved ones killed.

I have tried over the years to caution against such dangers and have been called naively many names, such as a puppet of the establishment, or asked to return to my “own country”; childishness and a lack of knowledge abound.

If one does not get to know more deeply one’s history and what makes up Singapore, this lack of understanding of how our integration started off reluctantly, but works well today for a reason, is what would set us back.

This article by Eugene De Rozario first appeared on Voices, Today, on 7 May 2015

Source: www.todayonline.com

May 7, 2015
Ismail Kassim: Amos Yee Should Be Lauded For His Guts And Talents

Part II: Amos Yee saga

A clarification: Contrary to earlier reports, Amos prefers not to be out on bail as he considers the bail conditions too onerous. This was made clear by his bailor.

16 year old Amos Yee continues to languish behind bars with no one willing to post bail for him.

Is he a victim of his own making? An insufferable boy, who cannot refrain from violating his bail condition, by continuing to post comments online. Or is he a little rebel protesting against the way he has been treated by the police and the courts for his video rant.

I am beginning to think that he is fighting a one-little-boy battle against the overkill mentality of the authorities. Is it going to be a test of will between a teeny-weeny juvenile and an all-mighty state?

The way the multiple charges have been laid out against him and the onerous bail conditions show that the old bureaucratic mentality still prevails.

This is a bad omen. It dashes hopes of a new beginning in the post-LKY era. Change, if any, must always come from the top and filter down to the police, the judiciary, the courts and the bureaucrats.

Unless the authorities change the way they treat him or he decides to behave – like other normal, logical, law-abiding citizens, fearful of their rice bowls; neither of which seems probable at the moment, he may end up in prison for months or even years.

I am afraid we are seeing the making of another political exile. Is he going to be hounded out of our little red dot? Amos seems to be on track to share the same fate as Tan Wah Piow, Tang Liang Hong and Francis Seow.

With his attitude, he cannot survive in our strait-laced little island and the best hope for him – if he cannot control his urges – is to seek political asylum in a more conducive environment where his talents will be much appreciated.

I do hope it will not come about, for it will be a great loss for all of us. The boy has got talent and he has also got lots of guts.

Source: Ismail Kassim

May 7, 2015
Ismail Kassim: Public Should Not Judge Amos Yee

The Amos Yee drama is getting more exciting with its unexpected twists and turns.

He is back in remand and self-righteous Singaporeans wring their hands in despair. Out of frustration, some even go to the extent of lashing out at him for not behaving ‘’in ways that they themselves would if they were in his shoes.’’

I am not sure at this stage what’s wrong with him. Has he – and I don’t rule it out – some kind of psychological problem? Perhaps, there is a medical explanation for his inability to control himself. Like an addict who cannot keep away from drugs.

Or, is there some rationale behind his apparent madness. Could it be just a small boy’s vain attempt to shoulder a big man’s job in pushing forward the boundaries of self-expression? A boy, who is willing to martyr himself, for the larger good of all.

A more democratic society with less personal restrictions cannot come about just by wishing or twiddling our thumbs. Someone has to do something at some risk to self. Has Amos self-appointed himself to undertake a one-boy struggle for more freedom for all of us?

Let us not be too hasty to judge him with our middle-class morality and logic as to what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

Let us not forget even for one minute that our values have to a large extent been shaped by growing up and living under a strict and restrictive social and political environment.

What he has done so far is not a crime in many other countries, and even if he is in a few, he would not have been hand-cuffed and shackled like what happened to him here.

Amos Yee needs our sympathies. Pity him if you like, but please refrain from passing judgement.

Source: Ismail Kassim

May 7, 2015