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Tag: Buddhists

  • Lee Hsien Loong: Racial Harmony Here An Unusual And Unnatural State Of Affairs, Need To Be Worked On Continuously

    Lee Hsien Loong: Racial Harmony Here An Unusual And Unnatural State Of Affairs, Need To Be Worked On Continuously

    Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singaporeans of all races and religions are able to live peacefully side by side despite the fact that the country’s racial and religious harmony is an “unusual and unnatural state of affairs”.

    Mr Lee spoke at a Harmony Dinner at the Singapore Expo on Wednesday evening (Apr 15), an event organised by the Taoist Federation to celebrate its Silver Jubilee.

    “There are studies of different societies and there was one study called a report on ‘Global Religious Diversity’ looking at how mixed different societies were – and in fact they ranked Singapore as the most religious diverse society out of 232 countries in the world, and we were the most religiously diverse,” said Mr Lee.

    “The most different religions, the most intermingled, all the world’s major faiths are present in Singapore and many smaller faiths too. And yet we enjoy racial and religious harmony, and we live peacefully and happily side by side every day,” added the Prime Minister. It is something that should be continually worked on to be preserved, he said.

    Mr Lee said building a multi-racial and multi-religious society is a key ideal that Singapore was founded upon.

    Quoting the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister said Singapore does not belong to any single community, but to everyone. Mr Lee said the Taoist Federation worked hard to foster good relations between the different religious groups in Singapore.

    All 10 constituent religions of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) were also present at the Harmony Dinner, and Mr Lee called on the religious leaders to lead by example.

    Said Mr Lee: “Your communities look to you as role models. How you counsel and lead your congregations, your flocks, will shape religious relations in Singapore. So I am very happy that so many of our religious leaders are committed to building trust and friendships with other communities.”

    “We also of course need to keep our society open and inclusive. We can be any race, any religion, but we are also – at the same time – all Singaporeans together. And we have learnt to trust and respect our different races and religions, and to live peacefully with one another,” he said.

    The IRO said racial and religious harmony is also enhanced by having more dialogues between people of various faiths.

    “It is educating everyone as to what another religion has and if you have better understanding of another religion besides your own, that’s when you have a better understanding and that’s where you will have peace and harmony,” said IRO President Gurmit Singh.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Buddhists Demonstrate In Myanmar To Protest Move To Grant Rohingya Muslims Citizenship

    Buddhists Demonstrate In Myanmar To Protest Move To Grant Rohingya Muslims Citizenship

    YANGON — Hundreds of people demonstrated in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, today (Feb 11) to protest a government decision to allow people without full citizenship, including members of the Rohingya ethnic minority, to vote in an upcoming constitutional referendum.

    Most Muslim Rohingya are not citizens, and prejudice against them is high in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

    Parliament plans to debate several constitutional amendments. It recently approved a proposal by President Thein Sein to allow people with temporary identification cards, such as Rohingya, to vote in a referendum tentatively planned for May.

    Communal tensions have led to violence in recent years which left at least 280 people dead and 140,000 homeless, mostly Muslims confined to squalid camps in the western state of Rakhine.

    The temporary identification cards, popularly called “white cards”, were created by the former military regime for the 2010 elections in which it relinquished power to a nominally civilian government, though under heavy army influence. An army-backed political party won seats in areas with sizable numbers of white card holders.

    White card bearers are technically in the process of applying for citizenship. In addition to Rohingya, they include members of ethnic minorities such as the Kokang and Wa, and people of Chinese and Indian descent.

    Parliament originally voted against allowing white card holders to vote in the referendum, but reversed itself after an appeal from Mr Thein Sein. The government has been under pressure from Western nations and rights groups over its treatment of Rohingya, and Mr Thein Sein may have been trying to appease those critics.

    Domestically, however, the move has been sharply criticised.

    Most of those protesting today were Rakhine Buddhists, and the crowd of about 300 included at least 70 Buddhist monks.

    “White card holders are not citizens and those who are non-citizens don’t have the right to vote in other countries. This is just a ploy by politicians to win votes,” said Buddhist monk Shin Thumana.

    Lower house lawmaker Thein Nyunt said the government’s policy toward white card holders is inconsistent because they are banned from voting in general elections but allowed to vote in the referendum. White card holders are not allowed to join political parties.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com