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Tag: Damanhuri Abas

  • Damanhuri Abas – A Champion Of Malay Rights

    Damanhuri Abas – A Champion Of Malay Rights

    Until recently, Mr Damanhuri Bin Abas has been the Director of Muhammadiyah Islamic College. He has extensive experience in managing educational organizations, and spent over a decade teaching and training.

    Married with five children, Daman holds a Bachelor degree in Architectural Study from the National University of Singapore. Thereafter, he holds a Diploma in Teaching and Training from Cambridge, UK, and a Diploma in Counseling from Kaplan, Singapore.

    As a Malay Muslim, Daman is perturbed about the institutionalization of discrimination in Singapore. For example, many Malays feel that they are not being trusted to be in the arm forces. It is also easy to notice the lack of Malay students in Special Assisted School. Daman wishes to ensure that such inequality is being addressed.

    He joins the Singapore Democratic Party because it is the only party that concretely spelt out a stand on the Malay issues that he can identify with. An example of the effectiveness of the SDP’s Malay policy paper can be seen in the introduction of Edusave and the recent announcement by the Government to help improve secular education in Madrasah. He hopes Singaporeans will let him be their Voice in Parliament.

     

    Source: http://yoursdp.org

  • Walid J.Abdullah: Damanhuri Abas Deserves Plaudits For Joining SDP Based On Political Convictions

    Walid J.Abdullah: Damanhuri Abas Deserves Plaudits For Joining SDP Based On Political Convictions

    On joining the wrong party:

    Some have suggested that Mr Damanhuri Abas has joined the wrong party: had he joined WP, he would have had a higher chance of getting elected.

    (For my friends of different or no faiths who may not understand the significance of this matter, this guy is the real deal. He is someone who has truly been ‘on the ground’ and has been active in many grassroots activities over so many years (real grassroots activities; not merely helping out at the MPS a couple of years before being unveiled as a candidate, and then claiming that ‘i have always wanted to help others’. This man is quite respected in the community.)

    The suggestion is perhaps right: WP definitely poses more of a threat to PAP than SDP does. However, one has to ask this question: could Mr Damanhuri have mentioned all those things he did in his first press conference had he been in WP? Could he have been as forthcoming and blunt as he was about discrimination if the careful WP was the conducting the press conference? Probably not.

    So the challenge then goes to WP: is it willing to openly champion minority issues as much as SDP does? And perhaps the larger questions are: will WP continue to tread down this conservative, non-committal path on such issues, and if so, what really is the difference between PAP and WP?

    On another note, it is highly refreshing to see someone joining a party based on his convictions, rather than on probability of electoral success. We will never have a shortage of people who want to join the ruling party to cause ‘change from within’, and to be honest, the more successful WP becomes, the more it will attract people who wants to try to ‘change from within’. But it is extremely rare, to have capable people – not disgruntled nobodies – who make a huge sacrifice and join a party, just so as to be true to his/her beliefs.

    For that, this man deserves a ton of respect.

     

    Source: Walid J. Abdullah