Rilek1Corner

Tag: discrimination

  • OCT Ahmad Arif Ibrahim Cemerlang, Raih Pedang Kehormatan Dan Anugerah Bayonet Emas

    OCT Ahmad Arif Ibrahim Cemerlang, Raih Pedang Kehormatan Dan Anugerah Bayonet Emas

    Hasil prestasi cemerlang, seorang pegawai kadet Angkatan Bersenjata Singapura (SAF) Melayu menerima Pedang Kehormatan.

    Ia diberikan kepada pegawai-pegawai kadet yang menunjukkan prestasi terbaik.

    Ahmad Arif Ibrahim, 22 tahun, juga menerima anugerah Bayonet Emas yang berprestij, satu anugerah yang diberikan kepada 10 peratus kadet terbaik dalam satu-satu kohort.

    Beliau juga boleh berbangga kerana dinobatkan sebagai kadet terbaik dalam latihan fizikal.

    Semalam, Ahmad Arif menjadi antara 568 pegawai kadet yang ditauliahkan sebagai pegawai SAF selepas menjalani latihan selama 38 minggu dalam Kursus Pegawai Kadet.

    Selepas tamat latihan, mereka akan menyandang jawatan pegawai komand, pegawai pemberi arahan dan pegawai staf di unit-unit SAF.

    Berucap di majlis tamat kursus SAF, Timbalan Perdana Menteri Teo Chee Hean menggesa para pegawai supaya meneruskan usaha generasi anggota perkhidmatan yang terdahulu.

    Sementara itu, meskipun diiktiraf sebagai antara pegawai kadet terbaik dalam kohortnya, Arif mengakui beliau mulanya sukar menyesuaikan diri semasa beberapa hari pertama menjalani kursus tersebut.

    Ahmad Arif Ibrahim. (Gambar: Channel NewsAsia)

    “Semasa saya sertai BMT, peralihan daripada gaya hidup orang awam kepada gaya hidup seorang askar agak perlahan, dan lebih mudah untuk saya menyesuaikan diri.

    “Tetapi di OCS, mereka mahu kami bukan menjadi orang awam, tetapi menjadi seorang askar, menjadi seorang pemimpin,” ujarnya.

    Untuk mengongsi pengalaman para pegawai kadet, edisi kedua buku ‘One of A Kind’ juga dilancarkan semalam. Edisi pertama diterbitkan pada 2007.

    Source: http://berita.mediacorp.sg

  • Zulfikar Shariff: Malays Need To Improve Self-Esteem, Be More Aware Of Discriminatory Policies

    Zulfikar Shariff: Malays Need To Improve Self-Esteem, Be More Aware Of Discriminatory Policies

    A couple of Malays, when informed that the PAP has historically discriminated against the community, tried to play it down by saying these policies are in the past. they further argue that we have to forget the past.

    This is the mistake some make when they discuss politics without understanding the institutional effects of policy formulation.

    When a policy is implemented, it does not simply affect its immediate time. Instead, these policies’ effects and implementation can be found far into the future.

    In institutional policy development, there is a concept known as path dependency. Path dependency refers to the behaviour of policy makers in the preferences of choices. When a specific choice is made at an earlier time, that same choice will be used as a template for future choices.

    The PAP’s policy of excluding Malays from the uniformed services is still in existence today. The values, views, ideologies, the very template that gave validity to those policies are still part of the PAP today.

    That it has changed slightly does not mean the reason the policy was crafted has changed.

    The discriminatory policies, apart from showing how Malays are not valued by the PAP, also reveals a careless attitude to policies that affect the Malay community. They did not care or consider the effects the policy would have on the Malays.

    The policy resulted in thousands of Malay youths being unemployed and unable to be educated between 1967 to 1977 (and it extends in some form until 1984).

    No provisions were made. No alternative pathways were given. These youths did not even get the recognition of being informed they would not be enlisted.

    It shows a government that did not care about what happened to Malay youths.

    The effects of this policy devastated the community. Prior to the exclusion of Malays, we found social and economic mobility in the uniformed services.

    Yet the PAP shut down this avenue. They did not renew the contracts of Malays in these services and new applicants were rejected.

    This depressed the community’s economy. They lost their economic stability. An economically depressed community places stress on its own institutions and potential.

    Marriages were affected because of unemployment and financial difficulties. Because Malays generally could not find proper employment or be educated until they were in their late 20s, many were married before they gained financial stability.

    And the financial stress affected these families.

    Opportunities to attend institutions of higher education became narrowed. Families either could not afford fees, extra lessons required or needed these students to find employment because of the family’s financial distress.

    I know of a lot of Malays who had to leave school because their families needed them to work.

    To assume that the PAP’s exclusion of Malay youths only affected the thousands of males during that period is to disregard the damage it caused to the community as a whole.

    We are products of this policy. The Malay community is still getting out of the effects of PAP’s racism. While other communities have been able to afford excellent tuition the last couple of decades, most Malay families are just getting to that level of ability.

    The forced financial distress caused by the PAP’s policies did not just affect those who were excluded in the 70s.

    The racist policies still affects us now.

    If we want to get out of this mess, we should recognise how the government behaves, what the institutional preferences are, what conditions are in place.

    Yes, there are a lot of things we need to work on to strengthen our community.

    And one of the things we need to improve is our self esteem.

    We are better than what we have been accused of.

    Yes some issues are due to our mistakes.

    A lot are not.

    We are a cultured, intelligent and dignified community.

    Do not allow anyone to abuse us.

    Never again.

    We are strong.

    We are Malays.

     

    Source: Zulfikar Shariff

  • Survey Finds That Local Muslim Respondents For The Donning Of The Hijab In Schools, Autonomy Of Madrasahs

    Survey Finds That Local Muslim Respondents For The Donning Of The Hijab In Schools, Autonomy Of Madrasahs

    Between 6th to 13th March, we ran a survey to identify Singapore Muslim community perceptions on several socio-political issues. The survey was based on the Suara Musyawarah report, responses to the report and several AMP studies of the Malay community.

    Summary

    The survey indicates strong concerns on the cost of living, perception of discrimination and the community’s legal and education standing.
    Study

    The online survey was published on Almakhazin.com. Surveygizmo.com provided the engine.

    Five broad categories were addressed: socio-legal, Leadership, Foreign workers/ demography, economy and education. Responses are based on the Likert system with respondents indicating on a 5 point scale from “Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree”.

    This survey is by no means a comprehensive study of the Muslim community. It serves as an indication on several specific issues. Over the next few months, we plan to expand and deepen the understanding of community preferences through with more community surveys. We hope that it will provide a little insight as to how sections of the community perceive various issues.

    We used social media to gather respondents for the survey. Invitations to participate were placed in several Singapore Muslim pages such as Suara Melayu Singapore, Almakhazin SG and Singapore Muslim Students Overseas. None of the groups are based on any political or religious persuasion.

    According to ShareThis count, the survey page was shared 603 times. It was shared through Facebook 578 times, by Twitter 18 times, once by email and Liked 235 times. 6 shares were unaccounted by ShareThis.

    Caveats

    As is inherent in any online survey tool, we rely on respondents’ self identification (religion, gender, age etc) and responses. There is no way to determine if what they declare for themselves are true. However, this is not a unique problem. It exists in online and offline surveys.
    There was also initial concerns of multiple responses from the same person. To minimise the possibility of such behaviour, we filtered responses through IP address. Only the last response per IP address is recognised.

    Responses

    Total number of responses: 334
    After filtering repeats through IP address: 314
    Muslim respondents: 313
    One respondent identified as Christian. Since the survey is on the Muslim community, we had to remove the response.

    Demography
    Age
    The youth age group (defined here for those between 18-35) makes up a slight majority of respondents. However, there was strong representation from 35-54 year olds at 38.7%.

    Gender
    There was an over-representation of male respondents. 2/3 of respondents identified as male. The survey did not seek specifically male or female groups or participants.

    Highest qualifications
    About a third of respondents have tertiary qualifications with Bachelors degree making up a quarter of respondents. A further 34.5% have diplomas.

    Race
    As expected, a large majority of respondents (78.6%) identify as being Malays. 10.2% as Indians.

    Categorisation
    The survey was set up into 5 categories:
    1. Socio-legal
    2. Leadership
    3. Foreign workers and demography
    4. Economy
    5. Education

    In this analysis however, we will recategorise the survey. There are five categories that make up our analysis:
    1. National issues
    2. Community concerns- government
    3. Social contract
    4. Community concerns-Internal
    5. Autonomy

    National issues

    Economy
    In terms of the economy, there appears to be uncertainty in the way the government is managing it even as the respondents tend to believe it is not going very well. There are also concerns with the way the CPF is managed. However, there is a strong concern with the cost of living in Singapore.

    96.8% of respondents are worried about the cost of living in Singapore with 76.4% stating they strongly agree with the statement “I am worried about the high cost of living.”

    However, slightly less than half of the respondents believe the government is not managing the economy well. 30.4% are neutral and about 20% think the government is managing it well.

    62% are concerned about the way CPF is managing their funds with 33.9% indicating they “strongly disagree” with the statement “I am confident with CPF’s management of our funds.”

    Foreign workers
    There appears to be concern on the number of foreign workers and as it relates to the percentage of Malays.

    59% disagree with the statement “I believe the government is right in its foreign worker policies.” 77% feel there are too many foreign workers in Singapore.

    About 63% are “concerned that the number of foreign workers will result in a reduction in the percentage of Muslims in Singapore.”

    Concerns-government
    Policies that affect the community negatively appear to get a strong response.

    There is strong support among the respondents for hijab to be allowed in school and at the workplace. In reference to the ban of hijab in school, 90% of respondents “believe that Muslim students should be allowed to wear hijab in school” with 68.1% saying they strongly agree. 8.6% were neutral to the question. Only 1.3% disagreed and no one strongly disagreed.

    A stronger response was received for question on whether anyone should be denied employment because of hijab. About 98% believe that no one should be denied employment due to hijab with 87.9% believing strongly. 1% were neutral and only 0.6% (even split) believing they can be denied employment due to hijab.

    89% “believe that Muslims should be allowed to enlist in any branch of the armed forces.”

    Further to the concerns of discrimination, 93% “believe that Singapore should enact an Anti-discrimination law to ensure no one is discriminated.”

    Social contract
    Article 152 of the constitution states:
    “Minorities and special position of Malays
    152.
    —(1) It shall be the responsibility of the Government constantly to care for the interests of the racial and religious minorities in Singapore.

    (2) The Government shall exercise its functions in such manner as to recognise the special position of the Malays, who are the indigenous people of Singapore, and accordingly it shall be the responsibility of the Government to protect, safeguard, support, foster and promote their political, educational, religious, economic, social and cultural interests and the Malay language.”

    Signifying the strong sense of the existing social contract 75% of respondents believe in retaining Article 152 of the constitution. Only 3% believed the Article should not be retained.

    About 20% believe the government is living up to its responsibilities as specified in the Article. 34% are neutral about the government’s performance and 43% believe the government has not lived up to it.

    We received several queries in the comment section indicating the respondents’ unfamiliarity with Section 152.

    Community concerns- Internal

    The Malay statistic for imprisonment and educational underachievement has been a disconcerting discussion in the community for some time. Another issue that has received some attention is of the erosion of Malay language use in Singapore.

    With 79% being concerned about the over-representation of Malays in prison, it indicates not only the concern of the severity but also the recognition that the Malays are over-represented.

    Similarly, the perception of Malay educational underachievement is strong with 83% indicating their agreement that it is a concern. Only about 4% are not concerned about the over-representation in NA/NT streams and ITE and the underrepresentation in Universities.

    However, it should be noted that with a growing recognition of the value of ITE education, respondents may have indicated their lack of concern due to their acceptance of ITE as a viable and valuable educational pathway.

    There is also a strong position taken on Malay language. 80% are concerned about the erosion of the language in Singapore. 14% are neutral.
    The concern however may also be due to the greater public statements and campaigns encouraging the use of the language. With enhanced recognition, the belief in its lack and improper use may have become stronger.

    Autonomy
    There is also a strong sense of the necessity of community autonomy from government control. About 80% of respondents believe madrasah should be independent of government control and for the highest Islamic authority to not be appointed by the government. About 63% also believe that community leaders should not be involved in politics.

    Discussion
    There appears to be disenchantment within the community in various government policies. There also is a strong sense of communal concern among respondents. This can be due to the possibility that those who participate in such surveys to already be concerned about the questions asked, that the issues are current and significant or there is a socio-political alignment among those who participate in such community based surveys.

    It may also be due to respondents who participate in social media based discussions to be more concerned about the issues in the survey.

    The demographics indicate a wide variety of respondents. If this can be taken as a cross section of Malay community response, then it indicates a substantial disagreement with current policies especially with regard to community-government relations.

    There appears to be a greater sense of disenfranchisement between members of the community and the government. Discrimination, control and high cost of living apart from community underachievement are real concerns that need to be resolved.

    This survey provided the broad strokes in community perception. We will follow up with surveys that go in depth on the issues discussed above with special attention on community-government relations.

    The survey results can be viewed at:
    http://app.surveygizmo.com/reportsview/?key=345590-4188929-4606949383d247e91eebedc49140b4e8

     

    Source: http://almakhazin.com

  • Alfian Sa’at: Ignore Calvin Cheng, Let Reason Prevail

    Alfian Sa’at: Ignore Calvin Cheng, Let Reason Prevail

    Actually, in all honesty, I don’t really care anymore what this strange, confused and ignorant person by the name of Calvin Cheng said. I mean, where do I even begin? Basically what this guy is alleging is that pointing out discriminatory policies is directly responsible for radicalisation–as if those policies are not the very cause of radicalisation to begin with!

    If this person wanted attention, I’m sure he’s got it, but it makes me feel dirty to want to have anything more to do with him.

    Let’s all move on lah, though I won’t blame people for lingering around to watch him self-destruct on his backpedaling and squirming and stammering and equivocations. The thing is that if you try to smear someone and you’re not very good at it, then you just end up getting shit on your own face.

    (OK, I admit–I did try to find out who Calvin Cheng is, and tried reading some of his Facebook posts. And I concluded that the only argument that this ex-NMP person has produced worthy of any consideration is a walking, breathing argument against the NMP scheme.)

    I do get a warm and fuzzy feeling though from knowing that I have friends who are on the side of reason and truth and sanity. Yay friends!

    In other more important news, my short story collection ‘Corridor’ has been republished by Ethos Books. And contrary to what Calvin Cheng would like to insinuate, it’s not on ISIS’ reading list.

     

    Source: Alfian Sa’at

  • Calvin Cheng: Irresponsible Rhetoric Alleging Racial Discrimination Against Malays Fuelling Would-Be Radicals

    Calvin Cheng: Irresponsible Rhetoric Alleging Racial Discrimination Against Malays Fuelling Would-Be Radicals

    The self-radicalisation of the ISA-detained youth by ISIS propaganda is worrying.

    We need to be acutely aware of the seductive messages behind these terrorist groups, as everywhere, they prey on the feelings of Muslims with promises of glory and power under a revived caliphate.

    In countries where Muslims are minorities, ISIS propaganda takes advantage of feelings of insecurities, fabricate lies that they are being oppressed and then thereafter persuade them to commit acts of violence against their alleged oppressors, all under a twisted version of Islam.

    That is why in Singapore, we have to be careful as we have similar fault-lines that can be exploited.

    People like Alfian Sa’at for example need to be careful of their irresponsible rhetoric, which allege racial discrimination against our Malay-Muslim brethren.

    At the best of times, these allegations should be carefully considered. With ISIS stoking the flames worldwide and seeking to radicalise Muslim minorities everywhere, they should tread even more carefully about inciting racial and religious disaffection.

    The Government should watch commentators like Alfian Sa’at closely and if red lines are crossed, the use of the ISA on these domestic agitators should not be ruled out.

     

    Source: Calvin Cheng