Rilek1Corner

Tag: Indian

  • Halimah Yacob Must Make Up Mind About Running For Presidency

    Halimah Yacob Must Make Up Mind About Running For Presidency

    This position is not for Prima Donnas.

    You do not play hard to get, dance around speculations and play games with Singaporeans.

    If you want to be our President, convince us that you want the office.

    Look at Farid Khan and Salleh Marican. Despite knowing that they do not meet the eligibility criteria of $500 million dollars of the shareholder’s equity, it did not stop them from coming forward, calling a press conference and showing conviction that they are ready to answer to the calling.

    Madam Halimah, on the other hand, is hesitant.

    One day she says she is focused on her job as a speaker and as an MP and the next, she says she is seriously considering the position.

    Even her ‘announcement’ yesterday was from a leaked source.

    Eh hello makcik. Why like that leh?

    You want or don’t want? Please don’t act coy. The Presidency is a serious business.

     

    Source: www.thoughtssg.com

  • Presidential Candidates Must Have Clear Conscience Declaring Themselves “Malay” When Even Other “Half-Malays” Are Not Considered As One

    Presidential Candidates Must Have Clear Conscience Declaring Themselves “Malay” When Even Other “Half-Malays” Are Not Considered As One

    Assalaamu’alaikom, semua. Actually, I have a real-life personal story to tell.

    My younger sister is married to a Singaporean Arab (not the rich one, mind you). His son, that is my nephew, was accepted into NTU about 10 years ago. He applied for Mendaki Scholarship but was rejected because he is considered NOT a Malay by Mendaki. My nephew is considered of Arab race based on his identity card as my brother-in-law is an Arab and needless to say, my sister is a Malay as I am. I did ask my MP at that time but he said that my nephew is not considered a Malay by “constitutional” definition.

    So, he had to apply for Mendaki Study Loan which he did and got the loan with my brother-in-law and I as guarantors.

    He graduated and started working and subsequently settled his loan with Mendaki several years ago.

    With due respect to all potential presidential candidates who claim to have some “Malayness” in them, ask yourself honestly and with a clear conscience: Is it fair to claim yourself to be a Malay when others who are “half-a-Malay” are not considered as one?

    Demi Allah, this is a true story. Assalaamu’alaikom warahmatullahi wabarokaatuh.

     

    Source: Yahya Hamid in Suara Melayu Singapura

  • [Malaysia] PM Najib Razak: Indian-Muslims In Country Are Bumipiteras

    [Malaysia] PM Najib Razak: Indian-Muslims In Country Are Bumipiteras

    The government will consider a request from the Indian-Muslim community in Malaysia to be recognised as Bumiputera, Prime Minister Najib Razak said tonight.

    He said Bumiputera status could be applied to the group either “administratively or by gazette”.

    “I have listened to the requests made (by the community) and I accept that Indian-Muslims are Bumiputera.

    “The question now is how to implement this; we will study this further to see whether it should be done administratively or, as the Indian-Muslim community have requested, by gazette. However, you are considered Bumiputera,” Najib told members of Indian-Muslim NGOs at a Hari Raya and family day celebration in Seri Kembangan tonight.

    The term “Bumiputera” means “son of the soil” and is used to refer to the Muslims and indigenous peoples of Malaysia. Bumiputera currently form 68.8% of the country’s population.

    Federation of Malaysian Indian-Muslims president Dhajudeen Shahul Hameed tonight thanked the government for acknowledging the community as Bumiputera and requested that their status be made official through a circular.

    “Even though we are acknowledged as Bumiputera, we still face a lot of bureaucracy and misinterpretation. Therefore, we hope Datuk Seri Najib Razak will issue a circular to state that Indian-Muslims are indeed Bumiputera,” Dhajudeen said in his speech at the event attended by about 20,000 people.

     

     

    Source: www.themalaysianinsight.com

  • PAP Supporter: Halimah Yacob Shouldn’t Contest Presidency

    PAP Supporter: Halimah Yacob Shouldn’t Contest Presidency

    By all accounts, Madam Halimah Yacob is a warm, compassionate and humble person, and a popular MP; she is well-loved by her constituents. Madam Halimah has also carried out her duties as Speaker of Parliament with dignity, as the first female Speaker of Parliament in Singapore’s history.

    However, I feel she should not run for the office of Elected President.

    Firstly, she has been elected not only as a Member of Parliament, but as the all-important minority candidate of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC. She owes a duty to those who elected her to stay on and fulfil her responsibilities as MP. It would also call the whole raison d’être of the GRC into question, if it is left without a minority representative. The role of Speaker of Parliament is also a vey important one. It shouldn’t be resigned from lightly.

    Secondly, although the position of Speaker is equivalent to a Minister in protocol, it surely isn’t in responsibility. One reason for raising the criteria for private sector candidates (chief executive role in a 500m company) was to benchmark it to the responsibilities of a Minister, who has to manage huge billion dollar budgets and hundreds to thousands of civil servants. The Speaker of Parliament has no such equivalent responsibility. It would thus detract from the credibility of recent changes to private sector eligibility criteria, if a former Speaker were deemed to have the necessary skill-sets to guard our financial reserves.

    Madam Halimah is already a highly respected MP. She has already cemented her place in history as being the first female Speaker of Parliament. Her services are arguably more needed amongst the constituents she loves, and who love her in return.

    I do hope Madam Halimah will seriously consider whether to run for EP, as she is doing, and decide eventually not to.

     

    Source: Calvin Cheng

  • A Call To Lead – Qualified Malay Candidates Must Show Courage, Step Up And Give Singaporeans True Choice

    A Call To Lead – Qualified Malay Candidates Must Show Courage, Step Up And Give Singaporeans True Choice

    As we get closer to Syawal, Malays in Singapore are also getting closer and closer to the day of reckoning – come election day in September, Singapore will have its first Malay President since the late Encik Yusof Ishak, albeit in a reserved election. People like Dr Tan Cheng Bock and human rights lawyer M Ravi are challenging the constitutionality of the elections but chances are, the elections will go through. Up till now, we still don’t know which candidate PAP will support but everyone thinks it’ll be current Speaker of Parliament, Halimah Yacob. What about alternative candidates who are independent from PAP? Besides Mr Salleh Marican, no one has stood up to be counted. The silence is deafening but unsurprising.

    Poor Mr Salleh Marican has faced a lot criticism the moment he announced his candidacy. A lot of people have, rightly so, questioned his candidacy as he is not purely of Malay ethnicity. His lepak interview with BeritaMediacorp outside the elections department where he basically mangled the Malay language, did nothing to convince Singaporeans that he is adequately Malay. Some more critical ones have even taken to disparaging his wife’s appearance. All this is nothing but damaging to his confidence in running for Presidency.

    What Singaporeans must appreciate is that it takes a lot of courage for a successful businessman like Mr Salleh Marican to take up public office. He does not need to do this because he needs the money. He doesn’t. He is already rich. He is doing this because he wants to. He wants to serve because heeded the call of Lee Hsien Loong for capable and qualified Malay Singaporeans to step up to contest the elections.

    He may have been a mess but it could just be nerves, One doesn’t create a multi-million dollar empire overnight. Mr Salleh Marican has the mettle and the political savvy to succeed.

    He also has his heart in the right places. Besides his business, Mr Salleh Marican is actively involved in philanthropic activities. Since 2009, Mr Salleh Marican was appointed a founding member of the Board of Temasek Cares, a philanthropic organisation established by GIC Temasek Holdings. Halimah Yacob was also a founding board member.

    Temasek Cares had help fund the setting up of the Family Therapy Institute in Eunos, run by PPIS.

    He is now also a Treasurer of the Temasek Cares Board, ‘who now includes former PAP MP, Zainul Abidin Rasheed.

    There are not many candidates with Mr Salleh Marican’s background. There are also not many candidates like him who are brave enough to step up. However, is he truly the candidate for the Malay community?

    We call on other Malay leaders to follow in the footsteps of Mr Salleh Marican to offer themselves as a candidate for Presidency. Some may say that too many candidates will dilute the votes for non-establishment candidates but an election is about the exercise of power by the individual through the ballot box. Singaporeans are smart enough to choose the right candidates with the right credentials. One who is independent from the influences of the incumbent.

     

    Said

    Reader Contribution