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Tag: malay

  • Tan Jee Say: Reserved Presidential Election An Admission Of PAP’s Failure To Unite Singaporeans Regardless Of Race

    Tan Jee Say: Reserved Presidential Election An Admission Of PAP’s Failure To Unite Singaporeans Regardless Of Race

    Mr Tan Jee Say, a candidate from the 2011 Presidential Election who won a quarter of the votes cast, said that the sweeping changes proposed for the Elected Presidency is the same as “changing the rules to get rid of the competition.”

    If the proposals by the Constitutional Commission is accepted and implemented before the next Presidential Election by Parliament, Mr Tan will not qualify for the contest this time around.

    Mr Tan suggested that the Government should introduce a “grandfather clause” if it is sincere about not having ulterior motives for implementing the changes. He pointed out that there is precedent for such an exemption in the USA, where seven southern states enacted this statutory mechanism between the years 1895 and 1910. It provided that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1866 or 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting.

    “We should be happy that we are giving the people a bigger pool to choose from, rather than restricting it further,” Mr Tan said, to question the need to tighten the eligibility criteria further.

    He added: “It’s like saying that since we have too many lawyers and only those lawyers with a first-class honours degree can practice law. You’re making it very elitist, and less representative of the population of Singapore.”

    Mr Tan further said that parliament approving the proposal for having a reserved election is a backward step and would be akin to the “Government admitting it has failed in bringing races together. To move from racial integration to entitlement.”

    “Race was never an issue. Why bring it out now?” he asked.

    Mr Tan said that despite the severe discrimination of blacks in the past, America did not need a reserved election to elect its first African-American President – Barack Obama. Any legislation which legitimises reserved election here would be see as politicising the Office of the President by introducing racial issues, he said.

    “We don’t have the kind of racial riots and all the racial trouble (in the US). Yet we are doing this. Why?” -Tan Jee Say

     

    Source: http://theindependent.sg

  • More Diversity In Voices Need To Be Heard On Racism In Singapore

    More Diversity In Voices Need To Be Heard On Racism In Singapore

    This article, “Racism in Singapore: Stop telling us minorities how to react to it“. has been shared widely, and I definitely think it is an important voice. I see a growing number of articles/conversations about racism, and a wider range of people speaking up, which I think are encouraging signs that there is more awareness and willingness to talk about race in Singapore.

    I hope the conversation doesn’t fixate on or stagnate at individualised, interpersonal instances of microaggressions, exclusion or privilege. Of course, these experiences aren’t separate from systemic racism, and are in fact deeply linked to them, but the connection often isn’t made as strongly as it could be.

    People switching to Chinese in conversations, friends telling racist jokes, etc are definitely significant and we should keep talking about these things and how they affect us, as well as how we can respond to them. We’ve all had these experiences and can feel solidarity around them.

    But I’m also interested in conversations that I don’t hear as much – about how Malay and Tamil people are overrepresented in prisons, whether they’re more likely to be profiled/picked up for certain crimes than Chinese people are, how Malay students are grossly underrepresented in universities, and what the barriers racial minorities face in accessing education, housing and jobs are.

    I’m interested in critiquing more closely, how our cultures and people are portrayed as backward, lazy, violent, uncivilised and parasitic in national narratives, and whether we can organise to push for anti-discrimination laws, for greater political representation and more in-depth analysis on how the media perpetuates harmful stereotypes about race.

    How many of the 1 in 10 families that live in poverty in Singapore are Malay or Tamil, and how much harder is it for racial minorities to experience intergenerational social mobility? The narrative continues to be that minorities need to work harder to catch up, and some minority groups are held up as “model minorities” and pitted against others. The recent study on Singaporeans’ receptivity to a president of a different race showed that both Indian and Malay respondents would prefer a Chinese candidate over each other. Is this what the success of a divide and rule approach looks like? Solidarity amongst racial minorities is low, and there’s plenty of racism to be explored there too.

    Social problems like unplanned teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and gang culture are ghettoised, stigmatised and pinned to the cultural deficit of minority communities rather than to structural discrimination, alienation and poverty. They’re also not given the same centrality in social policy as problems like gambling, that are more common in Chinese communities, are (as Alfian Sa’at’s play ‘GRC’ points out so well).

    Race needs to be a lens we apply to every social phenomenon we study, and we need more race disaggregated data about everything. The government, certain think tanks and the media are quick to look at race when it is to pin an issue as an “Indian problem” or “Malay problem”, but not to pinpoint racial discrimination.

    To take one example, there’s been a lot of discussion about bullying in Singapore schools – if studies on this also looked at whether racial minorities face more abuse/different types of abuse in school (I’m sure it’s true), anecdotes of interpersonal racism that appear in articles like this would have more context and meaning, and we would be able to offer deeper analysis and make stronger arguments for change. It doesn’t just stop at “my friends needs to be more sensitive” but allows us to demand that MOE, schools and educators take a proactive stance in addressing racial discrimination on a nationwide, school-wide or at least classroom-wide level.

    But maybe there is a different point to be made here too. While there is more interest in discussing race, while there are more voices addressing this now than before, are they diverse enough? Many of these voices, including mine, are middle-class voices. And I believe there are more important voices to listen to, when it comes to racism. The same way that middle-class feminism can silence working class women’s struggles, race consciousness that is not informed by class struggle can be a hazard. I am excited to explore possibilities for organising, for collective action, and to not allow individualised identity politics (or the “cult of individualism”) to become self-limiting or deteriorate into navel gazing.

     

    Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

     

  • Yet To Finish School But Already Top Insurance Agents

    Yet To Finish School But Already Top Insurance Agents

    He cleared his study loan of $19,000 in one lump sum, and has a second-hand black Audi A4 to his name.

    Yet, Mr Chew Zhan Lun, 24, graduated only two months ago.

    In 2014, while he was studying banking and finance at Nanyang Technological University, he joined Great Eastern as a financial consultant and managed to earn $36,000 in the 2015 financial year.

    He had to sit for six Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services examinations over two months to attain the requirements needed to be a Great Eastern agent from the Singapore College of Insurance.

    He then started going door to door selling insurance.

    On school days, he would work three nights a week.

    During his school holidays, he worked six nights a week, averaging two and a half hours each night. The avid gamer even cut back on playing computer games to focus on his job.

    The going was tough at first.

    Mr Chew said: “For every one person who said yes, there were nine who said no.”

    He soon learnt to take rejection in his stride and he stuck by a policy of not using a hard sell technique.

    Instead, he tried to be patient, proving his expertise to potential clients while becoming friends with them. His philosophy? “Not every friend is my client, but every client is my friend.”

    Mr Chew had wanted to become a banker, but he joined the insurance industry to gain experience in the financial industry.

    He found it a meaningful line of work and, after half a year, he decided to stay on.

    He said: “For example, at a funeral, some professions would be asking for payment from the family, but an insurance agent would be the one handing over money.

    “This is something I take pride in and I hope to get more recognition for this line.”

    Mr Chew has earned praise from his manager, Mr Alan Phua, 30, who said: “Zhan Lun always stood out for his creative and bold ideas… He has impressive potential.

    A Great Eastern spokesman said the company is seeing an increasing number of student financial consultants joining their 3,200-strong team, but said that they are unable to provide specific figures.

    She said: “From our experience, the young advisers are dedicated, committed and hard-working in their own way.

    “They relate well with their peers and hence are able to effectively communicate to them the importance of insurance and the need for early financial planning.”

    Mr Chew has his eye on setting up his own agency in the future.

    For every one person who said yes, there were nine who said no.

    – Mr Chew Zhan Lun

    She is only 21, but the final-year business student at the National University of Singapore qualified for AIA’s rising star club in June.

    She also received the Top Sales award during her summer internship at AIA last year.

    Miss Marissa Fuad puts in about 20 hours a week during her school term and earns between $1,500 and $2,500 a month.

    During school holidays, she invests up to 50 hours a week and earns $4,500 to $5,000 a month.

    Miss Marissa got interested in financial planning in her first year of university, after attending a career talk by SP-Win, an authorised representative of AIA.

    “You learn about the impact you can have on people when you help them with their claims and savings,” she said.

    She found that she connected with people her age and was able to explain financial planning to them.

    “At the university level, most students do not know much about financial planning, but as someone in this line, you are the go-to person when people have questions,” she said.

    SACRIFICES

    Juggling her studies with her work came with some sacrifices.

    Miss Marissa said she did not have time to indulge in her favourite Korean dramas and Game of Thrones TV series.

    Last year, she gave up going to South Korea for an exchange programme as part of her undergraduate business course because it would take place at the same time as her internship programme at AIA.

    An AIA spokesman said that agents who are also undergraduates help in getting their peers to understand the importance of financial planning from a young age.

    She added: “Some (student consultants) have really excelled and even received commendations, recognitions and promotions to financial services manager (positions) even before they graduate.”

    While AIA declined to reveal specific figures, it confirmed that its number of agents who are still students is increasing.

    Ms Wong Sze Keed, chief agency officer of AIA Singapore, said: “The job flexibility, strong mentorship and the AIA brand are some key reasons they have cited for joining us.”

    At the university level, most students do not know much about financial planning, but as someone in this line, you are the go-to person when people have questions.

    – Miss Marissa Fuad

    Would you buy from a student agent?

    While the number of students also working as financial consultants has been growing, the reception towards them seems to be mixed, judging by responses from people The New Paper spoke to.

    Army regular Chia Mui Sowe, 50, whose family owns six insurance policies, would consider buying policies from a student, as long as he is convinced by the terms of the policy.

    Mr Chia said: “It doesn’t matter who sells me the policy, as long as it is something I need.”

    Undergraduate Nowell Ng, 21, feels that it depends on the agent’s knowledge of the policies.

    She said: “I wouldn’t buy from someone who is very new to the job, (regardless of whether he’s a student or not).”

    However, undergraduate Yong Zhen Kang said he would think twice about buying from student financial planners as he doubts their long-term commitment to the job.

    Mr Yong, 24, who owns one hospitalisation insurance policy, said: “I don’t want (to be in a situation) where I sign up with a student financial planner (and then he) quits after he graduates.”

    Source: The New Paper

  • Juliana Johari – Satu-Satunya Guru Melayu Terima Anugerah Presiden

    Juliana Johari – Satu-Satunya Guru Melayu Terima Anugerah Presiden

    Seorang guru bahasa Melayu menerima Anugerah Presiden bagi Guru yang disampaikan oleh Presiden Tony Tan Keng Yam di Istana hari ini (1 September).

    Cik Juliana Johari dari Sekolah Rendah Qihua merupakan salah seorang daripada enam penerima anugerah tersebut.

    Mereka dipilih daripada 2,557 guru yang dicalonkan untuk anugerah tersebut pada tahun ini.

    Para penerima anugerah diiktiraf atas dedikasi mereka kepada pembangunan holistik murid-murid mereka melalui pendekatan yang inovatif.

    Sebagai peran contoh, mereka juga berkhidmat sebagai pelajar sepanjang hayat dan mentor kepada rakan-rakan sekerja mereka.

    Penerima anugerah itu dipilih oleh sebuah panel yang dipengerusikan oleh Cik Denise Phua, pengerusi Jawatankuasa Parlimen Pemerintah bagi Pendidikan.

    Source: http://berita.mediacorp.sg

  • Khairudin Aljunied: When Change Is Not Possible, What Do You Do?

    Khairudin Aljunied: When Change Is Not Possible, What Do You Do?

    There is a limit to how far human beings can change a long established system.

    At a certain point, change is not at all possible.

    The more logical thing to do is to move to another site with a totally different system, work with it, build it until it becomes so strong that it will change the system that was previously left behind.

     

    Source: Khairudin Aljunied