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Tag: Malays

  • MENDAKI Spent Almost $80 Million In 2014 To Help Community

    MENDAKI Spent Almost $80 Million In 2014 To Help Community

    Mendaki has spent a record of nearly S$80 million in 2014, revealed Minister-In-Charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim who is also chairman of Mendaki’s Board of Directors, revealed in an annual general meeting on Saturday (Jun 13).

    The fund was to support the community’s development through education.

    The Malay self-help group Mendaki also revealed that its total expenditure also increased by 11 per cent over the previous year.

    S$32 million was spent on the Tertiary Tuition Fee Subsidy (TFS) to more than 4,100 needy students.

    The number of subsidies handed out continued to rise since its revision in 2012 and in 2014, the numbers jumped by 113 per cent.

    S$7.7 million was given out as loans to approximately 3,700 recipients under the Student Loan Scheme and S$39 million was used to finance Mendaki’s various activities and programmes to benefit some 75,000 people from the Malay-Muslim community.

    The annual general meeting also saw the election of seven new board directors, who will serve the 2015-2017 term.

    “These are the achievements that we are proud of and so for this year, we’d like to build upon those foundations and see what more can we do,” said Dr Yaacob. “One of the areas that we are looking into is how to ensure that all our departments support the educational outcome. Secondly, what are the value-added services that we can add on.”

    “We are now looking into mentoring as one of the possible steps that we can do within MTS (Mendaki Tuition Scheme).”

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Mohd Khair: Homosexuality Has Never Been Part Of Human Nature

    Mohd Khair: Homosexuality Has Never Been Part Of Human Nature

    Words pertaining to human lives have specific and special meaning.

    Eat: chewing and swallowing non-liquid EDIBLE stuff
    Drink: sipping and swallowing liquid EDIBLE stuff

    Normal human beings don’t use their mouths to chew and swallow inedible stuff like stones, wood, plastic and all other inedible stuff. We don’t call this act as eating. I don’t know what to call it because human beings don’t eat stones, woods and plastic to live. If they do, probably ravage would be a word that can be considered and definitely that act cannot be said to be an act of eating.

    Likewise, normal human beings don’t use their mouths to sip petrol, diesel, acids and all other inedible liquids, including poisons unless they are committing suicide.

    Likewise for marriage.

    Marriage is a word to describe a union, officiated by an appointed authority, between a man and a woman. A union between a man and a man, or between a woman and another woman, cannot be called marriage.

    The human anatomy itself has been created, and has been there since time immemorial to support one of the objects of marriage, and that is to procreate to ensure preservation of the human race. The sexual organs of both males and females play complementing and completing roles in procreation. This is a scientific fact, and not an opinion.

    For those who believe in the theory of evolution, probably some pertinent questions to ask would be these:
    If indeed homosexuality has been part of human living,
    1. “how come the anus has not evolved into an organ that can readily receive the insertion of the penis with ease, without any ill effects as currently reported by the medical fraternity?”
    2. “how come the female genitals have not evolved to include a penile-like organ?”

    Isn’t it so clear as day and night that even the theory of evolution cannot be applied to homosexuality. The human body has not adapted itself to include homosexual behaviour.

    Simply put, homosexuality, LGBTQ whatever included, has never been an acceptable lifestyle choice. It’s a behaviour chosen by those who simply want to defy nature – what men and women are supposed to do to love, marry, procreate and prosper on Earth.

    There has been no civilisation in recorded history that made homosexuality mainstream except those that were met with destruction.
    Homosexuality is a just a lifestyle choice. It is a chosen behaviour. It is not part of human nature.

    Human beings eat and drink edible stuff to live and prosper. No human being in the right frame of mind will take inedible stuff as his or her diet. The consequences are as clear as day and night.

    Likewise, marriage among humans means an official union between a man and a woman to ensure the continuity of the human race. It is as clear as day and night what the consequences will be when the institution of marriage is skewed way out of proportion to also include same-gender union. Even an unofficial union between a man and a woman is NOT called marriage. One way, it’s called cohabitation. But the LGBTs, unabashed, called their union marriage…isn’t that shameful?

     

    Source: Mohd Khair

  • Ismail Kassim: A Malay Triology – Politics

    Ismail Kassim: A Malay Triology – Politics

    Part III: Why Malays can’t put their act together?

    We are Malays and we must uphold our Malay heritage above all. All my life I have considered myself a Malay and a Muslim; not Sunni, not Syiah.

    I honour our Prophet, PBUH, whom I consider a perfect gentleman; peerless and fearless. I try to imbue myself with the values he espoused and accept much of his teachings on how life should be lived in this world.

    We should not get involved with the Semitic people, their perennial quarrels and their penchant for mutual slaughter.

    Neither side is right; both are equally murderous, and both want power, not to build a progressive and equal society based on fear of God, but to oppress the other side for not belonging to their sect.

    To these people, their strongest affiliation is to their religious sect and to their tribe; the sense of nation hardly exists. They have never learnt to compromise and work together for the larger interest of the nation.

    True, in the early years, Islam liberated their minds and they became a progressive people but over the centuries they have slide backwards; today, they are among the most backward of societies.

    For example, just take a look at the Land of the Pharoahs and you see another Mubarak in the making, made possible by the so-called liberals of their society. The military, which lost all their battles against the Israelis, is only good for oppressing their own people.

    The trouble there is that the Muslim Brotherhood wants to force their Islamic agenda down the throat of the liberals, the latter wants to do the same to the Muslims, while the military wants to usurp power mainly to further their own ends.

    As for the keepers of our holy places, look at them trying to imitate the Israelis, bombing Yemen and killing innocent civilians, to further their dubious self-serving goals.

    If you look around the globe, the Chinese are fast on their way to becoming a respected nation, the Indians too have jumped on the same path and picking up momentum.

    Alas the Arabs are still locked in their ancient enmities and the Malays seem to want to follow them on their path of self-destruction.

    Just compare how the Australians behave towards Singapore and towards Indonesia when their citizens are about to be executed for drug offences. You can tell which country commands more respect from the Aussies and you know the reason why.

    Across the Causeway, we see the spectacle of UMNO and PAS at each other’s throat, almost like a pantomime imitation of the Sunni-Syiah conflict in the Middle-East.

    They forget the lesson of history. With 5000 British troops, the British ruled over 500 million Indians for 500 years.

    A feat made possible only with the help of hundreds of thousands of collaborators because of disunity and jealousy among Indians, who hate each other more than they hate the white men. If the Malays are not careful, history can repeat itself in Tanah Melayu.

    When I stopped reporting on Malaysian politics in Oct 1995, I felt then that the country was sliding down the hill. Two decades later, my opinion remains unchanged; the slide continues inexorably.

    Politics is in a mess. The Malays are divided as they have never been, and the non-Malays disenchanted and demoralised, and race-relations never very good even in the best of times, has taken another tumble downwards.

    Corruption in high places and in the Malay-dominated bureaucracy has become more rampant.

    As for the rakyat, the bigots and the obnoxious among them have made themselves heard at frequent intervals, no doubt instigated by Nationalist elements, religious fanatics and politicians in furtherance of their own narrow and selfish goals.

    Even before it lost Chinese support, UMNO have for years been pampering the Malay electorate on two fronts; closing its eyes to mismanagement of its pro-bumiputra policies and appeasing their insatiable demands for more and more Islam in public and private life.

    The result is increasing greed within sections of the community for the material comforts of this world and at the same time for the divine blessings of the next world.

    I do not see switching from the UMNO-led Front to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat as a viable long-term solution. A narrow win for the Pakatan will only trigger endless rounds of instability a la Thailand.

    Malaysia is not ready yet for a two-party system, not now and not in the next few decades. A split within the dominant Malay community does not benefit any group, not the Malays and not the minorities.

    Likewise, in Singapore, it is foolish of the Malays here to entertain any ideas that they could profit by playing one Chinese side against the other.

    Only a united, dominant community will have the confidence and the ability to offer meaningful concessions to its respective minority.

    In a democratic one man one vote system, UMNO are now in a dilemma. After losing the support of the Chinese and the more progressive elements from the Malay community, it cannot afford to alienate whatever little communal support it has left.

    Without any concession to the Chinese, they won’t come back. If too much, it might lose its conservative Malay base. The result is stalemate.

    The best way out for Malaysia is for the Malays to unite, for PAS and UMNO to get together minus their extremist fringe, and forge a common platform to build up the nation, develop the Malays and other indigenous groups into a respected community and to be fair to their minorities, who are assets to the nation.

    Malay leaders should swallow their pride. Come to Singapore and see how the PAP have done it. Learn how to protect the interests of the dominant community while giving a fair deal to the minorities.

    The selective discrimination against Malays in the security and military services is balanced by other benign policies so that overall things square up for the community.

    It is not an impossible act for Malaysia to follow, but you need a strong leader to pull it off. At the moment, there is none in sight.

     

    Source: Ismail Kassim

  • Ismail Kassim: A Malay Triology – Part II – Why Can’t Malays Take Islam In Their Stride?

    Ismail Kassim: A Malay Triology – Part II – Why Can’t Malays Take Islam In Their Stride?

    To be a respected race, the Malays have to return to their roots. You don’t need to change your clothes or your culinary tastes but only change your minds. Discard the feudal thinking. Be modern, rational – not western, not Semitic.

    The irony is that the good customs that the Malays should keep they discard; those that should be changed they retain like the way they have to cringe and debase, calling themselves vermin and dogs, every time they come face to face with their Sultans.

    To his credit, Mahathir refused to indulge in such self-deprecating un-Islamic language during his long tenure as PM. The Sultans know better than to insist otherwise.

    I agree that choice of dressing and greeting is personal. If someone wants to walk the Semitic path, that’s their privilege and there really is no harm at all.

    What I disagree is the simplistic notion among some Muslims in this part of the world that behaving like Arabs bring them closer to the Lord and paradise. Some even seem to elevate such dressing into a cardinal principle of the faith.

    Islam does not belong to the Arabs or to the Malays. It is a universal religion; a gift to mankind. Do not diminish its appeal and reduce the faith into one fit only for the kampungs and the fearful, and for the bigots and the psychopaths.

    A good Muslim must also be a good human being, someone who is charitable, honourable, responsible, and upholds universal values that are shared across all ethnic and religious boundaries.

    All religions, especially the established ones, face the same challenge: How to enhance faith in their set of theological beliefs and at the same time encourage their faithful to become more spiritual and better human beings?

    In the case of the Muslims, I see many getting trapped in the religiosity of the faith, obsessed with the rituals and practices, the dos and don’ts and the can and cannot as laid down by long forgotten figures from the distant past.

    As a result, instead of becoming more spiritual and better human beings as they should be, they sometimes end up the opposite – the result of not practicing the rituals as a means to a more enlighten goal but as an end in themselves.

    For instance, the tudung is supposed to reflect the outward manifestation of an inner faith and not just a must-use piece of female attire to satisfy public opinion or to identify oneself with a particular religious group.

    But obviously this is not always the case, judging by the number of women in traditional head garb going behind bars for CBT or abusing their maids or some other crimes.

    How also to explain the endless supply of Sunnis volunteering for suicide missions? And mind you, not against infidels or imperialists but against fellow Muslims such as the long oppressed Syiahs.

    We cannot sweep under the mat these mindless acts as just the work of mentally unstable individuals or the sub-normal or the misguided fanatics. We have to raise and ask the pertinent questions.

    We cannot keep on excusing such actions by saying ‘tis the singer not the song. The time has come when we have to ask: Could it perhaps be a defect in the song? Or is it the way the song has been sung by the Al-Sauds that turns a perfect divine song into a defective one?

    We also have to ask the extent of culpability of the community for the acts of these individuals. Do we, perhaps, because of our obsession with religious practices unwittingly provide cover to the suicide bombers and the foolish youths seeking martyrdom?

    They cannot exist in a vacuum. Like fish that need water, these people could only survive in a sea of irrational religiosity, lying dormant most of the time until tipped over the precipice. We have to identify respectively both the push and pull factors.

    The Islamic religious authority too appears to be trapped in the same religiosity syndrome. I have yet to hear any local preacher or a Friday sermon making the connection between religious rituals and, moral and ethical values.

    Actually, as many atheists have demonstrated you don’t need to belong to any faith to become a good human being. Likewise, you don’t need to be very religious in your particular faith to travel the path of enlightenment.

    To me, religion, unless accompanied by high moral and ethical standards, is quite meaningless, and this holds true for all believers irrespective of what faith they adhere to.

    Religion is not meant just for the next world. The guidelines drawn up by the founders, the values they espouse and the obligations they impose on their followers are meant more to make life in this world more pleasant for all mankind.

    If practised in the right spirit, fasting, the five daily prayers, ritual cleansing will not only be a joy but also bring immediate health benefits to the faithful; regard anything else that you may accrue for the next world as a bonus.

    I believe if you take care of your life in this world, the next world will take care of it. You don’t have to worry needlessly.

    But Muslims, especially Malays, are a fearful lot when it comes to religious practice. One of their greatest fears in life is the ‘’takut aqidah rosak’’ (fear of their faith being undermined or corrupted) syndrome.

    That’s why many become blind followers, accepting everything thrown at them and reluctant to take any initiative on religious practice without first getting the blessings of their ulamas.

     

    Source: Ismail Kassim

  • 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