Rilek1Corner

Tag: race

  • Commentary: No Need For A Contest? Reserved Election Promotes Multi-Culturalism? What Utter Nonsense!

    Commentary: No Need For A Contest? Reserved Election Promotes Multi-Culturalism? What Utter Nonsense!

    *********** Not Par for the Course ****************

    Over the weekend , the MSM was suggesting that perhaps there is no need for a contest in the upcoming Presidential Election and that the reserved Election promotes multi-culturalism .

    What utter nonsense !

    This reserved Election has already gone down as the most despised , ridiculed and discredited election in Singapore history . It has set back the Singapore identity and race relations by 50 years . It has laid to waste all the efforts at Nation building for the past half a century , all for the sake of political expediency by the establishment .

    The Singapore identity meant amongst other things , that when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility , what counts is not membership of a particular class but the actual ability which the man possesses . That Singapore identity has been totally shredded by this reserved election .

    The Establishment uses euphemisms such as promoting multi-culturalism to camouflage the racial ugliness of their stratagem . Multi-culturalism is always inclusive and never exclusive , which sadly is what the reserved election is all about .

    Halimah Yacob says that the reserved election is still meritocratic because all the candidates have to meet the same qualification criteria . No Madam . A meritocratic system is one where other races are not excluded from being elected President . You are participating in a ” handicapped ” election where other races are excluded in favour of a particular race . It is comparable to the US Masters Golf tournament being reserved only for Black golfers in a particular year . Tiger Woods did not require such a handicap competition to win the Masters in 1997 or 13 other major championships , and countless other tournaments throughout the world . Neither did Barack Obama require a reserved Election to become the first Black American President in 2008 , an achievement which was thought well-nigh impossible just 2 years earlier .

    For those who suggest there is no need for a contest , I have this to say . Whoever becomes the next President of Singapore has already become so diminished by this whole absurd saga . To even begin to salvage a modicum of respect for a hollowed out Office requires the person to win the command and respect of the Singapore people in a proper contest . If there is a walkover , there will be no mandate or respect from Singaporeans for this President , who will assume Office on 14 September as the lamest of ducks !

     

    Source: Tean Lim

  • Yaacob Ibrahim: Halimah Is Consistent And Never Shy To Speak Her Mind, I’ve Known Her For A Long Time

    Yaacob Ibrahim: Halimah Is Consistent And Never Shy To Speak Her Mind, I’ve Known Her For A Long Time

    I’ve known Halimah for a long time. We first met in 1976 when I was an undergrad at the University of Singapore and she was in her third year of law school. We were at the University of Singapore Muslim Society orientation camp, where she was a senior shepherding the starry-eyed freshmen into the intricacies of Islam and its meaning in our lives. I was one of the freshmen.

    Though we went our separate ways after graduation (occasionally meeting at weddings of mutual friends and at community events), I would often hear stories about her commitment to the struggles of low-income families and vulnerable workers.

    If there’s one word to describe the Halimah I’ve known all these years, it is Consistency. Over the years, she has consistently shown her devotion to helping those in need, especially vulnerable women. She is never shy to speak her mind if it means getting more attention for them. Even when she became a parliamentarian in 2001 and later as Speaker of Parliament, Halimah never departed from her causes. I believe this consistency, as well as her dedication to helping our Muslim community navigate and integrate fully into the Singaporean family, will remain a lasting legacy.

    I would like to thank Halimah for all her contributions and wish her the very best in her future endeavours. As she embarks on her new journey, I hope that in the years to come, in whatever capacity she finds herself in, she is able to convince the wider community to look beyond her race, to assess her beyond her gender, and to judge her beyond her religion, into becoming fully one with Singapore and Singaporeans. #yaacobibrahim

     

    Source: Yaacob Ibrahim

  • Halimah Yacob: I Have Gone Against PAP

    Halimah Yacob: I Have Gone Against PAP

    Having been a People’s Action Party (PAP) MP for 16 years, Madam Halimah Yacob is aware that there are Singaporeans who question her ability to be non-partisan if she is elected president.

    “I know people have that concern because of my past affiliation with the PAP,” she told The Straits Times in an interview. “But I just want to say that the president has a duty first and foremost to Singapore and Singaporeans, and not to any party.”

    She also has the track record to prove her independence, noting that whether as a unionist or parliamentarian, she had not always toed the government line.

    An occasion she remembered clearly was when she abstained from voting on amendments to the Human Organ Transplant Act in Parliament in 2007.

    Changes tabled by then Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan would allow organ recipients to reimburse donors’ expenses if they wished.

    She was concerned that this would lead to poor people being persuaded to “sell” their organs.

    The party whip was lifted, and she abstained, sending a strong signal of her misgivings.

    She recalled: “I decided not to say yes. I didn’t ask the Health Minister how he felt, but I can still remember the expression on his face.”

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg

  • Will Malay-Muslim Officers In Frontline Public Service Roles Be Allowed To Wear Hijabs If Halimah Yacob Becomes President?

    Will Malay-Muslim Officers In Frontline Public Service Roles Be Allowed To Wear Hijabs If Halimah Yacob Becomes President?

    The online sphere is especially interested in establishment favourite Halimah, who finally announced her intention to take part in the race after months of speculation, last Sunday.

    Questions on Halimah’s ‘malayness’ and whether she can really participate in an election that has been expressly set aside for Malay candidates, given that her father is Indian, have gained much traction.

    Opinions that her resignation as a minority MP goes against the basis of the GRC system have also been volleyed by several prominent parties. Former PAP MP Inderjit Singh said that a sitting MP resigning from office to contest the presidential race may go against the spirit of the Office as intended by Lee Kuan Yew, while ex-Association of Malay Professionals director Nizam Ismail asserted that Halimah’s resignation will dilute minority representation in Marsiling Yew-Tee GRC and in Parliament.

    Meanwhile, opposition political party Singapore Democratic Party has taken issue with the Government’s decision to not call for a by-election to fill Halimah’s roles. Calling the decision “an abuse of the system” and one that “makes a mockery of the general elections,” the party said that it is exploring legal remedies to compel the Government to call for a by-election.

    In the midst of all this, former senior political correspondent from the Straits Times, Ismail Kassim, has put forth another question about Halimah’s candidacy: if Halimah becomes president, will a photo of her wearing the hijab hang in all public sector offices?

    This question is particularly notable since Malay-Muslim women in public service frontline roles, like police officers and nurses, are still not freely allowed to wear hijabs at work in Singapore.

    What do you think? Will Malay-Muslim women in frontline public service roles still be barred from wearing the hijab if the head of state is a hijab-wearing woman? Or will such women be finally free to wear hijabs if Halimah is elected?

     

    Source: www.theindependent.sg

  • Don’t Wait The Malay EP, Singaporeans Must Start Changing Attitudes On Inclusivity

    Don’t Wait The Malay EP, Singaporeans Must Start Changing Attitudes On Inclusivity

    It’s the eve of National Day and perhaps it’s timely that I’ve been thinking about the Presidential Elections (which I was supposed to be on duty for until I decided to leave the service). This whole PE debacle seems to sum up the story of my life. “Pakistanis” and “Indians”, running for a spot reserved for a “Malay” President.

    My dad is of Pakistani descent (even though he registered himself as Indian in his IC), and my grandparents were born in Ipoh, Malaya. My dad himself, was born in Singapore and grew up in Geylang Serai, the heart of the Malay kampong. His family speaks English and Malay, though our primary language is English.

    My mum is of Indian heritage. Her father left India as an orphaned young man, and came to Singapore looking for work. She grew up in Macpherson, speaking English and Tamil.

    My parents are both Muslim, born into Muslim families.

    Growing up, half Indian half Pakistani, Muslim and learning Malay in school, you slowly learn that conformity is lauded. Your wavy hair curls in all the wrong directions, it is too frizzy, your skin colour too “black” for your friends (and more-than-friends). You don’t fit in with the Indians because you don’t speak Tamil, and while you eat at the Malay stall, you don’t fit in with the Malays cos .. you know .. you’re not Malay.

    I struggled with this my whole life. Where’s the line that makes you Indian enough? Where’s the line that makes you Malay enough?

    People comment that I shouldn’t forget my Pakistani culture – I should learn Urdu. My parents don’t even speak it. Being Pakistani meant Bollywood movies (SRK Kajol love), chappatis (on a rare occasion – more so when dadi was still around), and that one trip back to the village when I was in primary school. Does that make me Pakistani enough?

    People comment that it’s a shame I don’t speak my mother tongue “Tamil”. Just because my mum speaks it. I spent six months working in an NGO in India. We eat chicken curry, muruku and I wore a saree once (for my cousins wedding). Does that make me Indian enough?

    People comment that my Malay is too proper, it sounds unnatural. I didn’t grow up speaking Malay, yes, my tuition teacher made me speak in bahasa baku. Yes, I got a distinction for my Malay oral for ‘O’ levels. Yes, my Malay grades were better than my English grades. Yes, I like pantuns of empat kerats and peribahasas but I also love rock kapak. Yes, I grew up reading Pak Pandir and Gila-Gila. Yes, we eat masak merah, sambal goreng and rendang at home. Nasi lemak is my favourite local dish. Does that make me Malay enough?

    I am all and yet I am none.

    Our whole life, we recite, regardless of race, language or religion. And yet time and again, they try to box us in.

    Why do we look at how well a person fits into a box? Why not see how good of a person he/she is? How good of a human being?

    A righteous leader will stand up for his/her people – his/her people being EVERYONE in their nation. Not just people of the same colour, language or religion. We don’t need a figurehead to be inclusive, we don’t need to seem inclusive, we need to BE inclusive. We need to make sure that ALL our children have sufficient opportunities to rise and chase their dreams, no matter their background.

    And yes, we teach them our culture and our languages, but we also teach them the beauty of others. We teach them to be kind and to be open, we teach them to care. We teach them to strive, alone and together.

    I’m tired of being boxed in. I contain within me multitudes. I am what I am what I am.

     

    Source: Aneesa Fazal