Heartbreaking pictures of the killings and the families’ anguish circled the Internet and television news stations. People around the world were outraged, including Singaporeans.
The effects of this war are not just in lost lives. According to the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1660 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged since Operation Protective Edge began. It has resulted in the displacement of 9,900 Palestinians.
In this adult war of obsessive revenge and punishment, it is the children who pay the highest price. It is a war where children become parentless, and parents become childless.
There are many parents in Singapore who have been deeply affected by the Israel-Palestine conflict which resulted in the countless killings of innocents children.
I strongly urge R1C to share a petition created by my friend, and please spread the message to all Muslim and non-Muslim parents who wish to adopt children: now they can push the government to offer adoption of Palestinian children to Singaporean families. By signing this petition, there is a glimmer of hope to help these poor, homeless and parentless Palestinian children. Together we can make a difference in someone else’s life.
Dahulu aku pelajar miskin. Aku selalu didera oleh cikgu aku bernama Ms Seow semasa darjah dua. Aku dianaktirikan. Walaupun aku pandai, Ms Seow kata aku meniru. Ms Seow tidak percaya semua yang aku buat adalah hasil kerja aku sebab aku sering tidak menjawab soalan-soalannya dalam kelas. Aku diarah duduk dalam bakul sampah setiap hari. Barang-barang dalam beg sekolah aku akan dihumban ke seluruh kelas setiap hari. Sesiapa berani kutipkan barang aku akan ditengking. Aku tak diizin belajar bersama-sama dengan pelajar lain. Ms Seow juga selalu memburuk-burukkan aku kepada guru-guru lain. Cikgu Sal turut benci pada aku dan melarang anaknya bergaul denganku.
Kenapa cikgu-cikgu benci sangat pada aku? Mungkin sebab aku budak miskin. Baju aku buruk lusuh bekas turun-temurun kakak-kakak aku. Mungkin sebab aku tak sebersih budak-budak lain. Mungkin sebab kepalaku berkutu kerana banyak bermain longkang dan hutan. Mungkin sebab kasut turun-temurunku koyak rabak walau dijahit dan dikapur berkali-kali. Bagaimanalah aku mampu menjadi pelajar yang berpakaian rapi dan bersih, aku terpaksa berjalan kaki jauh dari rumah ke sekolah berulang-alik setiap hari. Pada waktu rehat, aku jarang ada duit untuk makan. Aku hanya mampu menelan air liur melihat pelajar-pelajar lain makan.
Ms Seow selalu cakap aku bodoh dan jahat. Dia selalu cubit dan tampar aku. Benci betul dia pada aku. Aku dijadikan tempat Ms Seow pukul bantai melepaskan perasaan. Anak cikgu Sal yang bernama liza tetapi tidak pandai, sering dipuji-puji. Anak orang kaya sering dimanja. Aku pula sering disisih, dimaki dan dianiaya. Pernah sekali, aku menyemak kerja rumah aku dengan menggunakan pena merah sebab Ms Seow tidak mahu menyemak kerja rumah aku. Ms Seow mendapat tahu dan begitu marah. Apabila aku katakan aku ingin menjadi guru, Ms Seow telah menghina aku. Dia kata aku hanya layak jadi pengemis.
“Ada hati nak jadi cikgu konon. Cerminlah muka tu dulu!” Kemudian, buku aku dia koyak-koyakkan dan campak ke belakang kelas. Ms Seow kata aku meniru dan buku aku tak layak disemak. Kemudian aku disuruh duduk di dalam bakul sampah yang sarat dengan sampah. Aku masih terbayang derai tawa kawan-kawanku. Kawan-kawan ikut pandang rendah pada aku. Kawan-kawan sekolah rendah suka bercerita tentang aku kepada kawan-kawan Madrasah. Konon aku jahat dan bodoh serta sering kena marah cikgu. Kawan-kawan sekolah rendah menghasut kawan-kawan madrasah supaya tidak berkawan dengan aku. Aku biarkan sahaja. Namun aku tetap dapat nombor 3 dan sering menduduki 5 tempat terbaik di madrasah. Malangnya, apabila aku mendapat nombor 3 di Madrasah, kawan-kawan menuduh aku meniru. Mereka kata aku sudah biasa meniru di sekolah rendah jadi tidak mustahil aku meniru di madrasah. Aku biarkan juga. Mak aku tidak pernah mengajar aku biadab. Mak aku tidak pernah mengajar aku maki-hamun orang. Mak aku cuma mengajar aku bersabar dan bersabar. Sekarang apabila aku kenangkan semula, rupanya budak-budak, kecil-kecil lagi sudah ada unsur gosip dan fitnah untuk menjatuhkan orang.
Waktu kecil itu, aku takut nak mengadu. Kalau beritahu mak abah tentang Ms Seow, pasti kena pukul lagi. Justeru aku sering berdiam diri tanda protes walau disoal bertalu-talu. Walau aku tahu jawapan Matematik, aku sengaja tidak mahu menjawab. Aku sentiasa sengaja mahu membuat Ms Seow berang. Suatu hari Ms Seow panggil mak aku ke sekolah. MS Seow tidak pandai berbahasa Melayu. Dia cakap Inggeris dan ceritakan semua keburukan aku. Konon aku jahat dan bodoh. Mak aku tak pandai berbahasa Inggeris. Jadi ada seorang budak Melayu disuruh menterjemah secara langsung kepada mak aku setiap ayat yang Ms Seow ucapkan. Nama dia Siti Zalinah. Aku ingat sampai bila-bila betapa bangganya Siti Zalinah dipilih menjadi penterjemah untuk menghina aku di hadapan mak aku. Matanya menjeling dan tersenyum sinis pada aku setiap kali dia terjemah butir-butir perkataan yang berbisa. Kemudian, Ms Seow bercakap di hadapan aku dan mak betapa puasnya dia dapat beritahu mak aku bahawa aku jahat dan bodoh.
Credit: NOOR Hasnah ADAM
Aku rasa sangat terhina tetapi aku diam sahaja. Mak pun diam. Aku rasa mak malu dapat anak macam aku. Aku lebih sedih lukakan hati mak. Tapi aku tahu aku teraniaya. Aku tak jahat. Aku tak pernah meniru. Aku tak suka maki-hamun. Aku tak pernah aniaya orang. Cuma Ms Seow sahaja yang tak suka pada aku. Apa sahaja aku lakukan salah di mata dia. Sebab itulah aku turut dihina dan ditertawakan rakan-rakan sekelas. Walau aku lulus cemerlang, markah aku diubah pada buku rekod. Aku dimasukkan ke kelas 3C untuk pelajar lemah.
Waktu aku darjah tiga, mak mengandung lagi. Mak kata Siti Zalinah pandai dan bijak. Jadi dia namakan adik perempuan aku yang baru lahir, Siti Zalinah. Aku rasa sebal. Tapi aku biarkan. Siti Zalinah rakan sekelas aku memang bijak, tiap tahun dapat nombor 1. Tapi dia suka pandang rendah pada aku dan suka gelar aku ‘bodoh’. Aku tak tahu apa jadi pada dia sekarang. Mungkin dia dah berjaya dalam bidangnya
Sejak usia 8 tahun itulah aku bertekad. Aku akan berjaya suatu hari nanti. Aku nak dikenali di negara aku supaya suatu hari orang-orang yang pernah menghina aku sedar…. “ohhh inikah NOOR Hasnah ADAM yg pernah duduk dalam bakul sampah di kelas setiap hari? Sudah berjaya rupanya!”
Walau macam manapun, pengalaman pahit ini sentiasa aku gunakan dari sudut positif, sebagai tekad untuk berjaya. Aku berbangga kerana berjaya merealisasikan impianku. Kini aku adalah seorang guru. Terima kasih pada pengalaman semalam.
A literary giant in the Malay community in Singapore and the region, Cikgu Muhammad Ariff Ahmad is not letting two accidental falls last year stop him from doing what he loves best: writing.
He uses a wheelchair to get around and is no longer able to write with a pen or type on a computer keyboard. But the 89-year-old taps gently on his iPhone whenever inspiration strikes, storing his ideas in an e-notebook.
An author and poet, Mr Ariff was awarded Singapore’s highest literary honour, the Cultural Medallion, in 1987. Six years later, he took home $5,000 in cash when he won a top Malay literary prize in Singapore, Anugerah Tun Seri Lanang.
He also founded regional Malay language writers’ group Asas 50 and has led many conferences on the Malay language. But it is the almost 40 years he spent in the teaching profession that stand out, as he is widely and affectionately known as Cikgu, or teacher in Malay. He taught Malay in primary and secondary schools for nearly 20 years before moving to lecturing trainee teachers at the then-Institute of Education.He retired in 1979.
His wife Sarinah Haniff, 84, is a retired teacher. They have two sons and two daughters, between the ages of 49 and 60. But only the third child, Ms Shahrulbariah, 51, has followed in her parents’ footsteps. She is a primary school teacher.
Mr Ariff, a grandfather of six, was born in Singapore in 1924. He is the second child among two sons and two daughters of a housewife and odd-job worker. At age 24, he got his teaching diploma in Perak, Malaysia, from what is now known as the Sultan Idris University of Education. It awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2006.
He has written almost 60 children’s books, novels, grammar textbooks as well as articles on culture and literature for magazines and newspapers in the region.
Today, he gives advice on literature, language and culture every week in a column in Berita Minggu, a Sunday Malay newspaper.
SINGAPORE: The Public Service Commission presented its prestigious Singapore Police Force Overseas Scholarship to only one recipient this year. Last year, five SPF Scholarships were given out.
The PSC awards a selected number of scholarships a year, depending on the calibre of candidates. The scholarship award was presented to Azfer Ali Khan by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean at the Istana on Tuesday (Aug 5).
Khan scored seven distinctions at the A-level examinations, and was a Humanities scholar at Hwa Chong Institution. He will read law at Cambridge University in the UK in September. Khan was born in Pakistan in 1995, and moved to Singapore in 2007, when he was in primary school.
He told Channel NewsAsia he aspired to join the police force, after applying for the SPF Book Prize in the first year of Junior College. “I was given the opportunity to attend information sessions, and attachments that allowed me to gain further insight to the work of an SPF officer. This allowed me to understand that my dream of becoming a story-teller, tied in very closely with that of an SPF officer, and from then on, I realised that it was something that I really wanted to do.”
There was a sharp exchange yesterday between Minister of State (National Development) Maliki Osman and Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap, which even saw Parliament Speaker Halimah Yacob stepping in to remind MPs of the importance of providing details when they cite incidents involving government agencies and public servants.
During the debate on the Family Justice Bill, Mr Faisal had alleged that when he was a counsellor, he came across a couple who were having housing issues and advised to file for a divorce by the Housing and Development Board — so that the wife would be eligible to buy a house under the Singles Scheme and she could subsequently remarry her husband. Mr Faisal, however, could not provide the details. Here are excerpts of the exchange:
Dr Maliki (left): It is very important for Members of the House to understand that if we highlight cases in this House, we have to be prepared to disclose all information … Because I don’t think allegations of such a nature can be allowed to go past without verification. I hope Mr Faisal will be able to get back to the (client) and ask … for permission for us to clarify this situation. If not, I hope the case that was highlighted here should not be considered seriously in this Chamber.
Mr Faisal (right): I don’t have (the) contacts since I am no longer a counsellor. But again, I used that as one example of many cases I have encountered of such difficulties … I don’t have the details of my client.
Mdm Halimah: It is quite different to say that HDB rejected the appeal (compared) to saying that it is because of the advice of the HDB officer that the couple should divorce … So since you cited the person and you said you got her approval to raise the issue, the question asked by the Minister of State is whether you can provide particulars so he can verify and prevent (the situation) from repeating if (it) is indeed … as you have said.
Dr Maliki: These are very serious statements that are being made against our civil servants … If such allegations are made, we must give them a chance to clarify …
Mr Faisal: I have no intention of disregarding the good work that has been done by civil servants in our public services. I just wanted to feedback the experiences that I had encountered …
Dr Maliki: It is very important for us to uphold the integrity of this Chamber and … that of our Civil Service. The Member highlighted a case and made very serious allegations that a HDB officer actually asked the couple to divorce … For such allegations to be made in this Chamber, it is very serious.
Mdm Halimah: Although Members are covered by parliamentary privilege, it is important when incidents are cited, particularly involving government agencies and public servants, the particulars can be provided … to verify … the facts. That will really help to improve the debate in the House, it adds credibility to the whole process … as well.
(After Law and Foreign Minister K Shanmugam had wrapped up the debate)
Mr Faisal: It is not my intention to give a negative impression of any of the public services or government offices. I will be more careful in future and I apologise.
