Author: Mafoot Simon
Publication: The Straits Times
Date: June 15, 2004
URL: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/columnist/0,1886,1814,00.html
Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong seems
to extol himself as an expert in handling Muslim affairs and is a leading
commentator in handling the Muslim population. Have his own Muslim citizens
excelled themselves to the extent that he can now advise others on how
to manage Muslims? Surely someone must have briefed him on the social ills
affecting his own Muslim community. If not, let me refresh his memory.
So said Mr Mohamad Jusoh Mustapa,
writing on news website Malaysiakini last month soon after PM Goh delivered
his speech on post-Cold War geopolitics at the United States Council on
Foreign Relations in Washington DC.
Without giving exact numbers, the
Malaysian columnist pointed out the 'social ills' affecting the Muslim
community in Singapore: a high divorce rate; a disproportionate number
of Malays in prison, drug rehabilitation centres and juvenile detention
centres; a high unemployment rate; and a smaller intake at universities
in Singapore compared to other races.
What Muslim Singaporeans needed,
he went on to proclaim, was a level playing field, which he asserted 'evidently
does not exist' despite Singapore's claims of being a meritocratic society.
His proof: advertisements in the
local media that 'blatantly seek Chinese- speaking applicants and virtually
all matters dealing with government- related agencies require the applicant
to declare his or her race, mother tongue and religion'.
Mr Jusoh's column was a tiring and
tiresome 'show of concern' from someone outside Singapore and should have
been ignored - but for the dangerous idea he tried to plant: namely, that
the circumstances of local Malays could lead to acts of terrorism.
'If left unattended, these social
ills can breed terrorism or even agitate restless and frustrated minds
into physical violence against the state,' he said.
He cannot be more wrong.
If he had cared to look more closely
at the background of members of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) arrested by the
authorities, he would have realised that they were not 'restless and frustrated
minds'.
Instead, they were going through
a 'spiritual vacuum' - as they had admitted - due to their lack of religious
education when young. They were intent on filling that 'vacuum' when they
were exploited by the JI.
And far from being the poor, troubled
marginalised Malays, the JI members earned between $1,500 and $2,500 a
month, with one even earning more than $5,000. They also owned their homes
and had at least secondary or technical education.
At the broader level, Mr Jusoh was
plain wrong about the lack of progress, in his mind, of the Malay-Muslim
community here.
A report released late last month
showed that the percentage of Malay drug addicts had dropped drastically
over a decade. From 54 per cent at the height of the problem 10 years ago,
the percentage went down to 26 per cent last year. True, the percentage
was higher than that for other races, but, hey, everything is work in progress.
The latest available figures on
other fronts show that the vast majority of Malays own their homes (94
per cent in 2000, up from 92 per cent in 1990); the total number of Malay
graduates has increased by more than 3.5 times - from 1,518 in 1990 to
5,683 in 2000; and 23 per cent hold professional, technical, administrative
and managerial positions compared to 12 per cent in 1990.
PM'S REMARKS 'BRAVE'
MR JUSOH might also like to know
that a quick poll of about a dozen Muslim Singaporeans showed that they
appreciated the remarks made by PM Goh, although some would have liked
him to criticise the US more.
But that's human nature. Nothing
is ever enough.
Representing the view of many of
those interviewed, religious leader Ustaz Hannan Hassan thought that PM
Goh's remarks were 'strong and brave', particularly since they were made
on American soil.
Civil servant Irwan Jamil pointed
out that Islam has come to be associated with terrorism since 9/11 but,
in reality, these terrorist acts were masterminded by deviationist groups.
He also called on media organisations
to take more care in reporting and to 'de-link' terrorist bombings from
Islam so that terrorists would not have anything to capitalise on.
For community leader Abdul Halim
Kader, the effort by what he called 'a segment of the world Muslim community
to mislead and misinform a significant part of the same community under
the guise of Islamic internationalism as part of a quest for past Islamic
glory' was ironic, because it was more detrimental to the community that
they claimed to champion.
That adverse impact was a poignant
reminder to Muslim community leaders anywhere in the world, to first serve
the needs of the local Muslim community rather than the needs of some groups
that had nothing to do with the local community, he said.
Let's hope Mr Jusoh's memory is
now sufficiently refreshed on these points: that Muslim Singaporeans are
not marginalised; that whatever 'social ills' the community is afflicted
with are being steadily addressed, and that it certainly wasn't those 'social
ills' that led to local Malays joining the JI.
