Ridzwan.com

Exactly How Malay are Problems Like Child Abuse?

2010-12-09T02:20:00.000-08:00

Singapore's Malay-Muslim community was recently rattled with a series of child murder cases. But how fair are we to attribute them as symptoms of the community's degradation?

On the 7th May 2003, Land Transport Authority engineer Chow Peng Wah, 45 strangled his 11-year-old son, Weng Yan, in his bedroom before committing suicide by jumping off a HDB block in Yishun.

On the 24th March 2004, Chinese housewife Yap Cheng Chui tide red string to the wrists of her 2 young daughters and leapt of an apartment at Chin Swee Road. She was reportedly under various amounts of stress, including financial difficulties.

And in the latest incident of a similar nature, another Chinese man killed his two children and set his apartment on fire before taking his own life at Block 543 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 on the 7th November 2009. He too was reportedly drowning in gambling debts and had apparently resorted to the double-murder cum suicide as his final solution.

This particular string of infanticide cum murder in Singapore were committed by perpetrators that came from single ethnicity. But has any of its community leaders came forward to highlight them as a “Chinese problem”? What about other social malignants that this country faces such as problem gambling and elderly abandonment? Despite their seeming affiliation to a particular ethnic group, why have we not been tempted to look at them via ethnically-tinted glasses as much as we do towards social problems created by Malays?

Perhaps it was a sense of shame that had to be mitigated with an unsolicited self-reprimanding. It could have also been a genuine mis-diagnosis made in a moment of understandable outrage. Either way, the attribution that our Minister made between Malays and the sins of the social underclass came in a little too soon.

We should not conveniently pin our Malay community to the problem of child abuse the same way we do not pin our Chinese community to problem gambling & elderly abandonment and our Indian community to alcohol addiction & spousal abuse. A challenge faced by the nation is a challenge that we need to face as a country, despite our race, creed or religion.

The horrific crimes committed by the murderers of Nonoi and Natalie may have been perpetrated by Malays. But could these crimes reflect the problems of a growing social underclass in Singapore that have arisen from a lack of income distribution regardless of race, rather than the inherent problem of an ethnic community?

A social malignant can accurately be described as “Malay Problem” if it's observed to exist evenly within all social strata of the Malay community (for example obesity is thought to be a problem genuinely plaguing the Malay community evenly across all income groups and is disproportionately and consistently high when pitted against comparable social classes of other ethnicities). If no such conclusive link be made, then what is the wisdom is drawing an ethnic based approach to such problems?

What are the costs of persistently viewing our nation's problems through a racial perspective? Have we been missing opportunities to solve our social problems collectively and collaboratively as a nation from alternative points of view because our leaders, media and community elders have refused to shift their sights beyond the racial box?

Ethnic attribution can be applied when there is a need to rally the will of a community behind a genuinely attributable social malignant exclusive to a particular ethnicity. But it has to be done sparingly and tactfully. It will be absolutely detrimental if the youth of this country carry on with the perception that any one social malignant is the exclusive domain of that particular ethnicity. It breeds exclusivity, but more importantly it breeds racialism.

The writer is a student enrolled in the Bachelor of Islamic Revealed Knowledge at the International Islamic University & doing the Master of Science (Strategic Studies) at the Nanyang Technological University

A Missed Opportunity at "Allah"

2010-01-09T22:45:00.000-08:00

In a world filled with atrocities committed by adherents in the name of Islam, Malay Muslims were largely looked upon to embody the spirit of peace and tolerance that Islam espouses. Sadly 5 church arsons by the Malaysians may have shattered that perception.

When Muhammad first started teaching the words of the Quran, he came under heavy persecution by the local population. Fearing for safety, a small group of Muslims, led by Muhammad's cousin Ja'afar ibn Abi Talib, made a secret getaway to the African city of Axum. There, they lived a quite life until the pagans of Mecca discovered their whereabouts and proceeded to make a formal complaint to the Emperor of Axum, requesting that the Muslims be detained and deported back to Mecca for spreading a false religion.

But instead of granting the pagans their request, the Emperor decided to first listen to what the Muslims had to say. Ja'afar and his companions were then summoned to face the Emperor. As part of his explanation, Ja'afar recited the Chapter of Mary (Surah Maryam) from the Quran, which narrates the story of Jesus and his mother Mary. It was a story that the Emperor was familiar with, being a Christian himself. It was reported that the verses moved the Emperor and his Bishops so much that they wept and released Ja'afar and his companions.

For centuries, Muslims have been trying to deliver the point across to Christians that the God they worship are one and the same. In Axum, Ja'afar moved the heart of an Emperor by showing how “Allah” is indeed the God that communicated with Jesus as much as the God that communicated with Muhammad.

In Malaysia, that opportunity came in the form of a linguistic semblance when Catholics in the country wanted to use the word “Allah” to refer to God in their newspapers. But instead of using the the issue as a linguistic opportunity to engage the Catholics in a healthy discourse, Malaysians have chosen to react in anger and violence. 5 churches across the country were attacked with fire when the courts approved the Catholic usage of the word “Allah”.

“Allah” is the standard Arabic term for “God” and has been used by Arabic speakers of the faiths that descend from Abraham, including Christians. The word is still being used today in Arabic translations of the bible and Torah in many Muslim-majority nations. There is no instruction in the Quran or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad that an exclusive term for “God” be reserved for use by the Muslims.

Sure, the motive for the Christian's option to use the word “Allah” instead of an alternative Malay word “Tuhan” may be highly questionable. Some say that perhaps this was a deliberate attempt at provoking the dimmer Muslims into revealing their violent tendencies in order to win converts. But in any case, this fiasco Allah represents several missed opportunities.

It is a missed opportunity to capitalize on a linguistic semblance and provoke a channel for discourse whereby the concepts of Islam can be introduced amicably amidst a Christian context. In a multi-racial country like Malaysia where Islamic religious texts often found exclusively in Malay, such an opportunity is sorely missed.

It is a missed opportunity to show restrain. In a world littered with acts of violence committed in the name of Islam, Malay Muslims have long been looked upon as a bastion that truly upholds the message espoused by the religion of peace. The act of burning Churches have quite simply affirmed the perception that many have towards Islam as an intolerant and violent religion.

It is a missed opportunity to teach the younger Muslims in Malaysia that the faith of their parents is not as insecure as many thought it to be. By getting nervous with trivialities such as the usage of a generic Arab word, Malaysian Muslims have inadvertently revealed to the world how brittle their faith of Muslims in the country are and how frightened they have become towards attempts at invalidation.

The real threat facing Muslims in Malaysia does not come from instances such as Catholics using the word “Allah” or Christians trying to convert them over. The real threat to Islam in Malaysia comes from Malay Muslims themselves who have allowed Islam to deteriorate into a monolithic entity that is now largely appreciated only via superficial rituals instead of observing its core fundamentals.

The real threat facing Muslims in Malaysia comes from Muslims who have held their silence when fellow adherents torched others' places of worship, going against what Muhammad has forbidden explicitly. It is time we wake up to these realities, for it is unclear if we will have that many opportunities still in the future.

The writer is a student enrolled in the Bachelor of Islamic Revealed Knowledge at the International Islamic University & doing the Master of Science (Strategic Studies) at the Nanyang Technological University

Exactly How Malay are Problems Like Child Abuse?

2010-01-09T05:54:00.000-08:00

Hungry Artists of Our Times

2010-01-07T05:39:00.000-08:00

The polytechnics have revealed that media and design graduates earn the least when compared to their peers from other courses. What does it mean for our Malay students who have long favoured these fields?

Singapore’s 5 polytechnics have released the results of its annual survey on poly graduates and their pay. On the surface, there seems to be plenty of good news to go around. Nearly 9 in 10 of those who graduated from poly are in some form of active employment in 2008. The number of graduates who join the ranks of the government has gone up a notch too, with 14.3% now employed in the civil service, up from 12.3% in 2008.

The average monthly pay for a poly graduate who has served national service is now $2130. While this number may still appear dismal, it represents a good improvement and is seen to be catching up with the pay of fresh degree holders, who could only make an average of $2451 in 2008.

But the more worrying statistic came late towards the end of the report. The survey reported that Media and Design graduates are the poorest of the lot, making an average of only $1,642 monthly. The creative industry is also notorious for being the least stable of the lot - designers, photographers and artists are known to be employed usually on contract and freelance basis, finding themselves in need of the next project to make ends meet.

While there are no official statistics on the ethnic enrolment by courses, it is pretty safe to assume by popular observation that Media and Design courses are by far the most popular choice for our Malay students in the polytechnics. Creativity in the arts and music has always been a forte for our Malay youngsters and it comes as no surprise that many have chosen to involve themselves in the media and design industry to make a living.

Since the 1980’s Malays have distinctly been the most economically retarded ethnic group in Singapore. Although median monthly household income has more than tripled from below $800 in 1980 to $3,100 in 2005, the disparity between wages between Malay families and families of other races have widened by more than twice over the last 25 years.

(Taken from "Progress of the Malay Community in Singapore since 1980”, MCYS)

What the grim statistic above means is that the average Malay worker is getting relatively poorer, while the rest of Singapore are forging ahead and getting richer. The community cannot afford to have a large chunk of its students risking their lives down the path of least returns by pursuing trivial careers in the media and design industry. The persistent shunning of more viable fields of study like science, engineering and economics by the Malay community surely is not an ingredient in our fight against the emerging Malay social underclass.

More efforts need to be made by Malay parents in guiding their children towards more economically rewarding fields of study. An economically sound and stable working force is the bedrock of a stable and prosperous community. Parents need to proactively guide and take on advisory roles in decisions such as the choosing of academic pathways.

Our youth need to be taught to be more sensible and distinguish for themselves the difference between a hobby and a career, between a fantasy and a viable ambition in the context of a country like Singapore where critical mass for a viable venture into the arts and entertainment industry often do not exist.

The writer is a student enrolled in the Bachelor of Islamic Revealed Knowledge at the International Islamic University & doing the Master of Science (Strategic Studies) at the Nanyang Technological University

Minarets of Acceptance

2009-11-30T04:02:00.000-08:00

Egypt’s Mufti has denounced a vote to ban new minarets in Switzerland on Sunday as an 'insult' to Muslims across the world. Since when have Muslims needed the minaret to validate their faith?

When Muhammad entered the city of Medina, amongst the first task that he set out to do was to construct his abode and subsequently a mosque adjacent to it. The mosque was a simple open-air building made with mud walls and palm trunks. Its most distinguishable feature was a simple platform where Muhammad taught the contents of the Quran to his followers. When the time for prayer came, Bilal Al-Habshee simply stood at a corner and recited his call to the faithful. There were no opulent domes nor were there any fancy minarets at which he stood. It was an austere structure indeed. But from this simple mosque, Muslims rose to become a formidable force in the Arabian Peninsula within the short space of Muhammad’s rule.

A mosque is primarily a space to contemplate and remember God. Beyond that, it serves as a place of learning and forging social cohesion within the community. The Arabic word for mosque, ‘masjid’, literally translates to mean a place where one prostrates oneself. But today, the mosque has grown beyond its original intention as a place of prayer and learning.

In areas where Muslim populations are a minority, the mosque now serves as a bastion to validate their existence. Grand domes and imposing minarets are looked upon proudly as conspicuous symbols that Muslims have established themselves as a tangible and permanent feature of the landscape. Despite the fact that Muhammad had once warned his followers against opulence when constructing places of worship, Muslim communities are largely not abating in building them grander and taller. A search on Google for “grand masjid” turns up about a million images of magnificent mosques all over the world, including Europe and America - when the phrase should rightly be an oxymoron.

The proposed law to ban the construction of minarets may have been seen as an attempt to halt any existing Muslim ambition in building similar grand mosques on Swiss soil. But the referendum signals a deeper anxiety towards Muslim in general. As Farhad Afshar, who runs the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland said, “Most painful for us is not the minaret ban, but the symbol sent by this vote”. He added that “Muslims do not feel accepted as a religious community” in Switzerland.

It seems that we have forgotten that Muslims were never accepted as a religious community during the days when the very first verse of the Quran was revealed. Muhammad and his family tolerated persecution for years under the pagan tribes of Mecca when he began preaching the values of Islam. Muhammad did not gain converts through asserting their right to practice, nor did they have the impulsive need to be accepted as a religious community. All Muhammad and the Muslims did was to demonstrate the values of Islam by exemplifying themselves according to the values of the Quran, all from a humble, minaret-less mosque.

Perhaps Muslims should use the federal ban on minarets to reflect upon themselves on why the referendum was overwhelmingly approved in the Switzerland canton despite the country having a reputation as a refuge for tolerance. Has anti-Islam anxiety reached a point where lawmakers are left with no choice but to accept a grotesquely discriminatory proposal? Was the referendum done in retaliation against Muslims resistance towards integration? Had Muslims in Europe lived the life of Muhammad, who exemplified tolerance and acceptance towards people of all religions, would the “native occident” be less derogatory towards them?

There are presently 150 mosques in Switzerland, only 2 of which have minarets. The referendum only seeks to ban the construction of minarets, not the construction of mosques and Muslims are still free to practise their faith. The minaret, originally intended as a spire to spread the call to prayer, has largely lost its function with the advent of more efficient broadcasting technologies. Muslims have to stop clamouring on to outmoded symbols such as the minaret to validate the existence of their faith.

The worse thing Muslims can do now is to over react to this ban in the style of the Danish cartoon protests. This will only seal the perception that Europeans have towards Muslims as intolerable bigots who will scream with a placard at any given opportunity.

The writer is a student enrolled in the Bachelor of Islamic Revealed Knowledge at the International Islamic University & doing the Master of Science (Strategic Studies) at the Nanyang Technological University

Let the Mullahs Go Nuke

2009-11-13T02:29:00.000-08:00

The way to peace in the Middle East may lie in facilitating Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran seems to make a lot of people upset. Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a visit to the US and told Congress that Iran's nuclear program is “against the interests of the German people”. President Obama, despite his promises of cautious diplomacy, has repeatedly warned the regime against acquiring a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile the Israeli's are not discounting the option of a military strike against what it sees as a threat to its national security.

The international reaction towards Iranian nuclear effort is understandable. This is after all a country headed by a president who had once proclaimed his wish to see Israel “wiped of the map”. Anyone who has seen images of the devastation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki would certainly agree with the wisdom that a nuclear-armed Iran is not exactly a desirable element towards achieving peace in the Middle East.

But this “wisdom” may have been proven to be fundamentally flawed by a very important historical precedent often ignored by nuclear pessimists: since the existence of nuclear weapons, there has never been a war between two states that are mutually armed with it.

In the discourse of nuclear proliferation and the imminent destruction that it's supposed to unleash upon the world, people seemed to have forgotten just effectively nuclear deterrence has worked over the past six decades. Ever since the last nuclear weapon was unleashed upon Nagasaki in 1945, mankind has witnessed an unprecedented stretch of peace that has not existed in recent history. It took just 21 years for a second world war to follow the first. The fact that there has never been a third, or a similar catastrophe where millions of lives are lost within a matter of years, may be sufficient testament to the effectiveness of nuclear deterrence in ensuring the peace that we enjoy today.

This prolonged period of peace is largely possible because nuclear weapons have changed the dynamics of international diplomacy. Professor Kenneth Waltz, Emeritus Professor at UC Berkley and prominent scholar of international relations, calls this phenomenon “dissuasion by deterrence”. The prospect of assured mutual destruction has prevented nuclear armed states from ever escalating a conflict to the brink of a full scale war.

For example, during a brief skirmish in 1999 between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, observers keenly noted how both countries were careful to ensure that the the actions of their military were mellow at most, each country avoiding strikes that would inflict serious damage onto vital infrastructures of the other. Both were aware of what the consequences could be should they fail to exercise restrain in their military operations.

Another case in point for “dissuasion by deterrence” is the 1962 Missile Crisis. President Kennedy took the then unprecedented risk of agreeing to remove all missiles in southern Italy and Turkey in return for the Soviet's agreement to vacate Cuba. Such concessions would not have been possible should either one of these nations had been the unipolar power of its time.

“Dissuasion by deterrence” may have proven its compelling case over the decades. But what about the contemporary personalities we have today? Should we not be worried about the eccentrics demonstrated by heads of state such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il? Surely, putting a nuclear weapon in the hands of a man who wants to wipe an entire country of the map is detrimental towards the well being of mankind?

The fact of the matter is, we have in the past inadvertently trusted nuclear weapons in the hands of personalities that were way more worrisome than demented communists or deranged Persians. Remember, both Chairman Mao of China and Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union once threatened to unleash their nuclear weapons upon the United States at some point of time during the cold war. But as murderous as the comments were, these leaders still had the common sense to realize that no country can walk truly walk away from a nuclear war. As political commentator Jonathan Tepperman observed, “all states are rational at some basic level” no matter how delirious their leaders may seem.

Having argued for peace by nuclear weapons, what then should the international approach be towards the nuclear ambitions of regimes such as North Korea and Iran? The key lies in 3 advancement thrusts: advancement of nuclear forensics, advancement of nuclear expertise and the advancement of a nuclear community.

Advancement of Nuclear Forensics.

Pioneered by Harvard University's Professor Graham Allison, nuclear forensics is an emerging field which allows scientists to trace any nuclear device, detonated or otherwise, back to its owner and manufacturer. No two nuclear weapons are alike and each will have its own unique radioactive signature. The advancement of nuclear forensics will act as an insurance to deter states from selling their nuclear weapons to rogue elements or detonating their nuclear devices via a proxy, knowing that these can very well be traced to its origin, with its originator facing the consequences. Nuclear forensics has consequentially given us the ability to ensure that nuclear states remain responsible for their respective stockpiles. The international community needs to dedicate more political will and resources to the advancement of this field.

Advancement of Nuclear Expertise

Unlike what has been often portrayed in the movies, nuclear weapons are seldom activated by pushing a “red button”. The firing mechanisms for these devices are intricately complex, needing several levels of instituted protocols and procedures before the weapon has the ability to go “live”. Countries such as the United States need to ensure that nuclear technical expertise are inculcated amongst state players to ensure that the worldwide nuclear stockpile continue to retain sophisticated firing mechanisms and procedures to prevent them from falling to rogue elements.

But more importantly, nuclear experts must propagate what Tepperman calls “survivable second strike option”. This is the ability for a nation to bounce back from a nuclear strike and retaliate with its own nuclear arsenal. Once this ability is attained by all nuclear powers, no nation will risk hitting another with a nuclear weapon, knowing that retaliation is inevitable.

Advancement of Nuclear Community

“Dissuasion by Deterrence” can effectively work only if every nation in the world knows for sure exactly who the nuclear powers are. While there already exists an intergovernmental forum for nuclear powers in the form of the IAEA, the platform has systematically excluded by proxy, states that it deems to be unsuitable to be nuclear armed. A truly inclusive platform for the international community of nuclear powers will not only encourage the proliferation of nuclear know-how, but more importantly eradicate mistrust among states and discourage the possibility of clandestine armaments.

It will be tough to pitch the above measures to the international audience, let alone muster the political will to even consider them. The attempt to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons has taken up much time and resources but few have actually pondered the truth with regards to the role that nuclear deterrence has played in ensuring the peace we have today. A nuclear-armed Iran could actually spark the regional nuclear arms race in the Middle East that will be needed to bring about an equilibrium of peace in the region. Should our leaders still not acknowledge this, we may find ourselves in the future in yet another unnecessary war.

The writer is a student enrolled in the Bachelor of Islamic Revealed Knowledge at the International Islamic University & doing the Master of Science (Strategic Studies) at the Nanyang Technological University

A Crime to Contextualize

2009-11-07T01:36:00.000-08:00

Is it really necessary to frame an offender in religious tints whenever the atrocity is being perpetrated by a Muslim?

A US Army psychiatrist gunned down 13 people at a Texas military base last Thursday. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who is currently fighting of his life in intensive care after he was suppressed by return fire, was due to be deployed in Afghanistan. He was reportedly opposed to this deployment. The sudden loss of innocent life anywhere by anyone is a tragedy and our heart goes out to relatives of the victims at Fort Hood.

But what appears to be more tragic is the manner in which our media have jumped on the opportunity to immediately contextualize the perpetrator based on his ethnicity and his religion. Major Nidal is an American-born Muslim with parents of Palestinian heritage. When news of this senseless massacre broke, headlines everywhere screamed “Muslim Soldier Kills 13 in Mass Shooting at Fort Hood”. These headlines include the one that was broadcast by Mediacorp's Channel 5 and Channel News Asia on the 6th November 2009.

These seemingly tacit headlines may not seem like much to the undiscerning reader. But a quarter of humanity cannot help but wonder, why is a person's religion not mentioned in the headline except for when the perpetrator is a Muslim? After all, when 44-year old Sergeant John M. Russel went on a shooting spree and killed 5 of his fellow soldiers at a US Army base in Baghdad not so long ago in an eerily similar misdemeanor, the same treatment on his religion and ethnic heritage was not given. Why did our headlines not scream “Christian Soldier Kills 5 in Mass Shooting at Camp Liberty”?

In the context of a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic communities , insinuations of this sort does little to add to the value of the story. If there is little evidence the killings at Fort Hood and Camp Liberty were done in the name of the respective religions, then what is the value of predicating a person's religion and ethnicity into the headline of the story? Muslim soldiers are fast becoming part of the landscape not only in the US Army, but the armies of many other western countries as well. A person's religious affiliation is a not a suitable attribute to be made a novelty of, especially so in the backdrop of a violent shooting spree that has the potential to inflame deep-seated ethnic and religious resentments.

The relationship between Islam and Christianity have had an uneasy past and will continue to do so in the near future as conflicts around the world take on an overtly religious tone. Unnecessary provocations such as these do not help in convincing Muslim communities that they are not being deliberately targeted as part of a subtle right-wing agenda. It also threatens to negate all the effort we have made towards enlightening the masses on religious harmony and the true nature of Islam.

Media channels such as Channel 5 and Channel News Asia should have known better, especially since they are serving the needs of a significant Muslim population in Singapore, then to fall into the temptation of pointless religious predications. For all the nation-building efforts it has espoused in the past, this display of religious insensitivity has left us very much surprised.

The manner in which Major Nidal's crime has been framed have sadly put America's Muslims on yet another defensive stance. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have issued a statement in condemning the act and warning Muslims to protect themselves against any violence from the American people. But the real damage has already been done-on the perception of Muslims towards our media.

The writer is a student enrolled in the Bachelor of Islamic Revealed Knowledge at the International Islamic University & doing the Master of Science (Strategic Studies) at the Nanyang Technological University.

Singapore Idol -The Incarnation of Irrationality

2009-10-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

This country is about to send yet another youngster down the ominous path of musical mediocrity by denying the fact that Singapore Idol is not the talent show it claims to be.

By The Strategist
Editor, Ridzwan.com

My wife received a peculiar SMS just the other night. The message was from an ex-teacher who was teaching in secondary school. It read a short and sweet “Vote for Faizal”. Apparently an ex-school boy is taking part in the odious singing show and the well-meaning teacher was trying to garner votes from the Alma Matter.

Missus, being the feisty little lady that she is, decided to have a little fun and replied, “If I were to vote, I will vote based on merit rather favor or affiliation, won’t you?” The teacher could only afford a meek reply with “Aiyah! So mean! I admit the song was dull but has stage presence.” My wife ignored her last SMS and thankfully the conversation went on no further.

The SMS broadcast by the teacher is by no means an isolated event that Wednesday night. The latest season of Singapore Idol is on air and giggly teenage supporters throughout the island are busy soliciting support for their respective favorites in the hope that they are voted through to the next round.

This is exactly where the problem lies. Singapore Idol is not a talent show and we cannot continue to pretend that it is. Unlike genuine singing competitions where talent is selected based on the judgment of an experienced jury, Singapore Idol is, in all reality, a jamboree of irrational juveniles who splurge their parents’ money on countless SMS messages in order to secure the presence of their favorite faces.

This would have been fine in other countries such as the USA where a critical mass exists to support even the most mediocre of artists. But in Singapore, where the population stands at only 5 million, a show like Singapore Idol will only elect an unsuspecting youngster who will eventually have to resort to endorsing convenience stores and taking on redundant hosting stints in order to make ends meet.

Let’s stop sending our Muslim youngsters down this ominous path. Too often winners of these so called “talent” shows quit their education in order to pursue a musical endeavor, only to realize too late that they were indeed voted in due to a pretty face rather than a pretty good talent. By the time they sober up, it may be too late to recover from their temporary fantasy and secure a more stable career.

We should be all for developing the local music industry, but not in this manner. Singapore’s talents need to be elected by those who know their music well in order to give our artists their best shot at survival. Not by smitten teenagers, and most definitely not their respective teachers.

The writer is a student enrolled in the Bachelor of Islamic Revealed Knowledge at the International Islamic University & doing the Master of Science (Strategic Studies) at the Nanyang Technological University.

Spread His Words

2009-06-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

The seditious Christian couple may be packing off to jail. But the danger of religious fragmentation in this country will continue to persist if we do not take steps to address the issue of increasingly unbridled proselytizations.

On the 4th May this year, I attended a 2-day “Power Design for Presentation” workshop organised by the Centre for Behavioural Science at Orchard Road. The trainer was a Mr. Kelvin Lee from local company Fig Tree Multimedia Pte Ltd.

During the workshop, we learnt some advanced PowerPoint techniques and presentation fundamentals. And on the last day, we also learnt that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour.

Apparently, the trainer took it upon himself to use the last ten minutes of our final day to preach about Christianity. Never mind the fact that the audience consisted of multi-racial, multi-religious civil servants who were there on a taxpayer-sponsored training stint.

I was not offended by his preaching. But I find it to be highly inappropriate. It was not a matter of a differential opinion. Even if the trainer was a Muslim, I would not have approved of him using class time to talk about religion, especially when others do not subscribe to his faith.

Like every other country in the world, Singapore is facing the phenomenon of increasing religiosity amongst its people. More of our citizens are identifying themselves with a faith or creed. Not too long ago, a local newspaper reported an increase in church and mosque attendances. I can attest to this fact, judging from the remarkable increase in worshippers every Friday at our local mosques which are now converting every available floor space to accommodate these growing congregations.

An increase in religiosity can be harnessed for the good of the country. After all, every major religion teaches its people to live a morally guided life, abstain from sins such as premarital sex and lustful behaviour, and generally do well for all mankind. Judging from the number of social problems we are facing, the country could certainly use some religion within its ranks.

But an increase in religious fervour could also be detrimental to the security of our country. This is especially so when certain religions take it upon themselves to “rescue” followers of other faiths onto “the right path” and trying to get them to convert by casting other religions in a bad light.

It is one thing to preach within your community about what is already a common belief in the religion itself (such as homosexuality and pre-marital sex). But it is another issue altogether to tell others that their religion is wrong and that they should convert over.

In the delicate social fabric of Singapore, such chauvinistic religious fervour could spell tragedy for the nation. Most of the world’s conflicts today are preceded by some form of religious or ethnic contention. We cannot afford to have similar ones on an island of only 4 million people.

Unsolicited and unbridled proselytizations should be kept in check for the good of the country. Religious communities should take the impetus to educate their flock on the importance of understanding other faiths in the context of a multi-racial, multi-religious country like Singapore.

But most importantly, we must continue to take a zero-tolerance approach towards religious fanatics like Ong Kian Cheong and Dorothy Chan who distributed the seditious tracts in their attempt to “spread His words”.

Now read this. “Chauvinistic religious fervour poses as much danger to the country as radical fanaticism, if not more.”

Those are the real words that should be spread around.

Arab Kucing Kurap

2009-05-13T00:03:00.000-07:00

A Casual Discourse on Arab Chauvinism within the Local Muslim Community

In the Malay language, ‘Kucing Kurap’ translates roughly to mean ‘a cat with a fungal infection’. The phrase is often used as a metaphorical expression to denote the less desirable members of society. Placed side by side with the word ‘Arab’ it makes for a catchy, albeit offending, rhyme.

Racial jibes within the local Muslim community are not uncommon. While most are done with tongue in cheek and harbour no deeper malaise, none is repeated as often as the one above.

My personal encounter with the racist phrase ‘Arab Kucing Kurap’ came one evening as I was relating a personal encounter to an acquaintance. Upon listening to my story, he blurted out the racial maxim in anger.

I am getting married this August to an ethnic Arab lady. She maintains her title and clan affiliation as part of her official name in the National Registration. Her Identity Card states 'Arab' as her official race.

But it’s not something that I give a damn about. A person’s ethnicity is not, and never was, a criterion in my choosing of a life partner. Destiny dictated that our paths crossed. I am marrying her for her maturity despite her age, her patience in being the family’s main breadwinner, her duty to God, and her ability to tame my guts.

Her guardians have given their blessings to the marriage. However, as more distant relatives got word that she is about to marry a non-Arab, murmurs of discontent erupted into loud angers of protest. One of the relatives even went so far as to call up her mother to ask why consent had been given to this marriage given the obvious fact that I am not an Arab.

“Arabs are superior”, one of her aunts stated vehemently one day.

“In the after life, Arabs will be given a special standing to be at the front lines with the descendants of Prophet Muhammad. That is why Arabs must only marry Arabs and preserve the race”, she maintained.

I am not sure where she received this piece of ‘religious information’ from. But I am beginning to think that misguided ideals such as these are the roots of Arab chauvinism and misplaced sense of superiority within the Muslim community – even right here in multi-racial Singapore.

Islam is a religion that rejects the notion of a "superior race" and holds equality amongst all mankind as one of its predominant ideals. There are no caste systems and no privileged clans within the religion. And there is absolutely no truth to this aunt’s claims that “Arabs will be given a special standing” in the after life.

In fact, Prophet Muhammad made it very clear in his final sermon that was delivered shortly before his death:

“All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; white has no superiority over black, nor does a black have any superiority over white; except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood.”

The notion of true Islamic meritocracy is further emphasised in the Quran Surah Al-Hujurat, Chapter 49 Verse 13:

"O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware."

It is clear that there is no basis in Islam on which Arabs here have developed their chauvinism upon. But this misplaced sense of superiority has no social or economic basis either.

In Singapore, the days of wealthy and prestigious Arab families are long gone. Today, the social economic status of the local Muslim community has largely evened out. Our top national students, wealthiest entrepreneurs, highest ranking civil servants and most brilliant politicians are all ‘Ajmis’ (what Arabs call the rest of us non-Arabs).

In contrast, Arabs have largely failed to produce a meaningful impact on the local community beyond what their forefathers have done in the past. Today, their children are largely ordinary members of society who do no better than the average Muslim family. In fact, some of my wife-to-be Arab relatives are on Government assistance for low income families and are staying in a one-room taxpayer subsidised apartment. The fact that they still think of themselves as the "superior race" still baffles me.

Let us not forget that when the early Arab Muslims were under siege from murderous infidels, Muhammad sent them to take refuge in Abyssinia, a black nation that housed and sheltered them. This event is reminder enough that skin colour must never be a barrier for us Muslims to co-exist harmoniously as one brotherhood, each in need of the other.

In the context of a multi-racial country like Singapore where Muslims comprise of a myriad of very different ethnicities – Indians, Chinese, Malays and Arabs, this dogma of a "superior race" is detrimental and contrary to what Islam preaches. Muslims here will not achieve anything beyond an insignificant footnote in the story of Singapore if we continue to divide ourselves along the racial line. Let us abandon all forms of racial stigmatisms within us, including racial jibes such as ‘Arab Kucing Kurap’.

Straight in a Crooked World

2009-05-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

As Singapore caves in to the homosexual lobby, Muslims here must remain steadfast in guarding themselves and their loved ones from falling astray.

The homosexual agenda is fast gaining ground in Singapore.

Earlier last year, homosexual activists tried to alter the country’s laws to recognise anal sex as a legitimate form of sexual intercourse. While the effort was a failure, the episode has garnered enough sympathy and visibility towards the homosexual cause.

Today, speaking out against homosexuality is fast becoming some sort of crime. Being gay or having lesbian tendencies is accepted as part of an ‘alternative lifestyle’. Us who make our opinion known against homosexuality are being lambasted as ‘intolerant and bigoted’ while they who condone anal sex are being exalted as ‘enlightened and educated’.

Teenagers and children are not spared from the homosexual agenda either. A sex education guide distributed to schools in Singapore by the local women’s group Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), teaches students that “anal sex can be healthy or neutral if practised with consent and with a condom” and that “homosexuality is perfectly normal. Just like heterosexuality, it is simply the way you are.”

At the rate at which events are unfolding, it is my prediction that one day, the homosexual lobby will make it illegal to even speak out against gays and lesbians – similar to what the Jewish lobby has achieved in Europe who made the questioning of the holocaust a crime.

Sadly, even religious groups here have decided to stay in neutral gear when it comes to the issue. Mosques and churches here have chosen to remain relatively silent in the light of nation-wide homosexual debates - even though the Bible and Quran have clearly commanded their followers to speak out against these sexual perversions.

As prophesised by Muhammad, the end of days will be characterized by widespread sins and sexual promiscuity of various natures. Some day, tolerance of homosexuality will give way to full acceptance in this country. When this happens, the Muslim community must resist the temptation to cave in to conformity and political correctness like everyone else, and rally around the teachings of our Prophet and the Quran.

This effort must start today for there are signs that the disease is slowly creeping into our society. There has to be a greater resolution amongst our leaders, mosques and institutions to educate our youngsters on the calamities of homosexuality from an Islamic perspective.

For a start, topics on homosexuality have to be consciously adopted in the existing curriculum of our youngster’s religious education and discoursed adjacently with more conventional topics on sexuality education. Our youngsters must be made aware of the various sexual perversions that are permeating society and the reasons why Islam forbids them. They must be inoculated on the threats they pose towards our values which have centred on the family as the basic unit of society.

Next, Muslim leaders cannot continue to turn a blind eye towards nation-wide homosexuality debates. Islam’s view on homosexuality as a sexual perversion must be communicated clearly and visibly for the reference of the younger and more impressionable generation of Muslims who may be swayed by secular ideals.

On top of that, there has to be greater effort to educate parents to look out for and handle sexually deviant behaviours in their children –either heterosexual or homosexual. Self help groups in the community are currently engaged in an intense battle to stem the tide of teenage pregnancies among the Muslim community. It will be beneficial if an equal amount of effort be placed to educate the community on homosexual relationships and the damage it does to society and the family values that we hold dear.

Finally, the community needs to look at the feasibility in establishing a self-help programme that caters specifically to the needs of local Muslims who are facing homosexual tendencies and have indicated their desire for help. The topic of homosexuality is not new in Islam and the religion does have a system to rehabilitate sexual deviants who have strayed from the path. It is about time we train scholars and counsellors who are apt in this particular field, a field that will keep the community straight in a world that has turned crooked.

"Guide us to the Straight Way: the Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not of those who have earned Your anger nor of those who go astray."

Al-Quran Chapter 1, Verse 6-7.

A Space Tourist Called Astronaut

2009-04-21T00:55:00.000-07:00

People achieve great things when they see their purpose in the everyday scheme of things.

Several weeks ago, former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi returned to earth safely as the latest space tourist. He was onboard the Russian-made spacecraft Soyuz-TMA. Simonyi is just one of a growing number of millionaires who are now relying on Russian-built rockets to realise their outer-space fantasies.

The Soyuz spacecraft has produced an international array of space tourists. This list includes Iranian Anousheh Ansari, South African Mark Shuttleworth and Malaysian Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.

But the Malaysians knew better. Instead of recognising Sheikh Muszaphar as the country’s first tax-payer funded space tourist, the lad was crowned as a national hero and an astronaut.

What Sheikh Muszapahr did was no different from what any of the space tourists who had paid to get on the Soyuz had done before him – conducting packaged experiments, performing zero-gravity stunts (he is recognised as the first Malaysian to play ‘five stones’ and make aerated tea in space) and making long distance phone calls from above just to impress the folks below.

But by calling him an ‘astronaut’ instead of a ‘space tourist’, magic happened to the country.

Young boys became united in their aspirations to be like him. The media went abuzz with chants of Malaysian triumph in science and technology. The average Malay farmer gleamed with national pride, knowing that one of their own made it into outer space.

By being known as an astronaut instead of a space tourist like the rest who went before him, Sheikh Muzapahar stepped into space not just for himself, but for the purpose of captivating the entire country into believing that all is possible if they put their minds to it.

The story of how Malaysia put its first man into outer space will be studied for a long time to come as a valuable lesson - not just in the value of euphemisms, but the power of purpose as well. They have demonstrated to us remarkably well how a seemingly insignificant renaming gesture can drive the spirit of people and nations to great heights.

That is because renaming is more than just an exercise at verbal gymnastics. Applied to proper use, renaming can unleash the best in human beings by showing them the real purpose of their job.

A bus driver understands that he is holding the lives of the passengers behind him when he becomes a ‘bus captain’. An insurance agent knows very well that his recommendations will impact the financial future of his clients when he becomes a ‘financial consultant’. A space tourist knows that he carries the hopes of his entire nation as he blasts off into space as an ‘astronaut’. When you give someone purpose, he carries his work differently.

That is why I always remind my officers that they are doing more than just a ‘Rules of Origin’ audit; they are being guardians of these 3 words ‘Made in Singapore’. They are doing more than just working for Singapore Customs; they are the pillars of revenue that upholds the very foundations of this country.

So think about how you can inspire yourself and the workers under you as you see the grander vision of your role and responsibility within the big picture. A little purpose is all it takes.

The Life Jacket Joke

2009-03-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

A growing obesity epidemic amongst Malays will manifest itself to be a major problem for the community very soon if left unchecked. It is time we pay as much attention to ‘Tayib’ as much as we pay attention to ‘Halal’.

When I was in the army, my bunk mates passed around the following joke:

Q: What’s the similarity between a Malay woman and a life jacket?

A: Break their seals and they grow twice the size.

The joke may be crude indeed, even if it’s meant to be passed around as humorous chatter between soldiers looking for a way to past the night. But unfortunately, the stereotype does hold some element of truth to it.

Malay women in this part of the world are after all, famous for putting on lots of weight once they get married. This anomaly lies in stark contrast to ethnic Chinese wives who persistently please their husbands with their figures way into their twilight years. Hence came about the comparison of Malay women to life jackets.

Perhaps the problem lies in our diet. Perhaps too, the bane lies in our lifestyle. Either way, obesity is an epidemic that is threatening to manifest itself as a major problem very soon if our community refuses to sober up to it.

Today, there is no need to wait till “after the seal is broken” as the joke goes. Obese Malays of odd shapes and sizes from all age groups are now a common feature of the local landscape.

In the latest Singapore National Health Survey by the Ministry of Health, the prevalence of obesity was most amongst Malays at 19.1% followed by the Indians at 13.4%. The Chinese were far of the mark at only 4.2%.

Our men folk are not totally blameless either. Obesity amongst Malay males accelerated the fastest amongst all ethnic groups. Between 1998 and 2004 our obesity rate grew at an astounding 47%. This means that not only are our Malays the fattest in the land, but we are also growing obese faster than any other ethnic group – doubling approximately once every 10 years.

Malaysians are not spared from this phenomenon either.

In a World Health Organisation Ranking, Malaysians have scored themselves to be the fattest people in South East Asia. The country’s obesity rate also exceeds those of developed nations like France and Germany. The number of fat people in the nation has more than doubled over the last 10 years – on par with the obesity growth of Malays in Singapore.

This obesity epidemic will unravel a host of challenges for the Malay community. Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart complications will be the modern plague of our people. These calamities will not only be bogging down the community socially, but more importantly financially as well.

Treatment for chronic bouts of heart disease, diabetes and other obesity related conditions often run in the thousands of dollars every year. It is something that a lot of our Malay families can ill-afford to, given the socio-economic standing of our people.

If we allow the obesity problem to persist without intervention, it will not be long before the Malays qualify themselves as the most medically liable community in the country – taking up a disproportionate amount of medical and hospitalisation subsidies from the taxpayer. This is certainly far from Muhammad’s vision of Muslims setting themselves as an example for all mankind.

But how did we become the fattest people in the first place? Do we not after all, watch very carefully what we eat? We certainly are very careful when scrutinizing food labels, looking out for dubious ingredients and making sure that everything in our food is ‘Halal’?

A Muslim’s dietary restrictions comes from a commandment in the Quran in the form of Verse 168 from Surah-Al Baqarah (Chapter 1)

Which means “Oh you people, eat of what is on earth that is ‘Halalan Tayiban’ (lawful AND good)”.

Strangely while Muslims have been diligent in obeying the first, (lawful) they have largely ignored the second portion of this commandment (good).

While we have been careful to ensure that our food additives are from plants and animals that have been properly slaughtered, we cared much less about the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol that is swimming in our dishes.

While we have scrutinised our food to ensure that they do not contain alcohol or ingredients that are derived from pork, we have allowed our food to turn us into the most obese and medically problematic people in the country.

The status quo cannot remain. We may already be paying lots of attention to the various social problems that our community is facing. Now we need to pay equal, if not more, attention to problems that are on the horizon. These include the emerging cataclysms of Malay obesity and financial delinquency. As Muslims, we must realise that our bodies have been entrusted to us to carry out His work and do good to mankind. There is a dire need to change our diet and lifestyle.

It is good that most of our children have been trained to read food labels and look out only for ‘Halal’ ingredients. All we need to do now is to elevate this awareness up a notch to encompass the Islamic concept of eating not only that which is lawful, but also good for the body and the mind. This is the true essence of ‘Halalan Tayiban’ in Al-Baqarah Verse 168.

Malays must wise up to habits like calorie counting and raise their awareness towards substances like saturated fat, trans-fat and artificial sweetening compounds – plenty of which are infesting a lot of our foods.

There also has to be more emphasis on physical activity and exercise. When I make my runs at East Coast Park, I cannot help but notice that the fellow runners are predominantly Chinese and occasionally Indian. The Malay families are by the side of the beach barbequing chicken wings. Enough said.

And lastly there has to be a continued effort by the grassroots and mosques to diversify into more activities that aim to educate our community on the state of our health. These are the beacons at which Muslims congregate at least once a week on Fridays and remain the most efficient medium in which the message can be disseminated.

Perhaps one day when these finally happen, the life jacket joke will finally deflate.

Much Ado about "Allah"

2009-03-02T00:50:00.000-08:00

Recent developments in the Malaysian theological scene remind us how much the Islamic Authorities there have gotten their priorities wrong.

If you are a working for the Malaysian Federal Government or a related Islamic Authority, you might take offence with my choice of title above.

For a lot of Muslims in Malaysia, the word “Allah” is placed on a sanctified pedestal. It is not fit to be used by just anyone, anywhere. In fact, so consecrated it is that the Malaysian Government has rescinded a Catholic newspaper's right to use the word "Allah" in all its publications when referring to God.

The word “Allah” when found in even the faintest imagery on anything like a tomato is revered as a sign from God.

The word “Allah”, it seems, can only be invoked by Muslims when referring to God. This, according to the Government, would prevent Muslims in the country from being confused about their faith.

This latest turn of events has consequentially revealed insecurities that Malaysian Muslims have with regards to the fortitude of their faith. They refused to allow Yoga because it could erode the trust they have in their religion. Now they claim exclusive use of the word “Allah” for fear that it could jeopardise their beliefs.

Is the faith of Malaysian Muslims so brittle that it requires the federal government to police every spectre that it deems a threat to Islam? Or are the Islamic Authorities in Malaysia simply making a bogeyman of trivialities, when their attention should instead be focused on the various social problems that pose a real threat to the well being of Muslims in Malaysia?

The real threat to Islam in Malaysia is neither the Catholics’ usage of the word “Allah” nor the Hindus practising Yoga. The real threat to Islam in Malaysia comes from Muslims who have allowed Islam to spiral down an abyss of evanescent rituals and frivolous observations instead of making it a compass of life.

The real threat to Islam in Malaysia comes from Muslims who have refused to go down the path of economic and educational enlightenment according to what Islam has decreed.

The real threat to Islam in Malaysia comes from Malays who refuse to abandon their Bumiputra crutches and compete with the rest of the world on equal footing for the betterment of their people.

The real threat to Islam in Malaysia comes from Muslims who have allowed the country to decay into a crime haven of daily robberies, carjacking and murder-cum-rape cases. These should instead be the focus of the Islamic Authorities. Not Yoga or “Allah”.

But no, instead so much effort and discourse has been spent to reinstate these diminutive bans with no real benefit to the general Muslim population in the country.

For the uninitiated, the word “Allah” is the standard Arabic term for “God” and has been used by Arabic speakers of the faiths that descend from Abraham, including Christians. The word is still being used today in Arabic translations of the bible and torah in many Muslim-majority nations. There is no instruction in the Quran or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad that an exclusive term for “God” be reserved for use by the Muslims.

Allah has 99 other names. Perhaps the federal government should complete its pursuit of trivialities by claiming exclusive rights to them too.

Of K-Nite and Islamic Morality

2009-02-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

As the sole free-to-air television channel serving the needs of the ethnic Malay population in Singapore, Suria Channel carries a hefty responsibility on its shoulders. Broadcasting to a demographic that increasingly relies on popular culture as its point of reference, Suria Channel inadvertently finds itself in one of the better leveraged positions to tackle the many problems facing our Malay-Muslim community.

So far, the network should be lauded for its attempt to bring quality information and entertainment into the homes of its predominantly Muslim audience. Besides the regular offering of news and entertainment, the channel frequently features documentary programmes that focus on social issues and challenges that the community faces. An example of this a marriage-preparation programme that invites a respected Islamic teacher to give his take on family values in the context of Islamic law.

However despite these encouraging developments, there is ample room for improvement. Murmurs of discontent still linger on an array of variety programmes such as K-nite, amongst others.

K-nite is a musical entertainment programme with the objective of gathering the family for a night of fun and laughter. However despite this noble intention, a good number of Malay-Muslim families are unsettled by the rampant display mannerisms and behaviour that are not consistent with the Islamic values that we hold dear.

A typical scene from K-nite. Games often turn into scuffles and close body contact with members of the opposite sex, accompanied by howls of wild laughter from participants and audience alike.

Conceptualised by renowned Mandarin show producer Jack Neo, it also seems to import a brand of uninhibited fun and laughter that is a hall mark of shows found on Channel 8 - the local network for ethnic Chinese programmes.

When broadcasting a show for a predominantly Muslim audience, the producers should be aware of elements and mannerisms that will be in direct conflict with what is taught to our children as we attempt to bring them up as proper Muslims. What suits the audience on Channel 8 cannot be fed lock, stock and barrel down the throats of the Muslim audience on Suria. These may include behaviour, language, attire and the avoidance of excessive entertainment on days that coincides with Islam’s holy dates.

I am not suggesting that we wrap all our female artists in Hijab and Purdah. But at the very least, our programmes should not give the impression that it is “okay” to abandon the values of our religion once in a while for the sake of lightening up and having a little fun.

After all, plenty of our social problems could have been avoided in the first place have we not abandoned so much of what have been taught to us.

The Weakest Body Part

2009-01-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

I have learnt that the weakest part of your body often gets you into trouble. Unfortunately this weakest part will depend on your gender.

Be it trying to manipulate that significant other to do things your way or simply capture his or her attention, knowing this weak body part is absolutely crucial in relationships. Let me humbly share my opinion if you will.

If you are female trying to win soothe the heart of your man, you have it rather simple. And no, it is not located where you think it is. I don’t know why but whenever I talk about this weakest body part, most women automatically assume it to be at the “nether” regions. Men may be shallow creatures but not everything revolves around their small head.

For men, it is universal. Irregardless of their stature, education or intellect, men all over the world have one thing in common. The weakest parts of his body are his eyes.

Despite thousands of years of evolution, the sight remains the primary sense with which a man foresees his pleasures, simple and primordial as it may seem. A woman may have a heart of gold or carry the most complex intellect in her head. But a woman with curves in the wrong places will seldom earn that second glance regardless of how beautiful her character may be.

Of course this does not mean that looks are the only criteria with which to capture a man’s heart. Once his eyes are open, it is much easier to charm him with your other qualities. But how many rationale educated men do we know who seem to abandon all common sense the moment they come across 32C, a wineglass waist and the most flawless face he has ever seen?

Sadly women have continually denied this. Most will refuse to accept the reality that their significant other indeed does belong to a species of such primordial tendencies. “My man is very educated and loves me for who I am, not for my looks”, they squeal. The moment these women get married, they abandon the need to appeal to the eyes. The moment a wife loses her grip on his weakest body part, she loses her grip on his heart.

So women, do yourselves this favour the next time you get into an argument with the dear husband. Think about what he may like to see, no matter how discreet that may be and you will be amazed at the effect. Don’t waste your time with words on any man.

But what about the weakest body part for the females then?

As much as I hate to admit it, women are a much more sophisticated species than their male counterparts. As such, they are not that vulnerable through their eyes. If you piss off your wife and then think that the problem can be solved by just dressing sexy, you could be in a whole tub of trouble.

But that does not mean that our women folk do not have their own weakest body part. The weakest parts of her body are her ears.

A woman may be suave and educated. She may be discerning in her taste and put a lot of thought to the choices that she makes in life. But the moment a woman’s ears come into contact with soft whispers of the words that she needs to hear, most melt like a hot knife through butter.

A woman’s ears are very vulnerable indeed. This may be due to their inherently good-hearted nature and motherly instincts that naturally sows trust in people till proven otherwise. Unfortunately I have come across too many women whose lives have been destroyed for putting in too much faith in words that their ears succumbed to.

Unlike women, most men have learnt to recognise this weakest part very well. I guess this is the reason why men have evolved to be such good liars.

Army’s Recruitment Ad too “Cina”?

2008-12-04T01:01:00.000-08:00

The Singapore Armed Forces has long been wrongly-perceived to favour only the Chinese in its ranks. Its latest recruitment ad does no justice to this notion.

When I tell friends that I served in the army while doing my National Service, most of them will give a reaction that hovers between bewilderment and disbelief.

“How come you managed to serve in the army? I thought most of your kind usually ends up in the Police Force?”

I don’t blame them for harbouring this discernment. Singapore’s armed forces have long been thought to be out of bounds for the country’s Malays. Many are convinced that due to the proximity of the island to a host of Muslim countries including Malaysia, the Government is taking the precautionary measure of limiting the number of Malays who could operate its arsenal of sophisticated weapons.

In fact the perception is so widespread that former Indonesian President BJ Habibie once threw down a derogatory remark on the dismal number of Muslims in Singapore’s armed forces.

The latest army recruitment advertisement does not help in dispelling this misconception.

Featuring on TV for the past few weeks, the ad starts of with visuals of warriors in ancient China livery who looked liked they just walked out of a terracotta tomb – complete to the beat of Chinese drums and music. It ends off with some Mandarin sounding psyche chants and the narration, “Some things never change. Our army will always have the steel within”.

To the casual viewer, this may seem like a frivolous rant. It’s just an ad that is meant to capture the imagination of our young men who could be lured to serve in the army. It just so happens that these targeted young men are currently obsessed over medieval war movies and sword fighting. Marketing-wise, visuals of an ancient Chinese army could be deployed to best do the trick.

But what if the Singapore Civil Defence Force featured its own recruitment ad featuring nothing but Malay lads fighting fires to the beat of Malay rock music? Would not the whole nation take notice and cry discrimination? (Although an ad like that would not be too far off from the reality in our fire stations)

That is exactly how some in the minority races feel about this latest ad. It may be a good idea for people in marketing to consider such “trivial” sensitivities every now and then.

Of course I do not expect the army to show visuals of a multi-cultural ancient army wearing Chinese armour and Songkok*, marching to the beat of Chinese drums and Dondang Sayang**. But in the backdrop of our multi-racial society, a culturally-neutral approach would be best suited for anything that requires mass-consumption, especially on a media like national television.

But I think BJ Habibie would be thrilled with the idea of the Songkok.

*What BJ Habibie is wearing on his head in the photo above.
**Traditional old Malay folk music that works better than sleeping pills.

How Will They View Us Now?

2008-11-30T20:27:00.000-08:00

Singapore may be having its first test at religious harmony now that one of our citizens has died in the hands of a Muslim militant.

The country has long understood the importance of understanding each other’s faith. We know that in the backdrop of global religious tensions, the ability to maintain rationality is the country’s best defence. We comprehend how terror is usually perpetrated by those who understand the religion least. This is why we have efforts like inter-faith dialogues and discourses on religions.

But these proclamations of religious harmony have so far been done from a safe, insulated distance. The nation has never experienced a terrorist attack, nor have any of our citizens died in the hands terrorists killing in the name of religion. Till last week.

28-year-old Singaporean lawyer Low Hwei Yen died after being shot twice during the Mumbai hostage ordeal. She was in the city to attend a one-day business seminar. Her captors have openly claimed the siege as an act of vengeance for oppressed Muslims all over the world, particularly in India. Singapore has experienced her first casualty in the hands of a Muslim militant.

The response by Singaporeans has understandably been vocal. Outpouring of grief has been forthcoming on and off the Internet. Others took this opportunity to espouse the much repeated cliché on how we must never let our guard down against terror. But what has been noticeably absent was any discussion on the perpetrators’ backgrounds and the fact that these deviants have killed yet again in the name of Islam.

Perhaps Singaporeans are being polite by avoiding religiously-charged topics. Or it could be that the nation is still reeling in the anger and grief over the lost of an innocent life at its prime.

But somehow I want to believe that the absence of castigations against Muslims in the backdrop of this senseless murder is scant evidence that Singaporeans have truly understood the fact that terrorism is not sanctioned by Islam. Trivialities such as the religion of the attackers may have been ignored in the understanding that they have committed these murders in defiance of the Quran and its commandments. If this is the case, then our efforts at cultivating religious harmony may have produced its first fruit in the form of this silence. If this is the case, then we have passed our first test at religious harmony. Or did we?

Irregardless, Muslims in Singapore must continue its effort in condemning these barbarous acts. We cannot continue to take on the current muted stance and take it for granted that the rest of our fellow citizens would understand every time murder is committed in the name of Islam.

The voice of practising Muslims is still barely audible amongst the clutter of deviant clerics and religious fanatics who are way to keen to disperse hate. If we continue this silence, we risk a time where wayward voices are taken as being representative of Islam.

Muslims, especially the ones here in Singapore, need to put in more effort to assure our fellow citizens and dispel the misconceptions that they may have with regards to our religion. This is especially so when radical Islam is on a rise in many parts of the world. Patience and understanding does have its limits and there will come a point of time where the country needs a fresh assurance from the local Muslims that we do not share the perverted views of the radicals.

Singapore Muslims strongly condemn acts of terror that has been committed in the name of Islam. Our grief is with the families of innocents who lost their and we stand shoulder to shoulder with all Singaporeans to defend our homeland against terror.

Please have a look at my other post titled “Religion of Peace: If Islam is really such a peaceful religion, then why does the Quran seem so violent?”

2008 Madrasahs PSLE Results

2008-11-20T23:31:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to the Madrasahs on this year’s PSLE examination results. But don’t celebrate too soon as numbers have clearly indicated that while they have delivered quantity, they have failed to match up on quality.

Singapore's top Malay student this year. Photo by Berita Harian

2008 marks a major milestone in Islamic education in Singapore. The Government has mandated that from this year onwards, pupils studying in the nation’s Madrasahs will have to go through the National Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE). This is the first rite of passage that every 12-year-old student in Singapore goes through for the rest their academic journeys. Prior to this regulation, the majority of Madrasahs’ students did not go through the exams.

The mandate has been enacted to ensure that the Singapore’s Madrasahs deliver a certain level of quality before they are allowed to continue taking in students into its helms. After all, Madrasahs in the nation have long been perceived to deliver students of inferior academic quality when compared to their peers from National schools.

But that perception was shattered yesterday with the release of the 2008 PSLE results. 98% of students studying in Madrasahs passed the exams. A commendable figure given that the national figure stands at a slightly lower 97.1 %

Singapore’s Malay media was quick to hail the achievement. Berita Harian, the national Malays newspaper, carried the headline “98% Madrasahs Students Passed PSLE” in bold letterings across its front page. Interviews with students, parents and teachers on TV trumpeted the results as tangible evidence that Madrasahs student can do as well, if not better, than their national school counterparts.

But the reality is Madrasahs may be getting a little ahead of themselves in declaring victory. 98% in this context is, statistically speaking, a figure of quantity rather than a figure of quality. What the figure tells us is that the Madrasahs have delivered more students who qualify for post-primary education, than the national average.

But what do the statistics say about the quality of Madrasahs students delivered? For this, we need to drill down a little deeper into the statistics that nobody seemed to have paid much attention to.

After the PSLE results, pupils are streamed into three academic pens, according to their academic results. Those who deliver exceptional results are channelled into the Express stream while the weaker ones are funnelled into the Normal streams. The Normal stream is further segmented into Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical), the latter being a channel for the technically-inclined.

This is where the Madrasahs have failed to deliver up to national standards. For students in the Madrasahs cohort, only 41% of its pupils delivered results that qualified them for the Express stream. This is far short of the national figure whereby 64% of students qualified.

The majority of Madrasahs students (57%) who took the PSLE only managed to make it to the Normal streams. Of these, 48% went into Normal Academic while 9% went into Normal Technical. This is a stark comparison to the National schools whereby only 33% of their cohort was funnelled into the Normal streams.

There is still a fair bit of work to do. I sure do hope that the proud proclamations by the teachers, parents and students that we saw on TV last night was not a signal that the Madrasahs are in a state-of-mind where they think that they “have arrived”.

Madrasahs have done well indeed in delivering the quantity and we should be proud that they have gotten this far. In fact the beacons of Islamic Education in Singapore should receive all the support it can get from us. But the time is not right in blowing the trumpet as yet. The community must remain focus in helping them deliver on quality and not just quantity in the next examinations.

Camp Odyssey

2008-11-18T23:58:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, a news clip appeared on television. It was coverage on a confidence-building camp organised for Muslim youth during the school holidays.

The camp is a noble effort indeed. It is heartening to note that professional Muslim bodies in Singapore are concerned in equipping our youth with the confidence and tenacity needed to take on the challenging road that lies ahead of them. Apparently the camp has been an annual affair organised by the Association of Muslim Professionals’ (AMP) Mercu Learning Point. Efforts like these should be applauded and deserve the full support by our community.

However as the visuals went on, several scenes left me a little concerned.

Several similar visuals appeared but I was too occupied with something else to lift anything more than a couple of casual snapshots from the screen.

The video portrayed camp participants in various states of play. The activities being held included games like the ‘Spider Web’ in which participants are required to get every team member across the obstacle in the fastest possible time, without touching the thread.

Most of us who have been camp leaders in schools will be familiar with these team-building games. Indeed they are the best vector to convey values such as teamwork and initiative.

However, my question to the camp organisers is as follows: In the pursuit of character building, where does the organisation place the importance of Islamic manners within its activities? Judging from the way some of these games are being played without any concern for body contact between males and females, Akhlaq seemed to have taken a back seat.

Have the organisers come to the conclusion that it is reasonable to sacrifice certain elements of Islamic virtue and morality in order to attain more desirable values such the teaching of teamwork and social tenacity?

Unbridled body contact between the sexes, especially at an event organised by a Muslim body, gives the wrong impression that Islam condones the free-mixing of males and females. The camp participants are at an age where they are extremely impressionable. If there ever is a time to best convey the importance of values such as restrain of the senses in the context of Islamic morality, a gathering like this will be it. Judging from the social problems we are currently having with our youths, we could definitely use it.

I hope camp organisers, especially the ones being attended by Muslim youth, can pay a little more attention to Akhlaq in planning their activities. Islam has sanctified certain guidelines on how Muslims should behave. We can't complain too much about social problems when we raise our youth like a non-believer.

Please, Call Me Shariffah

2008-11-11T04:33:00.000-08:00

Some Malays are convinced that Singapore will never elect itself a minority-race Prime Minister no matter how magnificent a leader he may be. I say worry about racism within the community first before worrying about other races marginalising us.

Americans have insisted that race did not matter in the last election. What unfolded last November was simply a reaction to 8 years of failed policy and the arrival of a candidate who promises to overturn them all. Some have even referred to Obama’s landslide trouncing of McCain as nothing less than a testament to the fact that the nation has progressed beyond the stigma of its racially-tinted past.

But few have paid attention to a rather startling statistic in the Washington Post -ABC News poll. The nation-wide survey indicates that 95% of the country’s black population has voted against the incumbent. In contrast, only 43% of the country’s whites went for the elected. It takes an awful lot of naivety to deny the fact that race has played a pivotal role in skewing the results of this election, irregardless of the issues that were on the table.

It may be perhaps be a little while more before we truly see a colour-blind election, be it in the US or right here in this region. The tendency to gravitate towards skin colour is a deep-seated human despondency and it takes more than just several decades of enlightenment before it disappears.

This is why when Singapore mulled over the possibility that the nation could one day be led by an Indian or Malay Prime Minister, most took the rumination with a pinch of salt.

It’s hard to imagine how the country will one day be led by a non-Chinese when the nation’s Internet forums and citizen websites are filled daily with racial innuendos.

For example, recently a Malay boy was caught on camera mooning tourists by the Singapore River. His photo was published online and almost immediately racial attacks started pouring in against the community. To think that they have been celebrating racial harmony day for the past decade in schools?

Racial harmony efforts are commendable indeed. But a large number of our young are not showing signs that they have totally dejected the racially-biased practices of the past generations. Those who deny this notion need to spend more time on the Internet with them. This is why perhaps the aspiring first Malay Prime Minister of Singapore has long given up hope, if he even exists at all.

Racism can indeed dash a lot of hopes. But it can also bring about the best in people. That is why I have always maintained that Singapore Malays should make use the opportunity racism in this country, whether perceived or otherwise, to shine instead of whine. I have written on this in The Feisty Minority.

However, there is a certain type of racism that none will have the answer for. That is the racism that happens within the community itself.

The word “Malay” actually encompasses a myriad of geographically-diverse ethnic groups who have settled throughout Malaya over the past centuries. These include the Javanese, Indian Peranakans, Boyanese, Arabs, Minangs, Bugis and many others. Over time, these races have come to mingle and exist collectively under the “Malay” banner as they assimilated to speak the language of the land.

However the different races have had colourful histories with regards on how they got along with one another in the past, some of which are not exactly exemplary in nature. More compelling indeed are the stereotypes that have been conceived about one another over the years of existence.

For example, the Boyanese have long been accused of being black magic practitioners and were despised by the rest. Meanwhile the Bugis were mostly viewed upon wearily as they were well-marked for their temper and erratic behaviour.

Various other dubious stereotypes exist for each of these races but thankfully they have been mostly dismantled over the decades. Murmurs of discontent over a person’s ethnicity may surface occasionally in events such as wedding negotiations but they are mostly subdued. Malays have largely accepted religion to be above race and whether a person is Boyanese or Javanese matters very little today.

Sadly certain segments within the Malay community have adamantly chosen to practice and retain systemic racism within the Malay community itself.

Sometime ago, a colleague of my mum made it known to the entire office that he will offer a generous cash amount to any of his family members who does not marry anyone with a “Malay” stated as the race on his identity card. The colleague is an Arab-Malay who is concerned over the increasing incidences of mixed marriages within his clan. He is offering the cash reward as an effort to stem the trend.

Arab Malays have been known to fiercely oppose any marriage of their females to other races, especially Malays. Arabs, according to them are superior in stature as they are the descendants of the Prophets, including the final messenger, Muhammad. Arabs are therefore obligated to keep their blood lines pure by making sure that their females do not marry men of other races. Even when befriending people of other races, Arab-Malays have always insisted on being addressed by their ethnic prefix, usually a ‘Sayyid’ or ‘Shariffah’ even though amongst them, the second name is used.

I am sure that not all Arabs are like that but the ones I have across have always insisted on this frivolous acknowledgement. “Please, call me Shariffah”, went one classmate during my uni days when I mistakenly read out her name in the class register during orientation.

Such insistence on maintaining ethnic differences, even within the community itself, is sad indeed. On the surface it may seem like just a trivial effort of an ethnic group to retain its identity. But on a deeper note, Arab chauvinism within the community is a persistent reminder that racism will be a problem without and within.

Racism should never be made an excuse, especially in this country. It is very hypocritical indeed for the community to complain about marginalisation and equal opportunity when the ghosts of systemic racism still linger within the darkest corridors of the community.

“An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; white has no superiority over black, nor does a black have any superiority over white; none have superiority over another except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood.” – From Prophet Muhammad’s Final Sermon.

Allah the Moon God

2008-10-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago we received a forwarded chain email from a fellow Muslim. Accompanying it was an attachment of several graphic files and a clamorous appeal to spread the message to as many Muslims here as possible.

Apparently another missionary group is spreading anti-Islam comics here in Singapore. This time they are specifically targeting impressionable Muslim youth with the message that Allah is a false God and that He has been fashioned out of an ancient pagan idol.

The email signed off with reminder that it is the duty of every Muslim to ensure that our youths are protected from the activities of these missionaries and to spread the message around.

The comic in question has been published by Jack Chick, an American zealot well acclaimed for his bigotry and erroneous knowledge on religions. His website has been banned by the Singapore authorities and the distribution of some of his works has been deemed unlawful. Earlier last year, a Singaporean couple was charged in court for distributing another copy of his comic titled “The Child Bride”. I wrote about that incident in a previous post.

Needless to say, the allegation made in the email is disturbing indeed. It’s not difficult to see from the sample tract above that such a literature does very little justice to the social fabric of this country.

But what is perhaps more unsettling is the fact that the email has been forwarded to several dozen Muslims here in Singapore, all of whom could have also forwarded it to relatives and friends of their own, ad infinitum.

Chain mails with religiously-charged messages could be vectors of dire consequences if left unchecked, especially in the context of a multi-racial country like Singapore.

Have we forgotten the fact that several decades ago, racial riots ignited across the country on the premise of several unverified rumours? Allegations that a Chinese mob had murdered a Malay trishaw rider sparked off a murderous wave that killed 13 people in 1964. With the speed of available technology, an unbridled chain email such as this could potentially do worse than that.

Yes, I am aware that certain groups here may be spreading hate against Islam. Some are distributing it physically via comic strips and popular literature while others prefer to hide behind a cloak of anonymity on the Internet. My advice to fellow Muslims is that if they were to receive similar hate literatures from any missionary group, report it immediately to the police. Such actions are against the law in this country and it will be best to leave enforcement action to the authorities. They will be in the best position to deal with, and most importantly, contain the matter. Loose lips sink ships and we wouldn’t want to blow it out of proportion that it really is.

Vile rumours on Islam and Muhammad are rampant on the Internet. Instead of reacting to them in a manner that will degenerate us, it will be best if we can clear the misconceptions that they might have instead. This could be the chance for them to get to know Islam better.

Adding on to the Myth Series of articles, I have added on the subject of the crescent moon symbol in Islam. Do check it out.

I have traced the source of the email and sent a message to the sender, offering my help in making a police report against the alleged propagator of the comics in Singapore. To date, the person has not replied. I sure do hope he changes his mind if he is serious about his duty.

Article Update: Moon God

2008-10-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

I have just updated the JustJihad.com list of articles to include a commentary on the misconception that Islam is a religion that has sprung out from the roots of idol worship in ancient Arabia.

This allegation has been devised out of the belief that the crescent moon and star symbol in Islam is a remnant of the Moon God which was worshipped during the pagan Arab days.

It is titled Myth: Allah is the Moon God and can be viewed here.

This is the latest addition onto a collection that aims to dispel the myths and lies that have been spreading about Islam and the final messenger, including the belief that Muhammad married a 9-year-old girl and that the Quran promised 72 virgins in heaven for suicide martyrs.

The full list of articles can be viewed here.

The Malice of Moderate Islam

2008-09-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Stop Calling Us Moderate Muslims for We Find the Term Insulting.

When I was serving in the army, I had a warrant officer who was not too happy with my lunch time routine. Every day at around one, I will make my way to an unused store room adjacent to the vehicle servicing bay for my afternoon prayers. As most may know, Muslims are obligated to offer 5 daily prayers. The second one for the day conveniently falls around the time when most people head off for lunch.

I didn’t modify the store room or anything like that. All I did was to lay down a prayer mat for five minutes, and I would leave quietly with nothing untouched. This would be my routine for the rest of the week except Friday, when I would leave the camp for a compulsory congregation at the nearest mosque.

One day, she could take this routine no more and decide to confront me once and for all.

“Why do you need to pray all five times a day? Why can’t you be a moderate Muslim like the rest? It’s very disruptive to your work, understand?” she barked to me one afternoon while I was seeking permission to leave the camp for Friday prayers.

My warrant officer is known for throwing tantrums, but one can hardly blame her for her choice of words. My National Service stint was served against the backdrop of September 2001. The terms “moderate Islam” was fresh out of the oven then and it was being passed around like flavour of the month. Barely a day went by without the term being referred to at least once in the popular media. From the Ministers to the men in the street, everyone was keen to have it on their lips.

Interestingly, local Muslim leaders too adopted the term hook, line and sinker without much thought as to the origins or real meanings of the term “moderate Islam”.

In the dictionary, the term “moderate” is popularly defined as being of medium quantity, extent or amount. What it means to be moderate is to do less than the full extent. For example if an air-conditioner was set at level 5, you would moderate it down to level 2 when it gets too cold. Perhaps this is why my warrant officer perceived being moderate as praying a little less than what is required.

Ironically, the term may have been coined with well-meaning intentions in mind. Muslims who kill in the name of Islam have taken on an ominous spotlight in the media of the time and the concept of moderate Islam was a desperate attempt to decouple the mainstream majority from more radical elements within the community.

Therefore, terrorists were deemed as extreme Muslims, or “extremists”. The law abiding ones were deemed as “moderate”.

Here then lies the fundamental problem. Islam clearly does not condone the killing of innocent civilians. The Quran has stated very explicitly that murder is not to be committed by its adherents, as commanded by the following verses:

“…take not life, which God hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus doth He command you, that ye may learn wisdom.”

(Al-Anaam, Chapter 6 Verse 151)

“… if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.”

(Al-Ma’idah, Chapter 5 Verse 32)

Therefore, a Muslim who prays five times a day, stays away from vice but commits the murder of innocent civilians has therefore ignored these preceding commandments. He will then be our real “moderate Muslim” because he is not doing the full extent of what the religion has commanded him to do.

The Muslim who adheres to the commandments of Islam strictly and stays away from all that is forbidden, including murder and the disrespect of other people’s faith, will then be our real “extreme” Muslim for he is following the faith to its full extent.

The logic may be utterly simplistic, but that is exactly how it is. The term moderate Islam is very misleading at best and extremely insulting at worst. It seems to suggest that a well-behaved Muslim is supposed to moderate his practices and ignore the full extent of what Islam has commanded him to do. The reality is the world will be a much safer place if Muslims adhere to their religion fully as Islam preaches peace and justice for all mankind, despite the faith that they belong to.

It is essential that we dismantle terms like moderate Islam, extreme Islam, fundamental Islam and a variety of other western-minted euphemisms that does no justice neither to the people nor the religion. They only serve to polarise the religion in a kaleidoscope of confusing adjectives.

Islam is very simply Islam. The Quran does not come in any other version and the message of peace and submission to one God is universal despite the domination or creed that its adherents prescribe to.

As for the rest of my stint at the army camp, I referred the denial of Friday prayer cases over to the Ministry of Defence. In Singapore, the rights of all religions to practice is sanctified in the constitution and protected by regulations.

Needless to say, I encountered no difficulty after that in leaving for the mosque at the end of the week. The warrant officer still gave me a hard time once in a while though, but at least the became more subdued. I guess she saw the value in moderating her tantrums.

The Redeem of Ramadan

2008-09-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

Ramadan is unlike Ramadan as it should be anymore. It’s about time Muslims here re-look at how we have been observing the holy month.

In a bid to foster a more inclusive society, Government and Grassroots Organisations here have decided to extend the spirit of Ramadan to people of all religions. Throughout the entire month, mosques and community centres are holding dine-in sessions where everyone, regardless of race and religion, break bread together at the sound of the prayer call. It is not unusual to see Buddhist monks in saffron robes and Taoists priests in full headgear sitting together in a mosque with their Muslim counterparts over a bowl of dates and porridge.

These are commendable initiatives indeed. In the context of a multi-racial society, such cross cultural activities should receive our full endorsement. However in the effort to include everyone, some organisations may have taken it a tad too far.

To mark the start of this year’s Ramadan, a pop concert was held in the heart of Geylang Serai – a shopping district popular with the country’s Muslims. In attendance were people from a cross section of society including Members of Parliament, community leaders and plenty of screaming teenagers. The spectacle came complete with fireworks, a light-up and a Dangdut dance performance in which popular songstress Zaleha Hamid was joined on stage by our Senior Minister.

Such events may project Singapore’s image as a society that celebrates it diverse cultures. It may even be a money spinner, judging from the number of sponsors who have come forward to endorse the event.

But have we decided to do all these at the expense of the religious sensitivities of its people? Ramadan is after all the holiest month in the Islamic calendar where festivities are frowned upon.

A growing number of Muslims in Singapore are bemoaning the fact that Ramadan observance here is increasingly deviating from the way it was meant to be. Year by year, the holy month is perversely being inundated with blatant commercialism and mindless consumption. Our youngsters today are growing up with a perception of Ramadan as a time to visit the bazaar, buy new clothes and stock up on needless food items. In fact a Muslim Member of Parliament was quoted recently on national TV referring to Ramadan as a “festival”. The true meaning of Ramadan is going astray indeed. Events such as pop concerts are definitely of no help in rectifying the matter.

Myth: Ramadan is a “Festival”

Ramadan is not a “festival”, as what our Muslim MP has ignorantly rambled. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “festival” as a joyous occasion; a grand, ceremonious, or sumptuous entertainment, of which many guests partake. Ramadan is exactly the opposite of that. It is a month of solemn night prayers, good deeds and fasting where Muslims seek humility, self-control and forgiveness for their past sins. During the nights of Ramadan, we take an exclusive time to reflect on all the bad that we have done. Various other charitable deeds are usually also included in the itinerary of the average Muslim. Hardly anything festive about it.

Myth: Ramadan is a time for shopping

I’m not sure why but Malays in the community have always seemed to make it a point to stock up on new clothes, new furniture and new everything whenever the Ramadan bazaar comes up. Perhaps they think that relatives would be in “shock and awe” at their impressively good looking homes and clothes.

The younger generation have enhanced this wasteful spending further. Like their parents, they also make it a point to stock up on new clothes, new furniture and new everything – on instalments. This year, big-name retailers like Courts have reserved the best spots in the annual bazaar, selling its furniture and home entertainment systems on credit and 48-month instalments.

But the best selling item every year at the bazaar is undoubtedly a new set of wheels. Cars are being sold in various spots at the bazaar on 10-year instalments with zero downpayments. I have written about this phenomenon about a year ago. Today, the idea of people buying a car on impulse at the bazaar in droves still intrigues me.

Islam is a religion that emphasises humility. Unlike other festivals, Eid has no such requirement on Muslims to buy anything, save for a decent set of clean clothes to be worn for the morning prayers. Commercialism and greed has dictated the festival to be otherwise.

Myth: Most Muslims lose weight during Ramadan

Hell no. Although by right they should. Muslims have been taught to be moderate in the way we break fast, with a recommended serving of a little more than just dates and water. Sunset is after all very near to bedtime and excess consumption of food is bound to lead to weight gain. But sadly, Ramadan is being treated as a food fiesta for some. With hotels and restaurants having special buffet packages for break fast, who could resist?

Ramadan is and will continue to be exploited for commercial interests. Be it furniture stores, buffet restaurants or pop-concert organizers. But as in simple economics, supply will dwindle when there is no demand. The fact that such exploitations of Ramadan exist is because Muslims have allowed ourselves to be exploited. We choose to smear the holy month with insatiable greed and complete neglect of its true meaning. If we as Muslims do not redeem its sacredness, no one else would.

When a Chinese Hates the Chinese

2008-09-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

A recent incident in Singapore reminds us that racism sometime happens between people of the same race.

Several hundred years ago, there was a peaceful Malay village on the island of Singapura. Life in the idyllic community was good. The surroundings were clean and neighbours were friendly. Material wealth was not something that you come by very often but people are more than happy with the abundant harvests of fish that they gather every other day.

But one day a group of foreigners arrived on the shores. They had come from China in search of a better life for themselves and their families.

At first, the villagers weren’t too happy with the sudden appearance of these slit-eyed savages. They were considered uncouth, unhygienic and inconsiderate. They spit indiscriminately, pollute the air by burning paper as a form of worship and had little consideration for the peace and quiet on the village. Worst of all, they rear and feed on pigs – an animal considered dirty on the predominantly Muslim island. The newcomers couldn’t stand the locals and their laissez-faire lifestyle either. It was a potential hotbed for conflict.

But the village elders relented to their existence anyway. This is after all God’s great earth and people should be fee to make a living where they persevere to do so. Besides if these new comers could bring prosperity to the island, why not?

The immigrants proved their worth. They worked hard and turned the puny village island into a majestic metropolis. As time progressed, the Chinese population soon overtook that of the locals by a vast majority. They soon assimilated and the races managed to co-exist peacefully. There were racial incidences every now and then but in general, everyone is aware of the need to exist as one family lest the island be returned to its past status of an insignificant fishing village. This is why we have decided to officially celebrate ~~Don’t Hate Each Other Day~~ Racial Harmony Day in our national schools.

The story above is obviously an exaggerated parable. It may not exactly be an accurate reflection of the past but it pretty well reminds us on how this nation was created on the blood and sweat of foreign immigrants. The economic miracle that is Singapore would not have been possible if the locals have refused to look past the perceived differences and embrace the arrivals of these foreigners. Our continued existence today depends on how these races can continue to live in peace.

But a recent incident seems to suggest that we have forgotten this reality.

A group of residents in Serangoon Gardens are furiously signing a petition that has gathered several hundred signatures. They are up in arms over the fact that a nearby school will be converted into a dormitory for foreign workers, most of whom from my understanding, will be arriving from China. Amongst the reasons given are that these Chinese workers are going to dirty the area with their notoriously uncouth habits and pollute the peaceful environment in the idyllic neighbourhood of Serangoon Gardens. Talk about De-javu.

The humour may be lost to a reader from the majority race. But to the casual observing Malay, the irony is impudent: here is a group of people, protesting the arrival of people, from a land where they forefathers had come from!

So racism is not about race after all. The incident is a timely reminder that we have the insatiable need to abhor one another regardless of our skin colour. Hate completes our emotions in mysterious ways. Race is but a convenient excuse to despise. Was it not a wise man who once said that if the human race were to wake up one morning speaking the same language and having the same skin colour, we will find a reason to hate one another by noon?

When a particular community do not hate people of other races, they will hate each other. When an inherently racist Chinese do not hate the Malays, he will hate perhaps another dialect group. When the Malays do not complain about alleged mistreatment by the Chinese, The Javanese might perhaps complain about mistreatment by the Boyanese.

This is why I have always chosen to ignore whenever a Malay brethren points to racism as the reason why Malays cannot get ahead in the rat race. I think it is complete bull crap. Discrimination is everywhere and happens to everybody even amongst people of the same race. I have addressed this concern some years ago in my entry titled The Feisty Minority. Unfortunately some people in our community still choose to use racism as the convenient scapegoat as an excuse for their failures – even in the context of present day.

As for these foreigners, I say give them a break. Just because you live in a posh neighbourhood like Serangoon Gardens does not mean you are entitled to special privileges. We will all have to rub shoulders with people from China one day. It’s the reality here. Besides, they are working in the construction industry – a sector Singaporeans have traditionally shunned. They don’t leech the island of jobs, do not demand special privileges and will leave once their endeavour is done.

All that this futile petition has done is to expose the kind of people that live in Serangoon Gardens. Or is the same mentality permeating throughout the entire island?

The Halal Hypocrisy

2008-07-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week a colleague forwarded an email to me containing a message which has allegedly been written by the management of Haagen-Dazs. In it, the popular ice-cream chain is seen explaining the contents of its vanilla-based products and that it contains about 0.2% alcohol due to the nature of its flavouring compounds.

Needless to say the email has been widely forwarded amongst Muslims here, judging from its list of past recipients in the email body. With it came the equivocal but vehement call for all Muslims to boycott the ice-cream establishment for its products are not Halal based on this alcoholic content declaration.

Prophet Muhammad once said, “That which can intoxicate in large quantities is also forbidden in minute quantities." Based on this narration, Muslims in general have developed a critical eye towards everything that they eat which could possibly contain even trace amounts of alcohol, including chocolates, ice-cream, cakes and even sushi.

Generally I think that this could be a good habit. After all it pays to be aware of what is in your food let it be alcohol, additives or anything that may harm the mind and body in any way.

But why has the same stringent criteria not been applied to other dishes that has been prepared by Muslims? After all, it is a well-known fact that fermented Malay dishes like the Tapai (made of either tapioca or rice) do contain traces amount of alcohol? A brief walk through the Geylang Serai market will inadvertently reveal an entire row of Muslim stalls selling this dubious delicacy.

Are Muslims genuinely interested in avoiding non-Halal foods or is the general agenda leaning more towards the boycott of Western products which they perceive to be un-Islamic? Very often I have seen Muslims furiously condemning non-Muslim products and services once they are not found to be Halal, but turning soft towards Muslim-produced dishes which are clearly doubtful.

In fact, a search on the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) FAQ website reveals that its stand on Tapai is that it is Halal. Its explanation is that “Rice and tapioca can only intoxicate at the point of it being fermented” and that “after the process of fermentation, the intoxicant element will cease to exist and thus making the product, tapai, halal”.

But is it, really? On Wednesday, the 1st November 2006, Malaysian newspaper The Star carried a report about a teenager in Kota Kinabalu who raped a 75-year-old grandmother. The suspect was diagnosed as being drunk after consuming too much Tapai.

Granted, this grandma-raping may be an isolated one-off incident. But the fact is that intoxication can happen upon excess consumption. Frequent consumers of the sour dessert can attest to this fact. How MUIS deduced this dish to be Halal is beyond my understanding.

But that could not be the end of it. What about other Malay dishes that has gone through fermentation like soy sauce, cincaluk, etc? Could they not also contain trace amounts of alcohol? Basic fermentation is after all a chemical conversion that turns carbohydrates into alcohol and carbon dioxide ( C6H12O6 → 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2 ). Why then have these traditional Malay food eluded the ever encompassing radar of Halal evangelists who are ever so keen to decriminalise and boycott products made by non-Muslims?

I’m not a big fan of the big ice-cream companies like Häagen-Dazs nor Ben & Jerry’s. I think they’re way overrated. This entry is in no way a defensive article for these establishments nor any other non-Halal food outfit.

But the point that I’m trying to make is that if we have chosen to adapt a very critical stance towards the food we take, then we should go all the way and not be hypocritical against the ones Muslims have grown accustomed and familiar to, including the ones in our own kitchen.

The prohibition against alcohol exists in the form of 4 verses in the Quran (4:43, 2:219 and 5:90-91). The reason for their revelation (Asbab al-Nuzul) was so that Muslims stay away from intoxicating substances that drift the mind. But somehow over the centuries, this objective has evolved into a witch-hunt to zealously purge anything and everything that contains even an insignificant amount of naturally occurring alcohol.

Since this the line we have decided to toe, I think we will only have the moral right to call for boycotts only if we also clean up our kitchens. Else critical stances, like the Haagen-Dazs chain mail, aims to just isolate the community further.

Science note: Basic fermentation produces ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and carbon dioxide. However there are some forms of fermentation that produces acids instead of alcohol. This fact should be noted in the interest of an all-round discussion. Thanks Diyanah for pointing it out!*

*And yeah, thanks too Feroz too for forwarding me the email. (Jealous colleague who's sore that I didn't mention his name. Lol.)

Citizen Journalism or Mortification?

2008-07-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

Photo : Mediacorp

In the past when women got into a heated argument, it would probably escalate into a public shouting match. A little public embarrassment for both parties but there would be nothing more than that. At the most there would be an exchange of colourful swear words and vivid descriptions of each other’s genitalia. But that would be about it

But today, when women get into a heated argument, they would most probably take out their mobile phones and take videos of each other. These embarrassing movie clips would then find its way onto various media sharing websites for all to see as a form of sweet revenge.

A simple search on Youtube and other similar sites would attest to this fact. These popular video sharing portals are now home to several movies of women quarrelling at the train stations, office lift lobbies, markets and various other public spaces that women have no qualms about making a scene at.

But embarrassing videos are just the tip of the trend. Public humiliation by popular media seems to be the latest fad amongst Singaporeans today. Websites like Stomp are now the latest weapons against anything or anyone that we have an issue with. These include personal peeves, neighbours who hang wet laundry, inconsiderate commuters who don’t give up their seats, bad service staff and even harmless old women giving foods to cats.

Some hail this as testimony to the glory of citizen journalism. I see these as thoughtless citizen mortification.

Now that cameras can be found on virtually any mobile phone, privacy is increasingly becoming a rare commodity. Yet some have taken it upon themselves to blatantly invade the sanctity of others by recording and photographing actions that they themselves deem inappropriate – and then uploading it onto “citizen journalism” sites that are more than willing to further humiliate these unsuspecting victims. Better still, there is nothing that the law can do about it.

Ours is but a tiny island that is getting very crowded by the day. Life is bound to get unpleasant if we do not start to think about legislations that could protect our dignity in the context of today’s technology. We need to ponder this very seriously indeed. It’s about time that an unwell person should be allowed to take his seat on the train in peace, without having to worry about being photographed by anyone whenever a pregnant lady steps in.

But while some kind of law to this effect starts to kick in, there needs to be a conscious effort, especially by the owners of these popular media to inculcate the values of responsibility and respect for the space of others. Candid and voyeuristic photography should not be encouraged to flourish, like what some radio station is doing.

Starting this month, Class 95 FM is offering a cash prize of $950 to anyone who could record down and make public a video of Singaporeans behaving either badly or nobly in public. These “Ugly Singaporeans” videos will then be published on a podcast site for viewers to judge. Do we really want to encourage this kind of behaviour in Singapore? Are they really that desperate in driving traffic to their sites at the expense of other people’s dignity? I shudder to think of the dozens of videos of innocent people framed to look like they have done something eminently wrong.

A word of advice for all those wanting to win this cash prize by hunting for these ominous videos – to find the ugliest Singaporean, you may only need to point your camera at the mirror.

Hard On Bright Lipstick

2008-06-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

Authorities in a northern Malaysian city are calling on its Muslim women not to wear bright lipstick and noisy high-heeled shoes if they want to be proper Muslims. The municipal council in Kota Baru, run by conservative Islamic party PAS, is distributing pamphlets to recommend that women refrain from wearing heavy makeup, including bright lipstick, and loud high-heel shoes to work.

As usual, the western media was right on cue; eager to portray this event as proof that Islam is demeaning towards its women.

But then again, who could blame them? A few years ago, the very same Malaysian state made it compulsory for its women to don headscarves as to “not arouse the sexual desires of men.” To a casual observer, it might seem that Malaysian Muslim men could get a hard on simply by looking at women’s hair.

Worse still is the comment by one of the officials in this very same party who remarked that women who get molested are usually asking for it by the way they dress. His comments seem to suggest that Islam absolves men of blame when a woman’s modesty is violated because it’s the woman who is “inviting it”.

What they fail to realise is that Islam has allocated more importance to men lowering their gazes than to women dressing decently. During the days of our Prophet Muhammad, he reminded his followers time and time again that men should always preserve their eyes by not looking at things that they are not supposed to. In fact he even warned his followers from sitting in the vicinity of the streets should there be no urgent need for it, lest their eyes go astray.

Unfortunately Islamic guidelines have often been interpreted with oozing male machismo. Commandments put upon men are sometimes conveniently ignored while women are often made to shoulder a bigger part of the responsibility in avoiding social problems.

Lipstick and high heels are just the tip of the blame iceberg that has been passed onto women. There are lots more example of ridiculous injunctions so much so that Islam is often seen as a religion where the fairer sex is second class to the whims and fancies of its men folk.

A while back I wrote an entry on JustJihad.com titled “Myth: Islam Relegates Women to Bedroom and Kitchen”. It aims to briefly show how Islam protects the rights of its women, rights which sometimes are not fully met by their men for very deliberate reasons. Do check it out.

The Credit Card Conundrum

2008-06-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

It’s perplexing how a tiny piece of plastic can drive young, educated people to suicide.

In his highly acclaimed documentary Maxed Out, director James Scurlock interviewed two mothers who lost their children to credit cards. Faced with insurmountable bills that compounded by the day, their two teenage kids chose to end their lives instead of facing up to the daily harassments of the issuing banks.

The same went with Sean O’Donnell from the University of Oklahoma. Despite earning just $5.15 an hour, the college student had 12 credit cards on him when he was found dead with self-inflicted injuries. How he got his hands on credit cards despite the paltry wages in anyone’s guess. But the banks carried on calling his home a year after his death to demand payments on the money he owed.

But westerners are not the only ones who fall victim to predatory lending practices. The Credit Card Conundrum is slowly tightening its noose around the necks of young Asians who are increasingly finding the need to live up to the expectations of a middle class lifestyle.

Today, counsellors in South Korea are reporting an increase in the number of youth who commit suicide over debt. This is hardly surprising coming from a nation where the average working adult carries about 4 credit cards. Last year, the nation again set a new record in credit card spending – US$272 billion, about 15% of the country’s GDP. Last month a nurse at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan died by draining her own blood. She too turned to death as the ultimate solution for her ballooning credit card bill. The island she lives on is estimated to have another 700,000 credit card “slaves” – users who pay the minimum on their bills every month.

Financial delinquency is spreading like cancer in every society. Georgetown University Sociologist Robert Manning estimates that credit cards have now taken over alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases as the most major threat to the lives of young people around the world. If you live in a developed nation, chances are you will know at least one family torn apart by the malice of credit cards or unbridled debt. By all indications, the morass is slated to become a bigger problem in the future judging from the way our youngsters are handling their money today.

At this point, one may be tempted to attribute the popular culture for needlessly promoting extravagant lifestyles and hedonistic spending habits. Or perhaps the real culprit could be the banks who openly prostitute their credit cards and facilities to youngsters, students and a whole bevy of individuals who can seldom handle credit responsibly.

But playing the blame game yields no result. Materialism has taken over as the world’s major religion and banks are happily profiting from this anomalous phenomenon.

Somehow our youth no longer see the honour in remaining debt free. It is more important to have that shiny new car or to hold that fancy wedding than to remain financially solvent.

It is something that we cannot change. Once someone decides on making that big ticket purchase despite not having earned the money, it is usually very hard to change their minds. Visions of grandeur can permanently cloud the mind.

We can’t change the laws either. Lobbying the Government for stricter credit controls may produce glimpses of results every now and then. But giving credit is largely a business decision by the banks and lending institutions. Governments should not be expected to interfere in legitimate business practices, especially so if they bear bountiful opportunities for tax revenue.

What we can do however is lies in education and discourse.

I feel that it’s important for a select group in every community to continuously discuss and raise awareness in financial issues. This is especially so when our society has decided to abandon the noble money practices of our forefathers for opulence and mindless extravagance. Look around you today and you will see our youngsters spending with little regards for the future. Someday their bills will come and ultimately society will have to pay for it.

That is my reason for starting our small circle on the JustJihad.com Community Forum. It is a small collection of articles that I have written personally for my circle of friends who are concerned about their financial well being and their investments. There are only a couple of articles there right now and more will be added in progressively. Feedback from all is very much welcomed and I am also continually looking to learn more from everyone as I add on more writings and discussions.

As an opening to the section on debt, I have written the 10 Credit Card Commandments, a guide which I believe will help you beat the banks at their own game at let you come out the winner regardless of how many credit cards you own. Do check it out.

Singapore Muslim Scholars Where Art Thou?

2008-06-01T00:05:00.000-07:00

Nothing surprised me when they detained yet another racist blogger several weeks ago.

Log on to any Singapore based forum today and you will be inundated with post after post of racist and disparaging remarks about Malays and Muslims. Ridiculous accusations of Islam and Muhammad abound - Islam requires 4 male witnesses before they can prove than a woman has been raped, Muhammad was a paedophile, Islam promises 72 virgins for people who kill themselves.

These are just some of the nonsense that Singaporeans are spreading on the Internet. I do not know why these people have not been arrested. Perhaps no one made a police report against them yet.

I could have made the police report. The sight of a racist blogger in handcuffs may provide that brief sense of justice. But I feel that it is more important to educate them rather than to get them to face our courts.

Hatred against us exists for a reason and no amount of legal persecution can eradicate the malaise that they harbour against Muslims in general. That is the reason why I started a series of articles in Justjihad.com on the common myths and misconceptions that they hold against Islam. You can read the entire series here.

The articles have had a fairly favourable response. Some readers have been sending me emails asking for more clarifications or just to drop a word of thanks. But amongst these correspondences, one particular email stands out from the rest. It has been sent by a fellow Singaporean Muslim who tells me to “stop my foolishness” (translated from Malay) in his subject line.

He starts his email by asking me about my qualifications and the University that I come from. He then proceeds to identify himself by his real name and the Islamic University that he graduated from. Then came the main point of his message: You are not qualified to talk about Islam so quit writing.

To his credit, the gentleman has been very polite in the email in typical Malay fashion, addressing me with the proper salutations. But I’m deeply saddened by his recommendation for me to cease and decease.

Granted, my degree does not originate from an Islamic University and I major in Commerce and Economics – hardly close to anything theological in nature.

But does a Muslim require certified paper qualifications to dispel the myths and lies that are being perpetrated against his religion and his Prophet? I’m not making any new rulings nor am I even bordering on interpreting any of the verses from the Quran. All my writings are based on the interpretations of renowned past scholars and theologians.

If our Muslim scholars feel that religion is their exclusive domain and that they are the only ones qualified to speak or write about it, then they should come forward and lead by example.

Presently their voices are only heard on the pulpit once a week on every Friday. Little of what they say can be seen or heard beyond the four walls of the mosque that they hide within. I’m sure that they have not been sent to the prestigious Islamic Universities to only speak to Muslims? Isn’t the spreading of the message of Islam an obligation on every Muslim – especially so when so much untruth is being spread about our religion and our Prophet?

There are so many questions and lies alike out there and our non-Muslim friends would appreciate answers and clarifications regarding Islam. One only needs to come online on our nation’s most popular forums and you will sense it immediately.

Mendacious untruths and blatant misrepresentations about Islam are being propagated by Singaporeans daily on the Internet. If you cannot address them, perhaps you may need to re-examine yourself and what you have done before asking someone to stop.

I have just put up my latest writing titled Myth: Islam Was Spread by the Sword. It is a response to the common accusation that Islam is a religion that is being forced upon its adherents. Do check it out together with the rest of the articles.

How About Halal Toilets Too?

2008-05-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

The boom in oil prices has brought unprecedented wealth to the Arab States and Singapore has done well to court the increasingly lucrative Muslim dollar by having Halal-everything. Now how about making a little adjustment to our humble latrines too?

A Muslim tourist arriving in Singapore would be spoilt for choice. And no, we’re not talking about Halal food.

Look around you today and you will be hard-pressed not to spot scores of Halal products all over the shelves. Incidentally, food items are not the only ones taking up the ominous green label. Today, Halal Chinese medicine, Halal ointment and even Halal ice can be found in your friendly neighbourhood supermarket. Hilariously, there is also a manufacturer right here in Singapore selling Halal-certified carbon dioxide.

But products are not the only ones jumping onboard the Halal bandwagon. Services too have realised the value of catering to the rising affluence of the Muslim market. Renowned hotel chains like the Grand Hyatt now have exclusive Halal kitchens and restaurants. Other established hotels are also retrofitting the ceilings of their so called “Muslim-friendly” rooms with the Kiblah direction pointer - a marker that points in the direction of Mecca to facilitate Muslims who would like to do their prayers in the room.

Commercial and Government entities in Singapore have gone much the extra mile indeed. But while a lot has been done to appease the Muslim platter, a crucial necessity has yet been addressed-our humble toilets.

Cleanliness is a major part of a Muslim’s faith. Islam, being a way of life, prescribes in detail the level of hygiene expected out of every Muslim. This includes the compulsory use of water for purification purposes.

Unfortunately most of our public toilets, including the ones with high tourist densities, would only have a roll of toilet paper as its sole hygiene amenity. For Muslims, this signifies an insufficient mode of purification. On top of the daily roll, water is central to the Muslim concept of hygiene even if it’s only for “small” business – to borrow a local lingo.

This is a concept that may still be alien to the majority of building operators here. But while we continue to be indifferent to these seemingly trivial needs, the lucrative Muslim dollar may be giving us a slip. I personally know of an online Muslim friend who has chosen Malaysia over Singapore for his honeymoon destination due to “concerns over prayer and sanitary facilities in public areas”.

In aspiring to be a major tourist destination, hotels, airports and tourist hotspots here should consider enhancing their sanitary facilities to match that of a truly international standard.

When I was at the airports in London and Los Angeles, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that not only do the lavatories there have amenities such as running water in every cubicle; they also provide a clearly-marked ablution area for Muslims who would like to perform the obligatory cleaning before praying. Even the urinals have a running tap each for hygiene purposes. Incidentally, adjustments like these would also help to improve our local men’s standard of hygiene, most whom would usually just zip up after performing their deed at the urinals!

Singapore has done well to make itself a choice tourist destination to people from all over the world. But it cannot truly call itself a global city if the state’s latrines are inimical towards a quarter of the world’s population.

The Little Bride

2008-04-17T05:02:00.000-07:00

It’s a breezy Sunday afternoon by the beach. You've set up a picnic mat and your MP3 player is locked on your favorite tracks. You’ve found a nice shady spot away from the crowd and are looking forward to chill with your loved ones. Looks like a splendid way to settle the weekend. But then someone comes up to you with a holy book and interrupts your peace.

“Excuse me sir, do you want to hear what God wants to say to you?”

The scenario above did actually happen to me several years ago. Over the years, the intrusions have repeatedly taken place amid different circumstances and locations.

I’m sure by now we’re all too familiar with the exact same opening line. At fast food restaurants, train stations and even cinema lobbies - there is no way of hiding from them these days. In fact the problem of religious preachers has become so rampant that a reader wrote in to the local paper not too long ago asking for legislation against all form of unsolicited religious preaching in Singapore.

I think it’s great that we live in a democracy where all religions are free to practice and say what they need to say. After all, who wouldn’t think that their religion’s great? But there is a difference between preaching the message of your God and insulting another person’s faith.

Last Tuesday Singaporean couple Ong Kian Cheong, 49, and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 44 was charged in court for distributing seditious publications. They are alleged to have distributed The Little Bride, a comic meant to tell children that Islam is a very bad religion and that they should get out of it.

An excerpt from the comic:

The website hosting the online edition of the comic has been blocked by the Singapore authorities for obvious reasons. Imagine if the kids they were targeting actually read the material distributed. I reproduce just part of the publication above to give you a brief idea on how vile and dangerous the publication in question is.

We cannot afford such forms of religious mud-slinging in Singapore. We are after all but just a tiny nation whose prosperity depends on her religiously diverse people working together. History has taught us that we would face disastrous consequences if we forget this dire reality.

Despite all the efforts that we have taken, more will be required to be done now and for a long time to come. Religious dissonance would continue to be a potential flashpoint that hovers on the neck of this nation for as long as it exists.

We have done well with the various initiatives such as the state-sponsored Inter-Religious Confidence Circles. But more needs to be done with regards to respecting each other’s privacy when it comes to religious matters. This is especially so when distributing literature such as the above, meant for little children who cannot yet decipher the hate and propaganda behind a seemingly harmless comic book.

The Little Bride

The Little Bride is a comic strip that paints Islam as a vile and wayward religion where little girls are married of at a very young and tender age. This is made in reference to the much-touted allegation of Muhammad marrying a 9-year-old girl, Aishah.

For the record, there is inconclusive evidence that Aishah was 9-years old when she became a bride. Several scholars have pointed out impossibilities that would have rendered this allegation untrue. This included mathematical calculations and traditions of the prophet Muhammad. The enemies of Islam have happily capitalized on this disputed allegation.

I have written about this dispute on Aisha’s age. Do check this out and compare yourself with allegations given in The Little Bride.

Was Muhammad a Pedophile? - JustJihad.com

In the meantime, let’s keep religion a private affair. Besides, not many people are keen to take a call from God on a nice Sunday afternoon.

The Religion of Peace?

2008-04-13T01:34:00.000-07:00

If Islam is really such a peaceful religion, then why does the Quran seem so violent?

Observing the catastrophe that is happening around the world, you can’t blame anyone for laughing whenever the terms “peace” and “Islam” is mentioned in the same sentence. From Southern Thailand, to the Philippines, to Iraq, to Chechnya and Palestine – violence and killing is committed by Muslims almost every other day.

The word “Islam” derives itself from an Arabic term which denotes peace and submission. The concept of peace is so central to a Muslim’s faith that Muslims are supposed to address each other with the greeting “Assalamu-alaykum”, which literally means “peace be onto you”, whenever they come across each other.

Therefore, it is no surprise that most Muslims, despite the violence that permeates around them daily in the name of their religion, still insist that Islam is The Religion of Peace.

But looking through the Quran, one can’t help but notice several verses that will send a chill through your veins. Examine the following verses carefully:

So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates.
(Quran Chapter 47, verse 4)

And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah; but if they desist, then surely Allah sees what they do.
(Quran Chapter 8, verse 39)

And prepare against them what force you can and horses tied at the frontier, to frighten thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them …
(Quran Chapter 8, verse 60)

Surely a religion of peace will not command its followers to smite the necks of unbelievers?

Several other spine-chilling verses exist but the above are by far the most famous ones due to its very graphic portrayal. In fact, they have become so notorious that they are now the subject of an amateur video by Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders, titled Fitna.

The Power of Context

Now let’s look at several more gory verses with graphic portrayals of violence and murder.

“After chewing his legs, he then chewed on his head as he screamed.”

“They cheered in happiness as she fell into the well and drowned.”

“Together, they pushed her into the fire.”

No, they have not been taken from the Quran. But one glance at the above sentences and one would certainly agree that they are brutal indeed.

No sane parent would want their kids to be reading stories with plots about murder and gore. But what if the above sentences were plucked out straight from a children’s story book meant for kids as young as 5 years old? (The Gingerbread Man, Sleeping Beauty, and Hansel and Gretel respectively.)

Such is the power of context. When you take out a sentence in isolation, very often the sentence loses its original meaning and intention. Standing alone, a verse taken in on its own can be used to depict anything you want it to portray.

The same concept applies when quoting verses from any religious text. This concept is deceptively simple but is often ignored by amateurs, simpletons and those with ulterior motives.

In the Quran, every verse has its own “Asbab Al-Nuzul”. This refers to the circumstances and occasions upon which a verse is revealed by God to Muhammad.

The Quran was not revealed in a day. It has been revealed progressively over a period of 23 years and each verse comes with its own circumstance and history which must be fully understood.

Therefore in order to quote verses from the Quran, a person must not only be well-versed in Arabic, but also history and tradition to fully understand the Asbab Al-Nuzul. This specialty is known as the ability to “tafsir” (interpret) the Quran and provide its commentary. Persons well-endowed with this knowledge are known as the Mufassiruns.

Sadly, many do not understand the concept of Asbab Al-Nuzul. These had led to many, including unqualified Muslims, who comically quote verses after verses from the Quran in isolation as though they fully understand and appreciate its meaning. Most are doing this to serve their own individual interest and prove their own individual points. Indeed, a little knowledge is very dangerous.

So what about those Violent Verses from the Quran?

These verses are not to be taken literally. Many of these “violent” verses pointed out in the Quran have been commented on and explained widely by several Mufassiruns throughout the history of Islam. These verses were revealed during a time when Muslims were commanded to defend themselves against an advancing enemy who wished nothing more than total annihilation. Muslims have previously been forbidden to make war despite the fact that they were being systematically persecuted and tortured by the pagan Arabs.

But to get a proper qualified commentary for any verse from the Quran including the ones above, it is best to consult the works of renowned Mufassiruns like Ibn Kathir and Sayyed Qutb amongst many others, not from any amateur who pulls a Quranic verse via Google.

And most certainly not from a poorly-patched 15 minute contemptible video disguised as a revolutionary film.

The video Fitna is nothing spectacular. Verses taken out of context juxtaposed with images of clerics giving extremely fiery speeches – classic ammunition for the modern critic of Islam. It would have been more credible if he actually came out with a fresh chastise, but alas a neophyte film-maker like Mr. Wilders could only copy and regurgitate a wannabe version of what has been repeated on the Internet all along.

What about Violence in the Bible?

It is interesting to note that while Mr. Wilders has decided to point out the “violence” contained in the Quran, he has conveniently ignored the “violent” verses from his own country’s predominant religion – Christianity. Examine some these verses taken out from the Bible:

Utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill man and woman, infant and suckling baby."
(Samuel 15:3)

Devour the nations the lord your God delivers over to you. Show them no pity.
(Deuteronomy 7:16)

You must completely destroy them; you shall make no peace treaties with them, and show no mercy to them.
(Deuteronomy 2:1)

Joshua and the men of Israel had finished slaying them with a very great slaughter, until they were wiped out.
(Joshua 10:20)

Of course the verses above have also been quoted in isolation without the proper context. I am not trained to comment on Biblical verses so I leave it to the Theologians to give its proper commentary. But that is exactly the point. Taking verses out of any religious text is irresponsible and will paint a very wrong picture of the religion in its totality.

Therefore it is quite surprising that Holland, a country much revered in the past for its culture and sophistication, could harbor a simpleton like Mr. Greet Wilders in its Parliament.

What about Violence by Muslims?

The killing of civilians and innocents in the name of Islam is clearly deviant. There is no need to elaborate on this for many have commented on it. Violence towards civilians has been explicably forbidden by the Prophet Muhammad and should be condemned by all believing Muslims.

But having said this, I feel that is also important to highlight the biased stance of the Western media towards many of the conflicts happening around the world today.

Conflicts like the one in Chechnya, Southern Thailand and the Philippines are largely political in nature. They are caused predominantly by regions fighting for independence not unlike the conflicts in Ireland and Sri Lanka.

For example, the Southern Thais have been fighting for independence ever since the ancient Kings of Siam invaded and annexed the states of Pattani and its neighboring regions, a conflict that predates the two world wars. Similarly Chechens have long wanted to see their country as an independent state, especially since the collapse of the USSR.

Even in the Middle East, Christian Palestinians who want independence from their Jewish oppressors have joined in the fight with their Muslim countrymen for patriotic reasons. Although rarely observed, it is a fact that has been documented since Israel invaded Gaza and the West Bank in 1967. Once again, this is something that the Western media has conveniently chosen to ignore.

Somehow nobody seems to notice that when a suicide bomber blows herself up in Jaffna, the media simply calls it an act by a "terrorist". But when it happens in places like Southern Thailand, it becomes a "Muslim terrorist". Interesting indeed.

Religious Harmony

There is no religion in this world that instructs its followers to kill and maim needlessly. Yet throughout history, wars have been fought in the name of God not only in Islam but in other major religions as well. This has been done mostly by the followers, sometimes with little regards to the texts of their religious scriptures.

It is important that we do not recklessly quote verses from religious texts without prior knowledge. It is childish, imbecilic and reflects very badly upon one’s level of education. But most importantly is impediment to religious harmony, something that the world needs very badly at the moment.

Fixation for Installments

2008-03-05T06:33:00.000-08:00

Boy: I went to a friend's place in the evening. He has a big radiogram!

Boy: It would be fun if we were to have a radiogram... We could listen to a lot of records!
Father: Radiograms are expensive. We can't afford it.

Yes, those were the days indeed.

The cartoon above is taken from Town Boy, a nostalgic work about life in the 50s by acclaimed Malaysian cartoonist Lat. I decided to immortalise it here for it reminds me of a scene we seldom see today. A scene long ago when Malay men were noble heads of the household who did not expose their families to debt and installments.

If this cartoon were to depict the life of a typical Malay family today, it would have most probably ended with the dad taking out an installment plan on that radiogram.

Yes, there has been plenty of jokes about Malays and installments.

There were rumours going around not too long ago that salespeople at furniture and appliance shops were instructed to hide price tags whenever they see a Malay customer walking in. They were told to display an installment plan instead.

At first I thought that this was just another one of those tales to beguile the Malay community. Such a policy of displaying installment plans for Malays, but normal prices for other races would be downright discrimination. Surely this humiliating story is nothing but just a rumour?

Well guess what.

All ads taken from Berita Harian and Straits Times, 2nd March 2008

Examine the prices on these ads carefully. One set is taken from a Malay paper while the exact same ads, with exactly the same products, are taken from an English paper.

The Installment Culture

Taking up loans is now such a way of life for the Malay community that even businesses are realising this disconcerting anomaly and have catered their marketing messages accordingly.

I'm not sure about you, but I find the situation above extremely humiliating. No one can deny that the habit is spreading like cancer in the Malay community. From cars, to furniture, to jewellery and even wedding expenses. Installments are now the norm rather than the exception. And some are even very proud of it.

Flip the Malay paper today and you will find numerous advertisements for $1-deposit cars, buy-now-pay-later gold bracelets and $12-a-month mobile phones. Amusingly, there is also a letter in the forum pages by one Osman Ibrahim who is suggesting that the Government implement an installment plan for the lost Identity Card fee.

Indeed the signs are clear for those who wish to see.

The Storm Ahead

A community heavily laden with debt is a community at the edge of trouble. Being surrounded by loans and installments increases your chances of being a financial delinquent. All it takes is just one emergency or an unforeseen circumstance such as an accident, retrenchment or disease before your whole world comes crashing down. Things may look rosy today, but many in the Malay community has never thought about the weather tomorrow when taking on that car loan.

And it does not take a genius to tell you that being a financial delinquent would mean being a liability to society. A breadwinner struggling to settle the compoundingly mounting debts around him would most likely not be able to fulfill his family's financial obligations.

Marriages have been torn apart and families have been broken due to financial delinquencies. In a community facing a host of social problems, financial delinquents are just adding on to the statistics. The future is a scary thought indeed. Sadly many do not see this yet.

Action Now

Stay out of debt and spread this message. This culture of taking out installments for things that we cannot yet afford has to stop. Double-standard advertisements is the clearest sign yet that this fixation for installments is a plague that our community has to overcome. There is nothing honourable in owning something you have not yet paid for - be it a $60,000 car, a $16,000 grand wedding or a $600 bracelet.

It is much more noble to live within you means, than to live a life of debt.

Action Now. Watch this space.

The Bankrupt Mat
Unspoken Numbers
Car Bazaar

Halal Food: Unites or Divides?

2008-03-04T04:54:00.000-08:00

A principal of a primary school in Singapore incited enmity in the online world not too long ago. His felony: dictating that non-Halal food should not be allowed in his school canteen. Several netizens responded in anger at the news and vowed to boycott all eating outlets with a Halal sign on it.

Is Halal food dividing us?

Like mushroom after rain, green Halal labels are rapidly finding their way onto the windows and packaging of food outlets and products worldwide. From multi-national food chains like McDonald’s and Campbell’s to traditional home-grown outfits like Old Chang Kee and Prima Deli. An increasing number of companies have realized that catering to the Muslim market is a proposition that makes plenty of economic sense. The Halal food and beverage market is estimated to be worth USD$580 billion worldwide this year.

Exclusively Halal eating premises such as Fork & Spoon and Banquet are also making major inroads and expanding their number of outlets. Major shopping malls today will come with at least one Halal eating establishment such as these.

Needless to say, the rapid expansion of Halal products and establishments has brought numerous benefits to the Muslim community. They come in the form of employment and business opportunities.

On top of that, Muslims can now dine confidently with their non-Muslim friends and acquaintances, knowing that non-Halal items and ingredients would not have cross-contaminated their food. Those who are particular about non-Halal food being at the same table will also have a better peace of mind. The ability to dine together is no doubt beneficial for social cohesion among the different religions and races here.

But not all are too happy with this development.

When an eating outlet is certified Halal, food that is prohibited by Islam are not allowed to be consumed on the same premises. This includes alcoholic beverages and meat that has not been slaughtered according to Islamic rites.

This prohibition has raised the ire of patrons who can no longer enjoy that cold mug of beer with their favorite dish at their usual eating outlets.

Furthermore, some see this as subtle colonization of Muslims who impose their lifestyle onto people of other races and religions. They question the need to appease Muslim palettes at the cost of giving up their traditionally favorite staples such as pork, wine and beer.

Why Halal?

A major misconception amongst non-Muslims is that as long as it does not contain pork, it is Halal. For food to be permissible under Islam it must not only but free from prohibited items such as pig-based products and intoxicants, but it must also meet a certain level of purity, hygiene and wholesomeness. This is why Muslims cannot eat carrion and animals that have not been properly slaughtered.

Interestingly, due to the strict requirements that Islam has with regards to hygiene and purity, some non-Muslims have expressed confidence in the Halal certification as a mark of quality. Efforts are underway by regulatory bodies like the World Halal Forum to formalize this process and present the Halal sign as an international hallmark of wholesome food.

With progresses such as this, it is clear to see that Halal food will soon be enjoyed by each and all worldwide. It continues to serve as a platform that will allow people of different religions to sit together over a meal where they previously could not.

Halal Food as a Common Denominator

Muslims are often reluctant to sit at the same table or eat at premises where non-Halal food like pork and alcohol is served. This often arises due to concerns over odor and cross-contamination of utensils.

However non-Muslims are not prohibited by their religion to eat Halal food.

What prevents us from using Halal food as the common denominator so that all faiths alike can sit at the same table and enjoy a meal together? Could not this growing trend of Halal eating premises be adopted to unite our races like we have never done before? All it takes is the shedding of some non-Halal items from the menu and lunch takes on a whole new social meaning.

What better way than to start it off from our school-going youngsters? When I was in school, we had a designated eating table for Muslim students. We never had the chance to mingle with our non-Muslim friends over canteen breaks. The Muslims had their “spot”, while the non-Muslims had theirs.

The Halal canteen at the primary school mentioned earlier could be a thawing sign of this unsightly social demarcation.

Sadly many do not see it this way. Sadder still are the existence of those who come up with frivolous initiatives like a Halal food boycott. Instead of uniting, Halal food is needlessly dividing.

It is very unfortunate indeed that this particular primary school has been ordered to abolish its policy of having a Halal canteen. Its principal has been reprimanded and made to apologize publicly over the fiasco.

A student there can now bring in pork and other non-Halal items into the canteen. It remains unclear if his Muslim friends, who could previously join him at the same table over a lunch, will still do so once this happens.

The Pillion and the Crystal Vase

2007-12-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

Does your boyfriend or husband rides a motorcycle and takes you along as a pillion rider? If he does, try this little dialogue on him.

Tell him to imagine a tall Swarovski Crystal Vase. It’s rare, it’s precious, it’s the only one of its kind in the world and it costs over $10,000. It does not come in any packaging at all but now he is tasked to transport it from one place to another.

Ask him what he would do. Would he strap it on the back of his motorcycle? Or would he take a cab and cuddle it safely in his arms to the destination?

I’m sure anybody transporting such a cargo would have the common sense to take it in a cab.

Now ask him, if he knows that such a precious thing is not meant to be transported on a motorcycle, then why does he put you on it?

Are you not rare, precious and only one of its kind in this world too? Are you not worth as much to him that you can be placed on the rear end an object zooming down the street at 90km/h? Don’t you deserve to be cuddled safely to your destination too instead of just being placed behind his back?

I’m writing about this because as I flipped the papers today, there was YET another story of a couple being involved in a motorcycle accident. There are just too many of it happening these days. Somehow I feel that today’s parents take it very lightly that the lives of their daughters are out there in the hands of a young motorcycle punk.

The rider in the report today escaped with only minor injuries and was treated as an outpatient. His female pillion rider was pronounced dead at the scene.

Yes, death is a tragedy. But sometimes, I consider it lucky when people die from a motorcycle accident. It could be worse. They could have survived, only to live life like a vegetable or moving around with no limbs on a wheelchair for the rest of their lives.

If a man truly loves a woman, he wouldn’t put her on a motorcycle.

Yes, I know what some readers might be thinking. I have written about the trend of young lads buying cars while getting into 10-year installment plans and huge amounts of debt. But yet here I am demonizing motorcyclists too?

If you notice, it’s not the car that I’m berating, but the habit of our youngsters today, especially the Malays, who have the natural tendency to buy something on installment – be it cars, motorcycles or whatever luxury that they deem necessary. That was the real issue when talking about cars. It was financial. But the issue on motorcycles is more than just that. It’s about life. Think before doing.

Plague of the Pinks

2007-10-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee has assured the gay community that the government will not come down hard on them. Sadly, many do not see that “Live and Let Live” may be his most dangerous advice this year.

Come the 1st January 2008, a major change is about to happen in Californian public schools. If a male student wants to use the female changing room, he will be allowed to do so. Reciprocally, a girl must not be prevented from using the boy’s toilet if she desires to. Phrases like “I love my Mum and Dad”, deemed discriminatory by homosexuals, will also be banned from school textbooks. It will be replaced with the more political term “I love my parents” instead.

It may seem far-fetched but it’s true. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has passed bill SB 777 which banishes practices that are seemed derogatory towards homosexuals in public schools. The bill, proposed by lesbian Senator Sheila Kuehl, will also ensure that all instructional materials and school activities positively portray lesbian and gay sex as accepted norms of the society. Children as young as 7, will be taught that it’s ok for a man to have sex with another man.

The homosexuals have scored a major victory indeed.

In Singapore, homosexuals have long been perceived as marginalized victims. They are often seen as casualties of circumstances who never asked to be born the way they are. Gays and lesbians have always cajoled sufficient sympathy from the general public and are left to live in their own eco system.

But in recent years they have grown brazen. Inspired by the victories of their homoerotic brethrens overseas, homosexuals here have been begun openly promoting their lifestyle – even to teenagers and children. The gay manifesto is hailed greatly as an ultimate bastion of individualism. Today, gay couples smooch away in public spaces, oblivious to their surroundings and public sensitivities.

Homosexuals are no longer an ambivalent group. Left unattended all these years under the guise of tolerance and political correctness, the gay lobby here has spawned into a powerful menace that now threatens the very values this country has been built upon. By fighting for the freedom of the minority, they have eaten into the freedom of the majority. But the damage is only beginning.

The recent attempt at homosexuals in Singapore to repeal section 377A, which criminalizes gay sex, is a very clear indicator that grassroots and religious leaders here have to pay more attention towards the morality. This assault has is a wake-up call that this society will decay itself into unabated promiscuity and sodomy if nothing continues to be done.

If events overseas were to be of any indicators, the homosexual lobby will not stop here. They will fight on to make anal sex an accepted norm of society. Repealing a law that criminalizes homosexuality is only the first step towards spiraling into a never ending abyss of homosexual demands. Today they may want to legalize rectum penetration as a form of intercourse. Tomorrow they will want to demand the right to get married. In the future, your daughter may be changing her clothes in the same room as a boy. This is why, live and let live, is not exactly be the best option here.

A communique will soon be dispatched to Singapore's religious leaders by a group of concerned citizens. Should you wish to sign the statement, please proceed to the Open Entreaty to Singapore’s Religious Leaders. Selected comments will be included in the communique.

Unspoken Numbers

2007-10-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Recently I picked up a booklet titled “Progress of the Malay Community in Singapore since 1980” from the library. It’s been recently published by MCYS to document several milestones that the community has made.

Undeniably, there have been several improvements with Singapore’s Muslim community. Drug abuse may still be a bane, but at least we’re not the number one problem race anymore. More of our children are attending school and dropouts have reduced considerably.

As expected though, several disturbing trends still remain. Divorce rates are increasing alarmingly and the number of teenage pregnancy cases continues to be a persistent challenge for the community.

However, other several riveting trends have NOT been highlighted by the publication. While browsing through the statistics, I picked up a handful of note-worthy figures that we need to pay attention to. These unspoken numbers need special mention for they tell a dreary tale of things to come for the Malay community.

The booklet is quoted as saying that Malay households “are doing better financially”. Median monthly household income has more than tripled from below $800 in 1980 to $3,100 in 2005.

Is this something that Malays should be proud of? Think again. A three-fold increase in income over a period of 25 years may seem impressive. But look at the numbers when presented in graphical format.

We are actually falling behind the other races – by a very wide margin.

In 1980, the Median income of virtually all households in Singapore - be it Chinese, Malay and Indian - were almost alike. The Chinese may earn slightly more, but the disparity between the races was not so obvious.

However come 1995 onwards, the Indians and Chinese seem to have raced ahead in median household income, leaving the Malays biting the dust. The disparity is even more pronounced in 2005. This rising income gap seemed to have crippled the Malays in a perpetual last placing. It looks to be a long time more before the race in household income evens out. Meanwhile, Malays remain the country’s poorest people.

But wait, it gets more interesting. Being the poorest in the land, surely you would expect the Malays to be more prudent with their money?

No.

If you flip to the Specific Consumer Durables Chart, it will tell you that Malays make up the nation’s second highest number of car owners percentage wise, behind the Chinese. According to latest statistics, 23% of Malay households today are having a car. Even the Indians, who earn much more than us, do not lay claim to this title. I suspect the number of Malay car owners is much higher now with the recent spate of frenzy car buying among the community.

The Malays sure do enjoy their entertainment too, and will spare no cash in its pursuit of it. They are the most dominant owner of VCD and DVD players in the country. 87% of Malay households here own these devices, as compared to 83% for the Chinese and 81% for the Indians.

Cable TV subscription looks to be a hit with Malay families also, with 36% of Malay households having subscribed to it, surpassing numbers for the Chinese households who have only got 32% of their population on cable.

Unfortunately, Malays do not spend the same fervor for education.

Despite the extravagance in matters like cars and DVD players, Malay parents have seemed to take learning pretty lightly. Only 64% of Malay households have a computer in their midst – lowest figure among all the ethnic groups who all score above 70% in computer ownership. The same goes with Internet subscription figures. They score the lowest in this aspect too, with only 44% of Malay households connected.

What do these figures mean to you?

The figures tell a paltry story about our Malays indeed. They have been highlighted in such a way not so I can demean my own people, but I think these issues have gotten very little mention by our leaders and our media.

There is a fundamental flaw with the way Malays are spending money and the effects will be staggering for our children and our future. The numbers are slowly coming out one by one and it tells a story of debt, falling wages and a very mediocre future. Sadly, people are more comfortable sweeping these truths under the rug as unspoken numbers.

Previous Article - The Bankrupt Mat: Malay Money Habits

Was Muhammad a Pedophile?

2007-10-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

The West has often accused Prophet Muhammad of being a Pedophile for taking a 9-year old girl to be his wife. Sadly, Muslims themselves have come to believe this as truth.

I just finished an article tonight regarding this subject matter. Do check it out at the JustJihad.com website.

Myth: Muhammad Was a Pedophile

The 72 Virgin Myth

2007-10-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

A lot of people think that Muslims will recieve 72 virgins in paradise as a reward for being a martyr. This is a myth that has been often used to tarnish Islam.

I've just finished my second article in the "Myths" series for JustJihad.com titled "Myth: Islam Promises 72 Virgins for Martyrs"

Do check it out if this interests you.

Hantaran Calculator

2007-10-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Talk about rising costs of living.

It seems that the Hantaran (dowry) for Muslim brides have increased too. The dowry is a fixed amount of money that the groom has to pay to the bride's parents, on top of wedding expenses. As recently as a few years ago, the Hantaran for a Muslim bride would be about $7000. Today a figure as high as $10,000 is not unheard of.

From what I understand, some Malay men have decided to take out an installment plan on their brides too.

So how much is a Muslim lady worth and how do you determine her value anyway? Many of my friends have been asking this question.

With that I have configured a Hantaran Calculator

Do give it a try and see how much you (or your bride) is worth.

But a word of caution though. The Hantaran Calculator has been configured with deep-seated Malay stereotypes, based on certain qualities that our elders look out for when "valuing" a girl. For example her age (too old is not good), education level (too high is not good either), and whether or not she is a virgin (some elders can actually tell).

Note: Islam frowns upon wastage and preaches moderation, even when holding weddings. So take the calculator with a pinch of salt :)

Impeding the Malay Deluge

2007-10-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

Singapore has been bringing in plenty of immigrants from China and India to counter the growth of its Malay population. This is presumably to keep our ethnic proportions in check. But what is the cost to our nation in the long run?

Singapore’s latest population census is out. According to figures from the Department of Statistics, the percentage of Malays in Singapore has declined to just 13.5% – down from 14% in 1990. This comes in despite the fact that Malays have the most superior fertility rates when compared against the Chinese and Indians.

It is a well known fact that Malay women are very productive – in the most literal sense. Marrying at a relatively earlier age, Malay women enjoy a longer fertility period when compared to other races.

On top of that, Malay family values are different. Children are seen as a blessing from God and have never been considered a burden or liability. If it is necessary to sacrifice a luxury or financial resource just to have that extra child, it will be done. This in part explains why it is pretty common to see Malay families with 5, 6 or even 7 children frolicking in our neighborhoods.

In 1990, there were 384,300 Malay citizens. By June 2007, the figure has ballooned to 495,400. This gives the Malays the nation’s highest fertility rate of 2.1. But on the other hand, the Chinese community continues to bemoan its paltry fertility figure of only 1.07.

What this basically means is that Singapore’s Chinese community is not producing enough babies to replace itself. If left to continue without intervention, the population make-up of Singapore could be drastically altered over the decades, with the scales tipping towards an increasing Malay majority.

So in come the immigrants from China and India.

Don’t get me wrong. The purpose of this writing is not to whine about the decreasing numbers of my people. I’m all for keeping the ethnic proportions to its status quo. Keeping Malays to below 15% may be best for the well being of the nation.

Given the fact that Malays have the tendency to be not as educated, they would usually score at the inferior end of the salary scale – amongst other social issues. A disproportionately large percentage of this ethnic group may have serious implications towards Singapore’s competitiveness in the global economy.

But what I am concerned with is the method in which Singapore has decided to impede the Malay deluge. To arrest declining birth rates of the Chinese and Indians, the nation has decided to take the easy way out by opening its flood gates to immigrants from China and India.

It seems that we have given up after several measures and 'baby bonuses' aimed at tackling our falling birth rates did not seem to work. Would not it be better to study WHY our Chinese and Indian brethren are not producing as much as they should, instead of implementing quick-fix solutions that might have adverse impact on our society in the long run?

Already signs of conflicts are emerging between the locals and the immigrants.

Not too long ago, there was an exchange of angry letters in the press between local Indians and immigrant Indians. This took place after an issue was highlighted in Parliament by MP Indranee Rajah. She claims that local Indians are not getting along with their foreign-born counterparts. Locals are claiming that the immigrants are too obnoxious while the foreign-born Indians are claiming that the locals are just jealous because they earned less.

Murmurs of discontent are even rifer amongst the Chinese. Local Chinese just can’t seem to get along with their mainland counterparts whom they claim are just too crude, rude and unhygienic. Anyone who has been pushed on the train by an obvious main lander will have little reason to disagree with this.

Today, figures show that 980,000 foreigners roam our streets – just shy of a million. This is not including the countless more that have been absorbed into the official figure for permanent residents.

Several questions to this quick-fix solution remain:

What if the newly brought in immigrants continue to give a low fertility rate when compared against the Malays? Do we then continue to bring in immigrants from India and China ad infinity till the nation becomes a highly fragmented jungle with almost no sense of identity?

What happens when a crisis strikes our beloved nation? Will these immigrants rough it up with the locals or conveniently leave for greener pastures just like how they originally abandoned their birth country? Remember, unlike our forefathers who toiled this land, these people came to enjoy it only after we are prosperous.

The day might just come when Singapore will have to deal with 5 major ethnic groups instead of 3 – Singapore Chinese, China Chinese, Singapore Indians, India Indians, and Malays. Racial harmony day might just need a serious re-design when this happens.

Car Bazaar

2007-10-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

Possible conversation this festive season:

Mat: "Hey Dol, nice car, where did you buy it from?"

Dol: "Thanks, bought it from the Pasar Malam lah that day."

In a sign of the times, a total of 12 car dealers have set up "showrooms" at the festive Bazaars and Pasar Malam all over Geylang Serai. Where people usually get their break fast food and festive clothing, Malays are proudly signing away ten-year loans under the very same tents.

In an article published by The Sunday Times on September 23 2007, it was reported that car salesmen there are laughing all the way to the bank from the unexpectedly brisk business, thanks to the Malay crowd who are attracted to the $0 and $1 drive-away deals.

One of them is Mr Adrian Toh, 40, manager of Sport Auto which carries the Chinese brand Geely. He sold more than 50 cars in just the first week of setting up shop at the bazaar.

"I was only hoping to sell enough cars to cover the rent initially, but the overwhelming sales took me by complete surprise", he bemuses. His bazaar stall is selling twice as many cars as his permanent showroom at Ubi.

Another pleased car salesman is Mr Don Tan, 28, manager of Teck Wei Auto Trading.

"The grand scale of this bazaar is drawing such large crowds that we're selling three times more cars here than at our permanent showroom in the Malay Village over the same period of time", exclaims the happy salesman.

One of the proud owners of these Pasar Malam cars interviewed is Madam Ida Rohana, who admitted that a new car was not on her shopping list when she visited the bazaar. However that did not stop her from leaving Geylang Serai the proud owner of a Geely CK car that cost her $42,999.

Earlier this year, I wrote a piece regarding Malay Money Habits in The Bankrupt Mat. Do have a look at it.

Selected Articles

2007-09-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

Most Viewed Articles on Ridzwan.com

Religion of Peace?
Fixation for Installments
Unspoken Numbers
My Minah Wife
The Bankrupt Mat
The Feisty Minority
The Malay Marriage Mess
Why I Dread Raya
The Mat Dictionary
Myths About Singapore Malays

My Minah Wife

2007-08-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

I was relaxing one corner
When I spot a hot chick from far
I smiled and passed her my number
My love story starts with Minah

Minah's a girl I barely knew
But one bad day I strayed a shot
Within the weeks her tummy grew
So off we went to tie the knot

Wanted a wedding by the block
But Minah's mum said, "So low class?"
"I want grand music and a jock"
"And make sure the venue's five stars!"

Hotel banquets and high dowry
Just so that others will envy
My credit card runs on empty
But hell, at least Minah's happy

When minahs be somebody's wife
They keep no watch on their damn rice
Barely a year of blissful life
My dearest mate grew twice her size

One day she said "House feels empty!"
"Did you not promise a good life?"
"I want a big Plasma TV"
So owe to Courts husband and wife

Then Minah grew fat and lazy
She starts a craving for a car
One day she marched up right to me
"Sayang, I want a Toyota!"

But I tell her I've cash no more
My bank account's right to the floor
She said, "Sayang, we can borrow"
"Installment plans, cash down zero!"

Minah is now proud and happy
With lots to show off to her friends
But they know not the reality
We're hanging on to our wits' ends

My minah wife now makes me low
With nothing more left to adore
A husband joy turns to sorrow
Fret not, I've got space for three more :)

Note: No, I'm not married. This is just a satirical poem that jabs at the vexations of our society. If you find this site offensive, perhaps you may find a more suitable reading here

The Bankrupt Mat

2007-02-22T05:09:00.000-08:00

Malays’ Current Money Habits Will See the Community in Financial Disaster.

Do this simple experiment when you have the time: stand by the side of a busy road in Singapore. Now count the number of cars that drive past and note down the driver’s race. You will soon observe that most of the time, 2 out of 10 cars will be occupied by a Malay family.

There may never be a proper poll on Malay car “ownership” but one cannot deny that lately there has been a surge in its number. Things like these are simply noticeable. 2 out of 10 is a very alarming statistic even for a straw poll, considering the race’s population makeup and socio-economic status. Malays make up only about 14% of our population, most of whom are not within the high income brackets. But “buying” a car seems to be the latest craze among Malays today.

Junior government officers, dispatch riders, clerks, traffic wardens, and even security guards - just some of the typical Malay professions who are now discovering that they can suddenly “afford” the ultimate middle class symbol. It used to be that Courts Superstore was the only place where Malay men would chalk up huge instalment plans on their frivolous purchases. But ever since the enactment of the $0 down payment allowance for cars, the Malay man’s obsession with instalments now includes his dream set of wheels.

Malay Money Habits

Malays have had dubious money habits since time can remember. Commerce and economic aspirations was never a regular feature of our culture. Accumulation of excess wealth is generally frowned upon as it’s considered avaricious and evil. Any excess that one has should be shared with the community. Malays are, after all a very communal society.

But the situation changed as time moved on. Realising the importance of success, a handful in the Malay community advanced themselves well socially and economically. They found good jobs and good positions in society. The quality of their lives improved and they soon could afford bigger homes and other symbols of the middle class like cars and fancy home interiors.

Inadvertently, the growing affluence of this relatively small group of Malays bred silent resentment among the rest. Pressure grew among the majority members of the Malay community to keep up with their well-to-do relatives and friends. They too wanted the middle class symbols like cars and fancy home interiors. Materialism slowly becomes part of the Malay culture in Singapore. It doesn’t matter if people had to borrow money to get these symbols, as long as they kept up.

Today easy credit is available wherever you go. The booming economy is seeing Malays happily lapping up symbols like cars, home renovations, and fanciful weddings – on credit. I personally know a poly grad friend who recently took out a $30k loan to fund a lavish wedding reception complete with a live bands and a famous DJ. And yeah, a car loan is on the way for him too.

Chaps like him are not uncommon today. Many of our youngsters are indiscriminately taking on numerous credit cards and needless car loans. If the situation is left unchecked, the community will be self-destructing financially in the near future. Already the signs are there. According to a figure by the credit bureau, Malays now make up the biggest chunk of personal bankruptcy rates percentage-wise.

All it takes is for the economy to go into another prolonged recession before the rest check into the poor house. This will have serious implications for all of us as Malays are a relatively poor community to start with, struggling to build even our mosques and madrasahs. Something needs to be done and it has to be done soon.

Four “I”s of the Malay Money Habits

Malay Money Habits are characterised with the following 4 ‘I’s. They are namely income impairment, imperative to impress, inclination to credit and imprudence in financial matters.

1. Income Impairment

It is well known that Malay workers do not earn as much as their counterparts due to their education level. The majority of our young professionals enter the workforce with only an ITE certificate or Polytechnic diploma, drawing mediocre salaries with nominal yearly increments. On top of that, our community is still dealing with a large number of premature school leavers. Most have no impetus to neither carry on studying nor improve their earning capabilities and are set for a life of perpetual mediocrity.

However the need to feel like a member of the middle class runs high and meagre income earners bridge this disparity by taking on loans. Today, more and more meagre income earners are proudly driving around in brand new cars clouded by delusions of grandeur.

In a retirement survey conducted by AXA, it is discovered that a large percentage of Singaporeans will NOT have enough to retire on, despite the government raising the minimum CPF level to $120,000 by 2013. Needless to say, those in debts today will find themselves in a very grave situation tomorrow. Sadly, most Malays have not woken up to this fact.

2. Imperative to Impress

There is a very old but notorious motto that a lot of Malays live by. It goes “Biar papa, asal bergaya”. (Let me be broke, as long as I look good).

This need to look good is a powerful force indeed. It is the same force that drives many Malays to breaking their banks every Hari Raya. Spunky clothes and accessories, classy interiors and the latest home entertainment system are a must when friends and relatives come over to visit. To most Malays, debt is something that you can think about later, what is most important is to look impressive in front of others now.

If you head down to a public car park opposite Jalan Afifi on any given day, you will find a stable of about brand new cars – all belonging to CISCO security guards from the HQ building opposite. I’ve been observing them for quite a while now as I pass by the car park on trips to the swimming complex.

Right here where I live at Eunos Road 5, we have two Malay parking wardens who issue parking summons– in their own cars. I find it hilarious though that when they park their vehicles, they themselves do not display parking coupons but yet go around issuing summons for it.

I’m singling out these security guards and parking wardens not because I am demeaning the professions. But I feel that having an entire platoon of Malay security guards and Malay traffic wardens who drive around in their own cars; it’s a sure sign that ours is a community heavily laden with debt. Trouble is brewing.

3. Inclination to Credit

When I was ten-years old, I had a religious teacher that really hated me. One day, she unwittingly whined that the class shouldn’t demand a children’s day treat from her as she has not paid her car instalment for the month. I knew very well that Islam forbids both the taking and payment of interest. That was the reason why I quizzed her innocently about the interest that she’s paying on her car loan. Needless to say she made my life in class miserable from that day onwards.

It’s menial but true. Most Malays’ definition of “affordable” applies to the monthly instalment figure. As long as the monthly instalments can be made it is considered “affordable”, ignoring a very specific injunction in Islam to avoid paying things on instalment if interest is involved.

I’m not sure exactly how this culture came about but this is the exact mentality that most Malays adopt when they step into places like car showrooms and furniture stores. It is the same mentality that has put so many Malay families in dire consequences.

This mentality has to change. It is a culture that has been around for so long that other communities are making fun of our living-on-instalment ways. Malays must train themselves and their next generation to stop looking at the monthly instalment figures when making a purchase. If you cannot afford a liability in cash, you cannot afford it, period.

4. Imprudence in Financial Matters

People who understand financial matters are still few and far between in the community. Despite being university graduates, I have seen a few friends who got themselves trapped in negative equity situations while buying property. Worse, many still are not even aware of what terms like “negative equity” means.

In today’s complex economic climate, it is not enough to just be highly educated. It is more important to have a sound financial knowledge. The average leader of the household must be able to tell the difference between a bad debt and a good debt, the different types of mortgages and its pitfalls, and basic mechanics of the world’s financial markets.

Not only will these skills make Malays less susceptible to moronic money decisions that could lead their families into trouble, but they will also find themselves in a better position to benefit from it.

Action Now

Malay financial delinquency is an issue that has not received enough attention by the community. Perhaps they think that it’s an issue that needs no immediate arrest as compared to other more pressing dilemmas. Already our leaders are battling a host of social problems such as teenage pregnancy and single parenthood.

But the irony is, a financially dysfunctional community is the perfect breeding ground for more of such social problems in the future. More resources must be devoted to educate Malays, especially the young men, on financial responsibilities and sound spending habits.

A local newspaper reported not too long ago that there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of Malays applying for Zakat (alms), most of whom are young Malay men in their twenties. If that is not a wake-up call for the community, I do not know what is. If we let this problem go unchecked, a majority of our Malay families in the future could be led by a Bankrupt Mat as the head of the household

Postscript

Being in the twenties myself, I understand the temptation to be behind the wheel sometimes. Yes, it’s pretty swell to drive up your date to a nice romantic inaccessible-by-public-transport beach after dinner for a nice chat under the stars. Yes, having a car at your command does have its perks. But being plagued by debt and liabilities should not be one of it.

An alternative that I personally use is the automated car sharing services. Using your mobile phone, you can activate one of many cars all over the island with just one SMS. The cars are new, clean and come in a wide variety of models to choose from. You get to drive all makes and brands while a car owner would usually have to be contented with the one he “bought”.

But best of all, you worry nothing about the monthly instalments, road tax, insurance, maintenance, breakdowns etc. Though I drive most weekends, my car bill rarely exceeds $100 a month. With the money you saved, you will soon find that a car is within your means, cash, by the time you’re 35 – if you really need it.

On a more interesting note, women seem to make much more financial sense than their male counterparts. In casual conversations, most of the tertiary-educated Malay ladies I know have told me that they do not admire men who drive. (The same cannot be said of the lesser-educated ones though).

According to one, starting a family with a car-bearing male is equivalent to starting a family saddled with debt, right from the start - a very dangerous concept indeed. It just takes one unforeseen disaster such as a serious illness, an accident or a retrenchment, before the entire family descends into a total financial shamble.

Maybe Malay men should drop their ego and listen to their ladies more.

Meat Eaters are Merciful

2007-01-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

I just came back from watching Fast Food Nation and I have to say that I am sorely disappointed. The movie is based upon the best selling book by Eric Schlosser that details how the fast food industry has been transforming our culture and our lives.

But instead of carrying the objectivity and solid arguments found in the book, the movie version is nothing more than just blatant mudsling at meat eaters. For 2 straight hours, the movie spells out for you how eating meat equals to murder in subtle scenes of slaughter and animal bloodbath.

Frankly, I am sick of these vegetarians imposing their beliefs upon others. It used to be that vegetarians were very mild, nice folks typical of a meek herbivore. But lately they seem to have grown very aggressive. I used to have a friend who refused to attend any of our barbeque gatherings even though we have promised him vegetarian meals. His excuse was that he does not want to come anywhere near the “grill of death”. Not a week goes by without him preaching about the virtues of being a vegetarian. And no, he does not do it for religious reasons.

He was the only herbivore that I had to put up with. Now it seems that they are everywhere.

About 3 months ago, herbivores wrote in to the local press to complain about excessive advertising by a fast food restaurant here that advertises its meat products on giant billboards. Local herbivores have also taken to the streets distributing “Love us, not eat us” and “Meat Eaters are Murderers” stickers. Fellow herbivores have taken to pasting these stickers very proudly on their vehicle bumpers.

I have nothing against people who abstain from meat for religious reasons. They are usually not that imposing. It’s the self-declared righteous “crusaders of animal rights” that I usually have a problem with. I suspect that they are the ones behind the movie installation of Fast Food Nation. Damn I wasted my seven bucks.

Well I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough of being called a murderer. I think it’s about time that us meat eaters stand proud for what we believe in and prepare for ourselves a good arsenal of replies and rebuttals, just in case we find us in an argument with herbivores. Please feel free to add to my list of rebuttals.

People Eating Tasty Animals (PETA) Rebuttals.

1. Meat Eaters are Murderers

The next time you come across a herbivore who tells you that you are a murderer for killing animals , ask them to show you their wallet, watch strap, shoe or handbag. Chances are that it’s made of leather. I find it to be total hypocrisy for herbivores to tell others not to eat meat, but they themselves are happily using products made of dead animals. So much for “righteous crusaders of animal rights”.

My view of meat eating is very simple. Every living thing that God has created has a function here on earth. Once the function has been carried upon, the being will pass on. A sheep that lives a life on earth will die one day anyway. But should you eat its meat, the sheep dies so that you and your family can live. Its function is your sustenance for another day.

2. Meat Eaters Cause Pain

How do you know that broccolis don’t scream every time you pull them from the ground? Like animals, plants have lives too. They breathe. They reproduce, they contain their own form of blood and they most definitely eat and drink – just like all living things. Just because you do not hear them scream does not mean it’s not there. Think about it.

3. Eating Meat Is Bad for Health

Tell that to the people living in the likes of the Sahara, the Middle East, Alaska, the Himalayas and all the other places where vegetation just will not grow. The fact of the matter is this; human civilization just would not have made it in these areas if it was not for meat eating. Eating fish and deer would have been the only form of sustenance you would have should you find yourself in miles and miles of ice caps or dry desserts.

People who insist that everyone should just eat vegetables do not realize that they are looking at the world through self-tinted glasses. Not everyone is lucky enough to live in fertile regions where vegetation grows in abundance, where vegetables sprout on command. Many of our ancestors would not have made if it wasn’t for the meat that they ate. Learn to appreciate that.

4. Eating Meat Is Against What Nature Intended

Let’s do some mathematics here. Currently there are more meat eaters than non-meat eaters in the world. Many of the world’s population, especially those in the Middle East and Africa, are predominantly meat eating societies who rarely touch vegetables since access to plants is very limited there. YET we are having a shortage of food globally.

Now imagine if EVERYONE were to turn herbivore overnight. We will be in direct competition with the increasing number of animals for food. Goats, cows, chickens and ducks – the population of these animals will now all be expanding exponentially. That’s because we stopped eating them remember? These same animals will now be competing for the grains and leaves that you will be eating. How’s that for a global food shortage? It will not be hard to see how meat eating is actually doing the world a great favor.

So go ahead. Go eat a steak and be proud of it. The world lives another day because of you.

P/S : Is it true that the word “vegetarian” is an old Red Indian word for “lousy hunter”?

The Feisty Minority

2007-01-12T05:02:00.000-08:00

Why Malays Mustn’t Cry Racism.

The topic of skin discrimination has reared its hideous face once again in Singapore. Like a whack-a-mole machine at the amusement arcade, talks of racism can never seem to disappear totally – even after 30 years of pounding away to achieve national harmony.

This time it started when I.T. firm Frontline Technologies took out job ads with a local recruitment website some weeks back. The ad came with a grotesque reminder that “non-Indians” are preferred for the post. The fiasco sparked off pockets of angry commentaries in the local press, some of which have spun off into even deeper accounts of racism experienced by other minorities. Inadvertently, some of these accounts have crept their way onto our local blogs and Internet forums.

But what amuses me is the fact that the one minority that seems to be more affected than the Indians themselves are the Malays. Not long after the spate of racist stories, several blogs and Internet forums are seen peppered with complaints and stories by our Malay workers about how they’ve been “shunned” by companies at job interviews, recruitment fairs and during their actual job itself. Many claim that they cannot advance further within their respective companies because of their “skin color”. On the ewadah.com forum, one particularly unhappy worker was lamenting the fact that it’s really pointless for Malays to upgrade themselves when companies only seem to promote “Mandarin-speaking” workers and that the nation itself is advocating speak Mandarin campaigns year after year.

If the Internet is a true measure of ground sentiments away from our sanitized press, then there is a whole bunch of unhappy Malay workers out there whose voices are yet to be heard. And most of these voices are crying “racism”.

My word to fellow Malays of the country is to stop whining about racial discrimination – even if it really does exist. Accusations of racism are not only dangerous in the context of a multi-racial society like ours, but more importantly it’s frivolous. In fact, I’m beginning to think it’s rather wimpy.

The fact of the matter is this - over the course of mankind’s existence, there has always been groups of people faced with some form of discrimination or the other. It’s something that no civilization can ever escape from. Not even we, whose existence have been bolstered by the utopian dreams of a multi-racial society that is Singapore. No point denying that shimmers of these discriminations may just exist in this peaceful island we call home.

But what is more important to note is that oppressed minority groups over the course of history have done either one of two things when they are faced with racism. They either whine, or they shine. To which group do we Malays want to align ourselves to?

Good examples of a minority group that shine instead of whine are the Jews all over the world. From the Ottoman Turks in Arabia to Nazi Germany who ruled much of Europe in the 1940s, Jews are minorities who have faced every possible form of discrimination known to mankind – some even became the cause of their deaths. Till today, wisps of hatred still exist towards the Jewish race, even in a “democratic” country like the United States. As actor Mel Gibson demonstrated very well not so long ago albeit a drunken stupor, Jews in the country are still dogmatized with ancient prejudices.

But instead of whining about it and demanding that they be treated fairly like the Caucasians, they chose to show the world how a minority race can shine. And shining they are indeed. Consider this: Jews make up only 2% of the population in the USA but they are the wealthiest ethnic race by far and control much the economy. Steven Spielberg, Ralph Lauren, Michael Dell are just some of the more contemporary Jewish figures who have a made a name for themselves in the American economy – instead of making excuses.

Meanwhile, in the list of American Nobel prize winners, 40% of the laureates are Jewish. Academically they also make up 30% of the population in America’s elite universities – by far a very disproportionate representation. (All statistics from The Jewish Phenomenon, a book by Steven Silbiger)

Many more statistical data exist that will demonstrate very well how a tiny minority has rose to the occasion and exerted so much influence in the world’s largest economy. But one does not have to peer very far for another example of a minority that shines instead of whines. Just look across the causeway.

It is a well known fact the Chinese population in Malaysia does not receive the same types of privileges that ethnic Malays do. From university scholarships to educational grants, the Chinese population has been systematically marginalized since time can remember. Quite a while ago, there was a newspaper report about how a Chinese student scored straight ‘A’s for his STPM examinations but could still not secure a place in a local university due to the ethnic quotas imposed by the institution.

Similar discrimination exists on the economic front too. Non-Malay businessmen are not allowed to tender for government contracts and Chinese businesses are usually hard pressed for government assistance who understandably prefer to only help their “own kind”.

But do we see them complaining? They most definitely do not. Instead they put the majority race there into an existence of shame. Despite the blatant racism, the Chinese have risen to become an economic and business powerhouse in the land. In Forbes Malaysia’s list of 10 richest people, 8 of them are Chinese. These include hotel moguls, estate developers and bankers who have made it to where they are without the favorable conditions that the Malays there enjoy. This tremendous creation of wealth has inadvertently elevated the socio-economic status of the Chinese community in Malaysia-in sharp contrast to that of the Malays who continue live in perpetual mediocrity. Will the Malays there ever wake up?

When Singapore Malays complain about racism, they are no different from their brethrens up north who keep blaming their surroundings for the state they are in. Singapore as a society has worked very hard to eradicate racism. Our society is a plural one that rewards and recognizes solely based on meritocracy. Whether you sink or swim is really up to your efforts, instead of the ethnic group that you belong in. You have to admit it that the conditions our minorities face here a just so much better than what the Jews or Malaysian Chinese faced when they were just starting out.

If however you are in the unlikely situation of finding yourself working in a racist company that has yet to be enlightened by our national policies, just remember one important point : Racism, like any other obstacle in life, can either work against you or in your favor. What does not kill you will make you stronger. The Jews and the Malaysian Chinese have recognized these very well and have worked it towards their advantage by shining instead of whining. Will Singapore Malays do the same?

The Malay Marriage Mess

2006-11-04T01:43:00.000-08:00

3 Main Reasons Why Malay Couples Are Doomed From the Start

In my first year of secondary school, a teacher made a very racist comment that I will never forget. Stepping into class one morning, he asked:
“Boys, do you know what's the difference between a Chinese lady, an Indian lady and a Malay lady?”

The whole class looked at each other, puzzled beyond comprehension. What has this got to do with Geography? The teacher looked around for a minute or two, anticipating a glimpse of anyone who might put up his hand. But none did so he went on,

“Well boys, listen carefully. A Chinese lady, will not care if her man is handsome or does not have a good character. As long as he has money.

An Indian lady, will not care if her man is handsome or has no money. As long as he has good character.

A Malay lady, will not care if her man has no money or character. As long as he is handsome.”

In Victoria, the Malay student population then was comparatively small, especially so in my class. All four of us Malay boys looked at each other nervously after that short remark, shrugged it off and just got back to work. We didn't bother to protest because the teacher's known to skilfully repel any opposition to his words. He's after all, a grand old man of 65 at that time.

The teacher has since passed on. But his words linger in my mind to this very day. Not because they were extremely racist, but because till now I still wonder if there just might be some element of truth to what he said 13 years ago.

Could my teacher's short parable be the answer as to why so many of our Malay marriages are doomed right from the start? Well, I wouldn't know. I may be Malay but I'm no woman. Only they have the answer to that.

What I do know is that the Malay matrimonial scene is in a wreck. Percentage wise, we have the highest divorce rate here in Singapore – yet another notorious title. If you have four Malay wedding invitations on any given Sunday, you can be sure that one of them will end in a divorce. It is that bad.

So what is it that Malay couples are doing wrong that other races are getting right? Is it because of the lack of religion knowledge, like so many of these 'Ustazs' are claiming? If the answer lies in appreciating Islam, why then are non-Muslim couples fairing better than us?

The answer is more universal and less cryptic. Malay Marriage Mess is happening due to these 3 main reasons.

Standards Set By Malay Women

I will most probably come under heavy fire for this, but I will say it anyway. One of the reasons why our marriages fail is that most Malay women fall in love way too easily.

Although I would disagree with my late teacher about the “as-long-as-he's-handsome” part, I do admit that most Malay women will develop a liking for a guy as long as she finds him “nice”.

The process in which a Malay woman falls in love is noticeably less complicated than that of other races and is due mainly to our culture. Malays are generally brought up and trained to never look at a person's wealth or status as a measure of a man. We have been told since young that this is wrong and that a person should only be judged by how polite, religious and respectful he is towards his folks. That, according to our elders, is the key to happiness.

The cultural stigma remains till this very day. When a Malay girl brings home a guy to meet her parents, little is asked of his financial position and education. The focus will be on how religious or polite he is. It does not matter very much if the guy has been an academic failure all his life or does not hold a very stable career. As long as he is “nice”.

This criteria would have been fine for choosing a wife. But the fact is, a husband – leader and main breadwinner, has to be chosen with a more stringent criteria other than just being religious or “nice”. Too many families have collapsed because of economically dysfunctional husbands whose salaries cannot keep up with the changing times. Being “nice” will not pay the bills nor tuition for the kids 15 years down the road.

Be like the weaver bird. The reason why male weaver birds are such strong agile creatures is because the females of the species demand a lot from the males. Before a female would agree to mate, she will demand to look at the nest which he has built. If the nest is not up to her standard, she would simply fly off in search of another mating partner. As a result male weaver birds evolve strongly and are one of the most revered birds in the animal kingdom.

Similarly, Malay women must collectively set a much higher standard for their men. For when they do, the heat will be upon us to improve economically and socially. As a result, the entire community improves. It just takes that change of mindset.
But for now, plenty of Malay men are still slacking and taking their future very lightly. Why bother? They know they will be able to find a wife one day anyway. All you need to be is just “nice”.

Short Courting Period

The issue of Malays marrying early is not an alien one. It has received special mention by a very concerned Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew quite some time back. The concept is actually very simple – young couples are simply not equipped to handle a family. Everyone understands that.

But I would like to zoom in on the definition of “marrying early” from another perspective – courting period.

Malay couples generally make the decision to get married very early on into the relationship. Usually within a year of knowing each other, a commitment would have been made to start a family. I personally know of a friend whose gotten married to a man she's known for only eight months! Needless to say, that marriage is now on the rocks. I pray that they ride out the storm.

Once again, it's a cultural phenomenon. Malay elders frown on long courting periods and marriage is usually pressured upon once a man and woman is known to like each other. The derogatory term that they use for couples that have been long together without marrying is “pengantin basi” (stale newly-weds). Having a “pengantin basi” in the family is considered to be a social embarrassment and should be avoided.

I am a strong believer in the concept that a person's true colours can only be seen either after 12 months or after a major quarrel – whichever comes earlier. Before this period, not everything you see is what you will get as initial pretences will take a while to dismantle. There will probably never be any hard data to conclude this theory. But then again, life's most complicated concepts are usually built on none.

Malay couples must extend their courting time longer and get to know each other better before making that big decision. This is essential to avoiding any bad surprises long after the wedding drums have fell silence. After all, “differences in personality” is cited as the number one reason why Malay couples divorce. Perhaps they should have just waited that 12 months.

Financial Delinquency

I am not sure where it comes from, but it seems that more Malay women today are demanding that their men be driving cars.

Has it not occurred to them that everybody can drive a car today? It's just a matter of whether you want to or not ever since the $0 down payment rule was implemented. Any chap who can make the monthly payments will have the “luxury” of a vehicle in his hands – even someone who earns $800 a month sweeping the roads.

A car does not equate to being successful anymore. It just means that you are having a hefty debt . Unfortunately a lack of financial intelligence in the Malay community has given rise to misconceptions such as these. Middle class symbols such as cars, cards and fancy electronic goods are now a must-have to show people that you “have arrived”. Most cannot wait to pay for it in cash, taking huge loans in the process.

Needless to say, this financial attitude has given rise to a host of social problems within the Malay community. According to a recent statistic from MUIS, applicants for “zakat” (alms given by the public) this year has risen dramatically – most of them coming from young males in their twenties. How are males like these supposed to raise happy and contented families?

The matter of fact is simple. You marry someone who is financially delinquent, you will bear the consequences. You insist on a man who drives, you build a family saddled with debt right from the start. Remember well that “money problems” has been cited as the second leading cause of divorce amongst Malays. The awareness of financial delinquency is essential to keeping our Malay families happy.

I am glad to say that all my university friends, despite commanding the salaries that they have, are still sticking to public transport or using car sharing services like those offered by NTUC when a vehicle is needed. It is better to be flush with cash rather than one who drives but counts every penny like a pauper. Perhaps this is the attitude that we need to emulate. Else it could just make us another digit in the divorce statistics.

Why I Dread Raya

2006-10-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

Dear aunties and uncles of mine,

Well its that time of the year again. The day when the air in every single Muslim house smells of a strange mixture of rendang, cookies and fresh curtains. Hari Raya. After one whole year, we finally get to meet!

I guess we are going to catch up on a lot of things. But do you guys know that I dread Raya very much? And what's more, do you know that I dread it because of you guys?

Yup! You heard that right. Every time you come for a visit, I drag myself to the living room like Garfield on a Monday morning to meet you guys. Don't get it wrong. You guys are okay. I respect my elders very much and look forward to a meet up after such a long time of mutual absence.

But it would be fantastic if you guys could stop asking “The Question” everytime you pop in for a visit. You know, THAT question that all of you keep asking me about a million times every single Raya since I completed NS?

“When is your turn?”

Ah. Sounds familiar now? Yes, that is the question that I dread very much. It does not help that you guys keep winking whenever the question is asked. Come on. Stop that winking thing already. I get what you are trying to say. You don't have to wink like you're having epilepsy.

I think you guys need to give us singles a break. Times are changing real fast, but sadly most of our Malay aunties and uncles still expect our men and women to get married rather promptly once they reach their mid-twenties. Sad, if you were to ask me.

Hello? This is not the eighties you know?

We've never had as many Malay University graduates as we are having now and our youth are in the best position to seize the opportunities that the globalised world has to offer. The youth of other races are doing exactly that.

Likewise, don't you think that this is also the best time for the Malay youth to elevate their careers and positions in society? Instead of settling down as a young couple like you guys did in the eighties?

Think about it. Us Malays are having THE highest divorce rate in Singapore at the moment. The fact that so many of us are getting married at such a young age without proper careers or qualifications will not help this figure very much.

Instead, you should be glad that there is a growing number of highly educated Malays who are carving their own niche in society. It will benefit us in the long run – socially and economically. All we need to do is to change our mindsets and accept the fact that marrying in your late twenties or early thirties is still very much okay.

So please, stop asking “When is your turn?” should you come over to visit this time.

However should you still insist on asking, I will ask you the exact same question the next time we attend a relative's funeral.

Deal? (winks)

Myths About Singapore Malays

2006-10-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

Let's face it. Hatred towards the Malays is still very much alive on the Internet. Despite all the uproar over the convicted racist bloggers last year, many are still finding sadistic solace in overseas websites and spurious blog sheets. The question is, how do we even begin to dismantle what is historically one of the toughest barriers towards total Racial Harmony in Singapore?

There has bee much effort towards the propagation of Racial Harmony in this island. For the past few Ramadhans, non-Muslim members of the community have taken time to break bread with their Muslim friends. Several mosques in Singapore have even allowed access to restricted sections of the prayer hall to visitors, all in the name of fostering greater understanding and accord amongst the diverse communities here. We certainly have made commendable strides and the efforts should continue.

But the lamentable truth is, there's still a handful of Singaporeans out there whom we have failed to reach. Take a quick stroll through many of Singapore's popular online forums and you will be bound to find a thread on Malay-bashing.

I hate to say this, but the convicted bloggers who made racist remarks against Malays and Muslims are just the proverbial tip of the hate iceberg. If we continue to expose our youngsters a to a constant diet of hate literature and deplorable half-truths, what kind of leaders will we have in the future?

I have been observing these racist individuals for several years now and I come to the conclusion that this chasm of intolerance exists because of several myths that people have been carrying regarding the Malays in Singapore.

Clarifications of these myths will not magically make everyone see eye to eye on a same racial plane, but it is my hope that they might just be the first step needed in dispelling the hatred in certain individuals.

Myth: Malays Receive Free Education

One of the sore points many Singaporeans on the Internet have regarding our Malays is the notion that we are receiving “free education” from the state even through polytechnic and university.

Free education for indigenous people is a legacy brought about by the British to protect the original inhabitants of a country. It is still widely practised in other Commonwealth nations such as Australia and New Zealand where the aborigines are fully subsidised in tertiary institutions.

However the legacy for tertiary fees has been dismounted by the Government since 1991. While students coming from households earning less than $1500 a month will be put through a subsidy programme via Mendaki ( a Malay version of the Chinese CDAC and Indian SINDA), the majority of Malay students in polytechnics and universities today are there on tuition fees fully paid for by their parents. Be rest assured that your Malay countrymen are working and saving just as hard as you are to support their children's tertiary educations.

Myth: Malays Will Betray the Country for the Neighbours in War

I am not sure how this misconception came about but having served my NS stint in the Army with good buddies of all races, it is a myth that puzzles me as much as it bereaves me.

Some time in April this year, a member of the JustJihad forum posted an informal poll meant to be answered by Muslim Singaporeans who served in the Army. The question was “If Singapore goes to war with Malaysia, will you shoot a fellow Malay-Muslim from the enemy side?”

Several people responded to the poll. ALL responded in the affirmative. To me, the results are hardly surprising. In Islam, fighting for one's country is one of the most exalted forms of Jihad.

History has also shown that Malays are loyal to their country and its people first. Race will only come in second. When Tunku Abdul Rahman invited Malays from Singapore over to Malaysia to enjoy the vast Bumiputra privileges during the separation, our Malays in Singapore largely remained loyal to the nation and refused to budge.

Loyalty of the Malay race to this country and its people should never come into question, ever.

Myth: Malays are a Druggie Race

Another popular misconception is that Malays are a druggie race and largely are a liability to the society.

Granted, this would have been accurate in the 80s. I make no apologies for the ignorance of these people during that era. They were an eyesore and a source of huge embarrassment for the Malay society.

But the community has made great improvements with the help of the country's leaders and evangelical activists within its own ranks. According to statistics from the CNB, Malays are no longer the No. 1 problem race when it comes to narcotics. It has been that way for the past few years.

Myth: Malays are Lazy

Historically and culturally, Malays have always had a good life. Unlike their counter parts from China and India who had to toil the soil and endure extreme climatic forces just to ensure their survival, Malays never had to endure these hardships much. Everything that you throw into the fertile soils of the Malay Peninsular, will sprout into a healthy plant within a few months. Unlike the Chinese in China, growing food was never much of a problem nor was it a matter of toiling. Leisure and quality time with the family became a very much entrenched way of life within the Malay community.

Unfortunately these civilizations came on a collision course when the Chinese started migrating into the Malay lands. When the Chinese came, they brought along their hard-working and industrious ways that has been so much a part of their life for thousands of years.

Naturally the Malays soon found themselves behind, unable to break out from the norms that their forefathers have lived over the centuries. To make things worse, the British continued to shower the indigenous Malays with various concessions, further lullabying them into an existence of complacency.

This is popularly regarded as the reason for the notion of “The Lazy Malay”.

But let it be known that ever since Singapore separated from Malaysia, our Malays here have been growing up in a separate ecosystem than their Bumiputra counterparts. Having lived and breathed just like the other citizens of the land and void of special privileges, the younger generations of Malays here have developed their own variant of a Malay DNA.

Malays here have given rise to its fair share of President Scholars, PSC Scholars and other prestigious graduates. In fact, Malays in Singapore have held the record for being the most academically improved when compared to other races at various educational levels including the polytechnics and universities. Our youngsters are hungry for success and chasing the Singapore Dream, just like the other youths of Singapore.

On the economic front, we have also produced our fair share of millionaires. Salleh Marican , the owner of listed company Second Chance Holdings and Datuk Zain the owner of Prestige Marine Services are just two figures in the Malays society who have made headlines recently and done the country proud. Several other millionaires could be mentioned but it would take too much space in a short article such as this.

Laziness is an attribute that exists in every race and creed. It is unfair to label Malays as still being lazy just because you keep seeing the same group of Malays hanging out at the void deck. I am sure someone somewhere can point you the way to a group of youth from other races who are wasting time in a similar manner.

Towards Racial Harmony

Total racial harmony may be something of an utopian dream. Granted, the author acknowledges the fact that there is no nation in the world where even the slightest wisps of racial prejudices are not present. But it is my wish that the dispelling of these popular myths, which have been such popular ingredients in online Malay-bashing, would somehow take us a step or two towards greater tolerance amongst the races here.

Bazaar Notes.

2006-10-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Damn. I should have not returned to Singapore to soon. The air smells like the entire nation's been barbecuing their socks. I was aware from weather reports that intermittent haze has been plaguing the entire region but I didn't realise it was going to be this bad till I stepped out of the airport.

The bazaar is in full swing too at this time of year and this is about the period when my serene neighbourhood in Geylang Serai turns into a complete zoo. Bazaar visitors have got this notorious reputation so perhaps I would just like to make a little note to them. This might or might not include you.

Dear Bazaar visitors:

Please check your tires before taking out your car.

The aunties of this area are cat sympathisers and cat Nazis. As such our car park right here beside the market is a virtual orgy of cats every night. The problem is, these cats like to "do it" under cars and sometimes directly under the tires of vehicles. The other night as I was returning home from tarawikh, I spotted at least 2 bloody carcass of cats with tire prints on the car park grounds. Strangely, one of the cats was smiling. Maybe it "mati dalam Iman" (died in good faith).

So just to make a note to those who do drive. Do give at least a few taps to make sure that there are no living things under your chassis before you roll out. Poor cats. It's not a pretty sight to see the remains of a beautiful feline squashed out like leftover lasagna almost every night. It does bad things to your appetite. Yummy.

The stairwell is not a love shack.

I am not sure if you know this but some of these Malay youths think that the staircases around blocks 411-417 are like their Hotel 81. This is especially so for the high floors where its mostly deserted. When it comes to the Ramadan period when the bazaar is at its height, one will occasionally find Malay couples smooching (or doing something even worse - use you imagination) at our staircases late at night after they are done with the bazaar.

Frankly I'm getting sick of shooing these couples away whenever I return home late. The next time I see one, I might just put on a Darth Vader Mask and scare the Bojangles out of these couples right in the middle their "ehem" session. It will be quite a sight. My mum says to just call the police but it would not be as funny, would it?

Choose thy food wisely.

One of my students, Shahidah was down with food poisoning. Sigh. Ironically it was just about a week before I gave them a warning to choose their food wisely. Every Ramadan I know people with food poisoning after eating stuff from the bazaar.

The problem with bazaar hawkers is that they are not subjected to the same hygiene standards as those in conventional food stalls. No disease checks. No typhoid injections and not much hygiene requirements. That is why some of these bazaar stalls can get away with using water pushed in a pail from the nearest toilet and storing kitchen utensils in less than sanitary conditions- often on the bazaar grounds itself. The NEA should seriously look into enforcing stricter regulations.

Meanwhile, you're going to have innocent people like Shahidah puking their lungs out every year. So be wary. I am sure that there are lots of honest stalls out there so choose thy food wisely. A good guideline that can be used is this: if you see the stall owner eating his/her own food - that's a sign that the food might be safe to buy. Because I personally know stall owners who do not dare to eat the food that they cook on the bazaar grounds. They just want to sell it away. If that is not a warning, I do not know what is.

To Cherish Or Sympathise?

2006-10-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a week since the finals of the Singapore "Idol" contest but damn do I still feel the heat. No, not because I give the slightest hoot over the show. But because everywhere I look, there are images of Hady Mirza being showered by cheap paper confetti. From blogs to my favourite TV shows to newspaper articles, I just cannot escape the madness. He is just all over the place.

Come on guys, enough of it already. Or, in the words of enchanted Minahs all over Singapore, "Stopitsiak!" (I don't know why but Malay women seem to love to say that phrase nowadays. Maybe it's the latest Minah lingo.)

Anyways, while thousands of Malays all over the island are cherishing the fact that another one of their kind has won the "idol" contest once again, I cannot help but feel sorry for this Hady guy. Seriously.

I am not sure if you feel the same way but in my opinion, he would have done much better to just take his poly diploma and settle for an honest job somewhere. He would have made much more money in the long run for himself and his family.

Think about it. There are serious differences between the Singapore Idol and the American Idol that it just makes you question the legitimacy of the contest.

1. Fan base

American Idol : Fans all over the world who will buy your album and make you millions.
Singapore Idol : Screaming Malay girls who buy your album and make you thousands.

2. Prize Money

American Idol : US$ 1 Million (approximately SGD$1,560,000)
Singapore Idol : US$ 0 (approximately SGD$ 0)

3. Most Seen on TV:

American Idol : Endorsing million dollar products for million dollar companies.
Singapore Idol : Endorsing 7-11 and swallowing Big Gulp

So even if the American Idol were to have a very short lifespan of only a couple of years (like Ruben), it does not matter because he would have made millions of dollars and can laugh happily all the way to the bank.

But what about our "idols"? They get abyssed in a finite cycle of mediocrity and enjoy the limelight while it lasts - but what happens when the music stops? Do they then start looking for a job when they peers have already secured well-paying careers in the private and government sectors?

If you can observe carefully, NONE of our local musicians are living the good life. Even the most talented fantastic singers like Rahimah Rahim (the original one) who sold a gadzillion albums in the 80's are still living a humble life and living in humble HDB flats. Poly grads like Hady and Taufik who come from good courses could have easily made more money than that if they were to join a reputable MNC.

That is why I cannot help it but feel sorry for these guys. I feel somehow that this "idol" competition is destroying their lives in the very long run.

Oh well. I better not speak too much about these "idols". The women are crazy over them. The last time I spoke about Taufik, my sister complained to my mum and she pressured me to delete my entry. ( Sakinah, you sickening snitch!)

So I guess I better not talk to much this time.

Ok Ridzwan. Stopitsiak.

Taufik Batisah Ripping?

2006-09-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

Let's fast forward back to the year 2004 during the finals of the first Singapore Idol. I don't really care about this "idol" show crap but something interesting caught my eyes and ears recently.

Remember the song "I dream"? It was then "written" by the producers and intended as the first-born track for the winner of the inaugural idol contest. It then went on to be Taufik Batisah's debut single and the leading number in his platinum-selling album.

But recently I bumped across this particular song by US country-folk singer Leann Rimes. Take a listen to the video below. It comes with exactly the same tune and lyrics - and it was done in 2001! That's a good 3 years before Taufik even joined the contest.

So what is happening here? Is Taufik's song a blatant copy, thinking that Singaporeans will never come across such folk music? Or is this just a case of shameless rip-off by our Singapore song "writers"? Anyone could enlighten me on this one?