SPEECH BY MR SIDEK BIN SANIFF MINISTER OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AT THE FEDERATION OF INDIAN MUSLIMS NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATION AT JAMIYAH, LORONG 12 GEYLANG ON SUNDAY, 26 JULY 1992 AT 8.00 PM I am indeed privileged to be the Guest-of-Honour this evening and to deliver a speech to all of you, respectable and learned audience, and especially to our guests from abroad. I am honoured also to be given the task of being the Chairman of your Advisory Committee I would like to suggest from the outset that your- organisation work closely with AMP MENDAKI. as well as SINDA. and make full use of the resources available in these two organisations except activities which you think are special and unique to your organisation. They are born into an environment that is global in nature now heaving behind the one that prevails in a village where living boundaries and options are limited. To the Singapore Muslims, the world is their scope for They are privileged to be in Singapore because option. for development are varied and unbounded. The Muslim boy or girl can choose to do anything he or she wants to do that is beneficial to himself or herself, the family, and the community. There are many avenues for 2 advanced training and academic schemes and these are readily available to t-hose who merit themselves to benefit from them fully. The Singapore Muslims are also fortunate because financially the families have better resources now. More Muslim families are able to pay for better options in providing their children with good health and education. Many Muslim organisations, too, are now better organised and are stronger financially. These open up new vistas for more substantive ventures and personal development. The Singapore Muslims are also most privileged because they have the rare opportunity of being able to secure for themselves the highest possible standard of living in material terms and, at the same time, to pursue a meaningful spiritual life as practising Muslims, The highly modernised character of Singapore must also be the most enriching environment for Singapore Muslims to become dynamic Muslims/sophisticated Muslims/Melayu-Islam Canggih. These are exciting features of the Singapore Muslims and their community in Singapore. They enjoy the benefit of the material and the spiritual aspects of life and they can do so without fear of social or legal constraints. All these will mean that the Singapore Muslims have a higher readiness to contribute to and benefit from the best that is in Singapore. Their task is to prepare themselves to take on more challenging tasks of development, and merit themselves to become active contributors in mainstream development together with other Singaporeans. This is the focus of my speech with you this evening and I like to share with you my perceptions and conviction about these future challenges, particularly, "How through education, the Singapore Muslim boy or girl and the family as well as the Malay/Muslim organisations should prepare themselves during the next 10 to 20 years." There are many issues that can be touched upon. I would like to limit myself to some issues that revolve around the nature of outlook or mental---- framework, and the '"functional paradigms" that are critical to making Singapore Muslims, substantive members of a multi-racial, global society that is geared towards a highly-paced modern nation. Structural development as opposed toStraight-Line development The Singapore Muslims, no doubt, must ensure that the policies that have given them the higher material development and a free berth to practise Islam ought to be safeguarded or - better still-enhanced. This is imperative. Beyond this, they need to look to the future - and the future is not just to increase what they have achieved so far in an aggregative or "straight-line" manner. They should not just work harder or multiply what they have been doing in the past. Instead, they need to look for new dimensions, new niches, be standard-setters, venture into new areas, and make themselves key inputs to mainstream development for the exciting years of the 2lst century. All these call for new paradigms in thinking, in 4 creating high skills, in managing their personal, family and community affairs, and in maintaining the highest degree of intellectual, technological and professional integrity. Let me give some details of my perceptions and convictions: 1) Make "good character' synonymous to development in a modern society Development in the 21st century will entail. not just high sophistication in technological terms. Equally important is the need for honesty, reliability, and a high level of sophistication in personal, corporate and civil integrity. For the kind of global industrial society that Singapore aims to become in the 21st century, the strength Lies in the propensity of Singaporeans to become a community of people who are hard working, highly capable, and extremely dependable in terms of their personal, professional and civil integrity. The Swiss had had such strengths for many years in the field of banking. The Gurkhas are famed as a supreme and unchallenged community of dedicated, trusted and dependable defenders of trusteeship properties. For the Singapore Malays, there have been similar traditions of loyalty, dedication and dependability: the Boyanese are always the best chauffeurs; the Javanese are the reliable members of land- surveying teams; and the Malays, exemplary valets. Our Indian and Chinese Muslims too have their own traits. What we need to do in 5 the future is to sustain that quality of character but to operate at a much higher level-engineers, managers, scientists, entrepreneurs of the highest loyalty, dedication and dependability, and people of good character! Including politicians. Especially so politicians. I am deeply inclined to feel that Singapore Muslims, with their grounding in Islamic teachings, have a strong propensity to make this high character a requisite part of their intellectual, technological and professional development and application in life. Without character you are faceless. Empty. Nil. Our Prophet said: 2) Family as the primary educational institution Like most Asian communities, the Singapore Malays for instance have strong traditions in nurturing family ties as the basis of community living. In Singapore, the Malays have donesomething more in this respect. The Malay boy and girl who decide to get married are required, by administrative practice, to undergo a weekly course for about 5 weeks. The rationale of this is to prepare themselves to become responsible and effective Muslim parents, and to make the family institution the basic infrastructure of life. I do not think many communities in the world do such a thing which, in a glance, appears quaint, if not irksome. Nonetheless, I see strength in this practice. Since we now have a system where all future Malay parents are brought together for 5 weeks, why not help them to become effective and competent parents as well? If, indeed, the young Malay parents become more conscientious and are able to i 6 care for and develop their children from infancy, there will be a better chance that their children will grow with good health and proficient learning skills. The focus for the next 10 to 20 years is to get the young couples, through such courses, to understand and acquire better knowledge andskillsinthefieldofearlychildhooddevelopment. Thischance must not be lostastherearesomuchresearch andfieldexperiences thatreaffirmthateffectiveearlychildhooddevelopmentiscritical 0 in providing the child with good health, proficient language, love for books, a joyous predisposition, and an enriched base of knowledgeabouttheenvironment,science,maths,history,geography, thinking skills,etc. The young parents should be given all these and I wouldliketoseethis happen as soon as possible. At the same time I believe that the problem of divorce and drug taking among the Malay/Muslim willalsobefurther curbed.Maybeitistimelvtoform an alumni for the young married couples especially those who have_ 0 undergone the marriage guidance course. 3) The Malay/Muslim organization as a dynamic infrastructure If more parents become better parents and are able to look after their own children, my wish is to see that this "conscientious parenting" becomes anintegralpartofthetraditions and folklore of the Singapore Malays and Muslims. With this, the parents will take on the responsibility to provide their own children with the basic educational foundations, especially in languages, reading habits, general knowledge, socio-emotional maturity, good nutritional habits, etc. Thus the parents and the family institutions become self-reliant resource for basic development. With such a development, they become less dependent upon the Malay and Muslim organizations for these basic development, The role and quality of the Malay and Muslim organisations, as a result, will have to change. I see in this another critical paradigm change. Malay and Muslim organizations will now have to function in a setting of sufficiency not insufficiency, then to setting of growth. They must not be too bogged down with helping the Malay/Muslim families on issues pertaining to basic needs. This is what is still happening now. This should not happen or at least should be minimised by young and future parents. As more Malay/Muslim parents and families are capable of looking after most of their needs and are competent in providing their own children with most of what is needed for success in life, school, etc, remedial tuition classes, for example, should be drastically cut. Confine it to the ones that most need it. Till the end of this century we would have given more than 20 years of tuition or remedial classes. We must be poised now to embark on sessions that stimulate greater growth come year 2000 or the 21st century. This should become the norm. Financial schemes will not be for basic needs on account of insufficiency any more.