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.
Instead, more money will be used for programmes that allow for growth of greater creativity amongst children, promotion of inventors' clubs, research activities, learning of foreign languages, creative mathematics, analytical skills, etc.
The Malay and Muslim organizations must be capable of anticipating
these changes and they must start building up the policies and
leadership for these more exciting ventures. This is the new
challenge. This is the new paradigm for the associations. I hope we
will see these changes soon in the realm of education. We must also
ensure the same strategy is applied in the community's economic l field from gotong-royong spirit and its refinement like ASM, Sino- Malay Corporation, Pilgrimage Scheme to individual's
entrepreneurship and endeavour. Creativity and challenge.
I am confident that we are capable of achieving all these as the
record of the Malay and Muslim organizations in Singapore has been
good. Their finances are good and we are seeing the growing of a
good generation of young and highly educated leaders. The
associations should become more innovative. We have already seen
leaders who are more future-oriented. They must look for
opportunities where the achievement of parents can be extended
further and raised to yet high levels. And in all these, it is
imperative that there is always this balance betweenhigh material
development and the greater spiritual refinement of the
Malay/Muslim parents, children and community leadership.
I see now that more and more Malay parents are sending their
children overseas for further education. They are now willing to 9 spend for their child‘s education. This is a new phenomenon. I am
excited, for example, of the possibility of Malay/Muslim
organizations working closely with such parents in buying
Properties in UK for instance, like they did in Cairo, through
donations and sponsorship etc to establish a place to stay for their
children. Every time I am overseas I meet students from Singapore
and I am moved to see students of all races interacting together with
endearment and a strong sense of camaraderie. This effort of setting
up a place to stay or hostels by Singaporeans, not just
Malay/Muslims, for our students overseas is one example of the kind
of new challenges to Muslim and non-Muslim associations.
4) Education for Living & Service/Khidmat
With these kinds of scenarios of development, Malay/Muslim parents
need not be overly concerned or bogged down with caring and
developing their pre-school children only to prepare them for
Primary One, or even for PSLE. All these should be within the means
of most Malay parents to handle, and their children would becapable
of achieving high grades as a matter of course.
Education and schooling will not be a stressful matter to parents
and children and this will allow parents to view education as a life-
long process. This is important as education in Islam is a crucial
prerequisite in the fulfillment of their responsibilities not only
in Islam but to mankind. For the children, education is of great
significance to prepare them for puberty or Akil Baligh which 10 carries a profound meaning in our lives, Upon reaching the age of
puberty, the Muslim boy or girl, will have to bear more
responsibilitiesof Fardhu 'Ain and Fardhu Kafayah. The teaching in
these two fields of responsibilities are very consistent with the
concept of education for "living and service" and the fulfillment of
life responsibilities as good persons and good members of the wider
community. To the Singapore Malays/Muslims, this will be an
integral thrust of education of families and children, in the context
of the education for academic and material development. Without
khidmat/service an individual could endanger not only himself, but
his family and finally the community as a whole. The nation.
CONCLUSION
The Malays/Muslims in Singapore have a long tradition of self- improvement. The last 20 to 30 years have been most enriching. The
Singapore Malays/Muslims with their associations must now gear themselves for the far greater challenges that offer them exciting scope for self-development. With a good and caring government, political stability and harmonious relationship in the multi-racial and multi- religious society of ours, further significant progress will be charted. I look forward with joy and deep gratitude to meeting these challenges. I will be delighted to be with the Malay parents, their children and the organization leaders for we are now better requipped, thanks to the global, dynamic, open and enabling environment that exist in Singapore. APPENDIX A
PROGRAMMESFOR THE NEW PARADIGMS
If parents effectively develop their own children from infancy and during the first 3 to 5 years their children will have a good chance of attaining interesting. if not- superb development in the following respects by age 5 or 6:
The children are healthy and rarely get ill (also recover rapidly should they become sick)
* They like good food and are sensitive towards junk-food
* They have a high sense of personal safety
Emotionally they are mature. joyous. inclined towards goodness and are keen learners
Physically their stature is agile. strong. good poise and are skillful in gymnastics and sports: they can swim. ride a bicycle. skateboard. ship. brachiate. ride a horse. do good archery, etc.
They have very sensitive tactile skills and fine manual dexterity
They understand and speak at least 2 languages - meaningfully and with etiquette (‘adab’)
They love reading and are able to read in at least 2 languages
Their knowledge of mathematics (as a language) is high and are skillful in basic processes
* They know many things and are constantly curious about their environment
* They are highly creative in being able to discern the connectedness of things, understand key facts rapidly. able to create new and better ideas. and are keen and able in solving problems
They can read the A1 Quran. Doa and are sensuous about religious matters
They are musical and are able to sing many songs with good pitch and melody
They draw and write well and are fine in manual dexterity. eg in origami and handicraft
They are able to adept in varying situations and are usually placed in positions of leadership.
If by age 5 or 6, they attain these superb development, then it is crucial that they be given advanced programmes so that they will continue to develop superbly up to age 12 (ie the age of puberty or Akil Baligh). Following are some examples of the ‘6- 12 gear old’ programmes that. are suitable for children who. at age 5 years. have attained the developments listed above: 1 ADVANCED SPEECH & LANGUAGE PROGRAMME
- Refinement of speech especially perfect pronunciation in Malay. English and Arabic
- Learning of foreign languages
- Activities that develop skills in oratory. oral commentary, debate and advocacy
- Learning the history and use of languages
- The science and ethics of selling
2 ADVANCED READING PROGRAMME
- Spectrum reading based on a good selection of reading materials
- Reading to expand on existing knowledge of personal interest or choice
- Reading of biographies
- Reading for research and hobbies
- Reading technical materials and instructions
- Reading to acquire the rationales and history of ideas (the Why’s and When’s of ideas)
- Developing a personal library with knowledge in classification and catalogue system
3 ADVANCED WRITING
- Fine manuscript and khat writing
- Personal diary
- Letter writing (pen-pals. grandparents. relatives, teachers. news. etc)
- Writing stories and books
- Research and commentary writing
- Advocacy writing
- History and development of the science of symbolic and affective language
- Use and application of statistics
- Science of advertisement. and mass media 4 ADVANCED MATHEMATICS
- Algebra and geometry
- Use and application of mathematics in daily life (tools. machines. cooking. games, etc)
- Mathematics in statistics. business. industry and management
- Mathematical concepts & theories
- Creative hobbies that require the utilization of mathematical knowledge
5 HOBBIES & HANDICRAFT
- Hobbies that expand understanding of generic classification system
- Hobbies that require the use of knowledge
- Hobbies that require use of creative and design skills
- Hobbies that teach “concepts of higher value added products and services”
- Activities that require the use of typing skills. computer knowledge. productive tools. etc
6 MUSIC
- Learning of musical instruments
- Reading and writing of musical scores
- Learning the history and classification of music - Developing skills and interest in composing
7 EXPLORATION & RESEARCH
- Exploration and expeditions
- Research projects and report writing and presentation
- Activities that sharpen skills in observation. recording. writing. classification. presentation
- Activities that develop the ability to view problems from varying perspectives
- Activities that develop skills in effective problem solving - Activities that develop rational thinking based on Scientific- Religious-Cultural validity
- Development. of personal resource and reference materials
- Participation in clubs pertaining to use of knowledge, exploration, research. creativity. etc.
8 FAMILY & COMMUNITY PROGRAMHE
- Activities that enhance love of the family, neighbours, teachers. leaders and the community
- Activities that provide opportunities to help others (family. neighbours. the poor. etc)
- Activities that enhance understanding of the relationship between self. family. community. humanity. environment and Allah SWT
- Activities that develop loyalty. sincerity goodwill (family members. neighbours, friends)
- Activities that develop love for the welfare of others
- Activities that. develop love for global and universal values
9 EXPLORATION & EXPEDITION
- Programmes of field studies and projects
- Excursions and expeditions (history, industry. exhibitions)
- Archives projects (places, people. ideas. products. events)
10 SPORTS PROGRAMME
- Sports that enhance intellectual-physical excellence. personal perseverance and goodwill
- Learning the history of sports
- Learning the application of science in sports
- Learning the history and of rules and operational systems in sports 11 LEADERSHIP & ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Activities that provide opportunities to be loyal followers and group members
- ActivitiesA that develop fine human-to-human interactive skills
- Activities that. develop leadership skills and sensitivities
- Activities thatr develop skills in formulation. planning and implementation
- ActivitiesA that develop values of responsibility and trust
- Activities that. develop resilience arid perseverance
12 SPIRITUAL & RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT
- Activities that develop ability and predisposition to feel, think and act. on the basis of religious-scientific-cultural validity
- Activities that develop awareness-interest in the use of knowledge- skills as acts of piety
- Activities that develop lose for and ability in fulfilling daily acts of piety (Fardu ‘Ain)
- Activities that develop love for and ability in acts of community piety (Fardu Kifayah)
- Activities that develop love for cleanliness. gratitude. patience. humility, magnanimity. etc
- Activities that develop a keen awareness of the connectedness of things to the extent. that. the children readily perceive the Greatness of Allah SWT in all aspects of life
CRITICAL PREREQUISITES
Parents’ knowledge and commitment should be expanded and enhanced.
The 0-5 year foundational programme must he effective.
Bonding and contact between child and parents must be continuous.
Parents must desire these developments of excellence - and are convinced that they are feasible and desirable. Parental examples are critical.
Parents must look after their health Parents will need support especially through parent groups or clubs
Parents will need to readjust their priorities so that. time and money are available for effective realization of these expanded programmes.
Opportunities must be given for the children to participate actively in formulating. planning and implementation of the programmes. The children must be made to understand the rationales and purposes of the programmes.
Certain key values must be imbibed in the children for example:
- Habits of saving
- Habits of being active contributors (time. service. ideas and understanding)
- Habits of helping to generate income and resources
- Habits for both parents and children to continually seek knowledge and skills.
Organisations and institutions that should be upgraded or developed to help parents:
a) PROFESSIONALS : To continually serve as Resource facilities
: Parent Groups. Clubs or Alumni
: Children’s clubs
b) MOSQUES : To serve as Operational Centres and Meeting Points as well as information resource centres
To function as infrastructure facilities and development of the folk-lore of excellence
To provide resource expertise to parents
To invest. in developing student hostels overseas with parents participating as share- holders
To establish centres of intensive dialogue and research in education. development. and application of Islamic teachings in development
d) COMMERCIAL : To provide opportunities for children to ESTABLISHMENTS acquire experience in work, business. industry. corporate culture and the profoundness of professional and business ethics. Cc: INFORMATION5 (8812:GVT224) From: INFORMATION5 (8812:GVT224) Subject: [Federation of Indian Muslims National y Celebrations] Posted: Tue 28-July-92 15:15 SING Delivered: Tue 28-July-92 15:15 SING (119 lines) Msg ID: IPM-8812-920728-137321081
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