Yasmin Ahmad (1958-2009)
Yasmin directed the excellent MCYS video Funeral and that is when mainstream Singapore was wowed by her talent. However, she was already an established independent socio-political commentator across the causeway with works like Sepet. An award-winning touching film about ethnic relations that I’ve still unfortunately not watched yet, but heard so much about since it was launched with much controversy. It is a big shame that Yasmin is no longer around. You will be missed.
The spirit of Yasmin
mysinchew.com
Award-winning director Yasmin Ahmad did a non-commercial advertisement entitled “Tan Hong Ming In Love” two years ago.
The advertisement was filmed in a primary school and the camera focused on a primary school boy named Tan Hong Ming.
The interviewer asked the boy: “Who do you like the most?”
Tan replied: “Umi, Umi Qazrina.”
“Why do you like her?”
“She wears earrings, she ties a ponytail, she is pretty.”
“Does she know you like her?”
“No, I keep it a secret.”
“Why?”
“She doesn’t like me,” he said after some hesitation.
Then, the interviewer asked Umi Qazrina, a lovely Malay girl: “Who is your best friend?”
“Tan Hong Ming.”
“Do you like him?”
Umi did not answer but she blushed.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
She nodded shyly.
“Who is your boyfriend?”
“Tan Hong Ming.”
At that moment, Tan, who was standing next to her, was shocked in disbelief. He then held Umi’s hand with a smile on his face and walked away.
The footage ended with a statement: Our children are colour blind. Shouldn’t we keep them that way?”
The advertisement was made for the 50th Merdeka Day.
Many activities were held and a lot of money was spent on the 50th Merdeka Day celebration two years ago.
It was the 50th Merdeka Day, but so what? Political parties were still stressing on racialism, politicians were still playing up racial issues and everything was so frustrating.
I thought so at that time and only felt a little relief after I saw the advertisement. Finally, someone has actually made the point.
It was the spirit of Malaysia 50 years after Merdeka. It could be found nowhere else, but it exists naturally in our children’s world, and Yasmin found it.
Our children know that people living in this country or even in this world can actually get along and love each other without racial barriers. Problems among racial groups happen to be the worst man made invention.
Yasmin also made another non-commercial advertisement.
The interviewer asked a Malay boy:” Who is your best friend?”
He pointed at the Chinese boy next to him.
“What is his race?”
“What is race? Race, that means race car?”
Yasmin Ahmad had always made our hearts warm and brought us confidence.
She was a true Malaysian and she left us footages that represent the true spirit of Malaysia.
The government should gather all her works and show them to all Malaysians through schools, National Service and training centres of Biro Tatanegara, replacing all those racist teaching materials.
It is the best way for us to remember and thank her.
Our First Malay BG – What was Said and Not Said
Well, the SAF is trying its best to be progressive and move Malays laterally and upwards in the SAF. The SAF since independence, for deep rooted geopolitical reasons, has been cautious about Malays in the military. They finally have a BG, the Malay community finally has a BG and Mindef can puff out its chest and say that they are opening up quite well in redefining the infamously frank machine-gun dilemma (partly borne out of worry that one day Malaysia might carry out its former PM Tunku Abdul Rahman’s threat to cut water supply and bring Singapore to its knees),
“If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who’s very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine gun unit, that’s a very tricky business. We’ve got to know his background.” Lee Kuan Yew
All good that the SAF has made a Malay and fellow Singaporean no less, a BG. But to be the Devils Advocate, besides looking at what was said, we also have to think about what was not said. What is this BG’s portfolio? Is the answer something that will perpetuate the impression that Malays are welcome and yet not welcomed in the SAF?
SAF’s first Malay general
TO HEAR Colonel Ishak Ismail, 46, tell it, his decision to become a regular officer in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) was greeted with some incredulity.
He recalled yesterday that someone asked him pointedly: ‘This is your name – you sure you want to sign on?’
He has replied in the affirmative many times in the last 28 years.
Yesterday, his time in the military was capped in historic fashion – he has become the first Malay general in the SAF.
His promotion marks a milestone in Malays’ efforts to be fully accepted in the military, a controversial issue ever since it was disclosed in 1987 that the SAF adopted a cautious approach in placing them in key positions.
Col Ishak was one of five who headed the SAF’s annual promotion list and attained the rank of Brigadier-General or Rear-Admiral (One Star).
The other four were: Colonel (Dr) Benjamin Seet and Colonel Lee Shiang Long from the Army; the Republic of Singapore Navy’s Colonel Tan Wee Beng; and Colonel Kwek Kok Kwong of the Republic of Singapore Air Force.
The five were among 464 from all three arms – both regulars and operationally-ready National Servicemen – presented with their certificates of promotion at a ceremony at Bukit Gombak Camp yesterday.
The promotions will take effect from July 1, which is SAF Day.
For Col Ishak, moving to the rank of Brigadier-General is reward for what he calls a consuming passion: Developing people to their potential.
Calling himself a ’servant leader’, he said: ‘What gets me up in the morning and gives me the passion every day is the same reason I became a regular officer: Being able to influence people to something that they may not see themselves accomplishing.’
Detention and Rehabilitation
Singapore’s rehabilitation programme for Jemaah Islamiah militants under scrutiny and favorably reported. Looking at prison systems ideally, the idea is to have a rehabilitative function, not a retributive one. In reality, the opposite is true in most criminal justice-imprisonment systems. Getting back to the main point, Saudi Arabia is one other state that has a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for Al Qaeda inspired militants. However, we can never tell if such people would re-offend with disastrous consequences.
The Best Guide for Gitmo? Look to Singapore.
By William J. Dobson
Sunday, May 17, 2009
What to do with the Guantanamo detainees? Uncertainty resurfaced last week, as the Obama administration backed away from earlier statements on U.S. anti-terrorism policies. The president reversed a decision to release photographs of alleged detainee abuse. Then he decided to keep the military commissions for trying terrorist suspects. The White House is now reportedly considering plans to detain some suspects on U.S. soil indefinitely, without trial.
As the administration struggles over the fate of the 241 remaining detainees in its charge, it may want to look to an old Asian ally for a hand.
Meet Ustaz Ibrahim Kassim, one of Singapore’s most respected Islamic scholars. His business card describes him as “Assistant Registrar of Muslim Marriages.” But Kassim is engaged in a more important enterprise. He is part of his country’s innovative program to fend off the threat of Islamic extremism. “We are not scared of [the terrorists],” says Kassim, an older gentleman with a face framed by a neatly trimmed white beard. “We know that history repeats itself, but these problems do not need to be passed on.”
Kassim, along with nearly 40 other Islamic scholars, is part of a select group of religious leaders called the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG), which is trying to rehabilitate — or, as its members say, “deprogram” — Singapore’s terrorist detainees. In 2001, Singapore’s authorities had no idea that they had a terrorist problem. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, the government was tipped off that a cell of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian militant group with links to al-Qaeda, was planning attacks across the city-state. In raids in late 2001 and 2002, more than 30 members of the terrorist outfit were arrested; more arrests followed. So, while the United States was filling its detention center at Guantanamo with foreign fighters, Singapore began to house its own population of Muslim extremists in its jails.
Singapore’s strict law-and-order government, which famously enforced a ban on chewing gum, may seem an unlikely candidate for believing terrorists could be reformed. But Singapore — often referred to as “the little red dot” in Southeast Asia’s Islamic sea — is in a precarious position, and its government felt compelled to take action that would not only disrupt the terrorist group’s operations, but also counter its ideological appeal. “We are what we are out of necessity,” says Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo. “[Islamic extremism] is a long-term problem, and it’s not going to go away in our lifetime. The only way you can combat it is to have an immune system.”
Singaporean officials said they decided to use Islamic clerics because they were convinced that only religious leaders could “de-program” the detainees. “Once you have taken an oath of God, it will take another man of God to undo it,” a senior security official told me.
After meeting several detainees and studying Jemaah Islamiyah’s religious ideology, the Islamic scholars were disturbed to see how their faith had been distorted to recruit terrorist foot soldiers. During more than a thousand weekly hour-long sessions, the scholars worked to build personal relationships with the detainees. Some counselors said the process of de-radicalizing an extremist was similar to the one-on-one relationship that often exists between a terrorist recruiter and recruit.
The main battles were over the Koran. Islamic radicals, especially members of Jemaah Islamiyah, many of whom are born-again Muslims who adopted their extreme faith late in life, often quote from it to justify their actions. That was where a scholar’s grasp of Islam came in, and it wasn’t always a pleasant exchange. “They believe they have the right to kill. This is what they believe from years of indoctrination,” says Ustaz Feisal Hassan, one of the counselors.
As with the rehabilitation of any criminal, there’s always the possibility of backsliding. Two graduates of Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation program have reportedly taken leadership positions within al-Qaeda in Yemen. For this reason, the RRG also counsels the detainee’s family to ensure that wrong lessons are not passed on to the next generation and to help wives, sons and daughters assimilate into the mainstream. Many families receive financial support from the government, and detainees have jobs waiting for them when they are released.
Sidney Jones, a longtime advocate for human rights in Southeast Asia now at the International Crisis Group, calls this aspect of the Singapore program a “stroke of genius.”
“In some places, like Poso [in Indonesia], I have heard it is the wives who urge their husbands not to work with the police and to keep their resolve,” says Jones. And unlike in many other countries with terrorist rehabilitation programs, such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the detainees in Singapore are required to continue their counseling after their release.
Today, 40 former terrorists, or roughly two-thirds of the detainees Singapore has arrested since 2001, have been rehabilitated and released. None appear to have returned to their violent past. For Singaporean authorities, the best dividend may be the trust they have gained from the city-state’s own Muslim citizens. “Singapore is the one place in the world I know where relations between the government and the Muslim community are better after 9/11,” says Alami Musa, the president of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore.
Of course, the biggest question is how we can ever know if a radical is truly rehabilitated. A detainee in Singapore is not released until his case officer, a psychologist and the religious counselor signs off. Even then the decision goes to the prime minister’s cabinet to give its approval. Political accountability rests at the top.
Members of the RRG have traveled to Iraq to brief U.S. military officers on their methods. At a meeting in Singapore earlier this year, Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone Jr., who used to run the U.S. military’s detention system in Iraq, said that 15 percent of Iraqi militants would typically return to the fight once released. Since the U.S. military introduced its own rehabilitation program, inspired in part by Singapore’s example, that figure has dropped to 1 to 2 percent.
As the Obama administration contemplates what to do with the detainees who remain in Guantanamo, perhaps they should consider talking with Ustaz Ibrahim Kassim. I have his business card.
wdobson@carnegieendowment.org
William J. Dobson is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
An Insidious Thiology
The dust is settling. As it turned out when the facts unfolded, my support swung. The old new AWARE exco was indeed mostly fixated about being anti-gay and the puppet master was Thio Su Mien, the mother of NMP Thio Li-Ann, a gay-basher at one point. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
Derek Hong pastor of Church of Our Savior already apologised for instigating his flock to support the April 2009 AWARE Exco. Putting rabid Christian-bashers to shame, Derek’s more sensible and sensitive brethren, to their credit, also chided his actions. He would probably be more careful and discreet the next time he fans anti-gay sentiment outside of the church. Thio Su Mien is fuming and silent, still smarting from the public scorn and anger at her unChristianly deceit. While AWARE, women, gays, and even discerning Christians and believers in other monotheistic faiths can be glad that secularism prevailed, this could only the end of the beginning.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple as gay Oscar Wilde would tease. There is a known hijack of a secular organisation in the AWARE saga. But there might also be the infiltration of religious and even political communities as well for all we know if we want to jump at shadows and see the Church of Our Saviour as a taste of things to come. At the way madam mentor of feminists went about seemingly mentoring and manipulating her acolytes, this is an open-ended question. She might be planning her next move already.
It is all about the Gays?
If what we read in the internet is true, the Christian Taliban have taken over AWARE and they are out to get the gays. This inference is made because some, but not all, of its prime members have openly voiced anti-gay sentiments. The inference is made also because it was assumed that AWARE would besides having an interest in women’s rights, would now also have the time to bash gay activism. The inference is made because gay kingpins like Alex Au voiced concerns and speculation of anti-gay activism became fact of anti-gay activism. The inference is made because the Straits Times planted seeds in the readers minds that AWARE was being hijacked. Suddenly the Straits Times was to be trusted categorically. But credit must be given to those in AWARE who are unseated. Over the weekend of the ST report, they managed to rally the gay community and bloggers to paint the new AWARE committee as devious and anti-gay. The new AWARE committee must have been alarmed at the just as sneaky counter-attack to their conniving attack.
President: Claire Nazar (has since quit the post)
Vice-president: Charlotte Wong Hock Soon
Honorary secretary: Jenica Chua Chor Ping
Assistant honorary secretary: Sally Ang Koon Hian
Honorary treasurer: Maureen Ong Lee Keang
Assistant honorary treasurer: Chew I-Jin
Committee member: Caris Lim Chai Leng
Committee member: Catherine Tan Ling Ghim
Committee member: Josie Lau Meng Lee
Committee member: Lois Ng
Committee member: Irene Yee Khor Quin
Committee member: Peggy Leong Pek Kay
I also think people are missing the big picture and should not focus on the anti-gay conspiracy shaped by the gay community. Furthermore, obviously people who never attended any AGMs at all would be shocked but this is what happens during AGMS from condos to country clubs whenever there is a power grab. It is legitimate and actually crafty politiking – if those in power can’t see it coming, they don’t deserve to be in power. The issue in this ousting is instead about how once the results of “democracy” don’t turn out in the way one expects, there would be cries of unfairness and distasteful underhand power games. This is to be expected of course as the losers always have an excuse, and a way to get back.
Unknowns knock out veterans at Aware polls
Caught off-guard by big turnout, longtime members lose to fresh faces
Wong Kim Hoh
April 10, 2009 Friday
SINGAPORE’S best-known women’s group, the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), has seen a dramatic changing of the guard – which some members are describing as nothing short of a leadership grab.
When Aware held its annual general meeting on March 28, everyone expected the usual: No more than 30 or 40 members would turn up at its Dover Crescent centre, and a prepared slate of candidates would be voted into office easily.
Instead, more than 100 people came, the majority of whom had joined Aware only in recent months.
And when the election of office bearers began, almost every position was challenged by new faces, who won by wide majorities.
In the end, nine out of 12 executive committee spots went to the newcomers.
One older member who won without a contest was Mrs Claire Nazar, a former corporate counsel nominated to be president by outgoing Aware chief Constance Singam.
But barely a week into her new term, and before making her first statement as president, Mrs Nazar quit suddenly this week.
She confirmed that she had resigned, but declined to say any more when reached by The Straits Times.
It is not known who will now become president.
Longtime members took two other positions: Chew I-Jin as assistant honorary treasurer and Caris Lim Chai Leng was elected a committee member.
The election results have left longtime Aware members in shock.
Former president Tan Joo Hymn, 38, told The Straits Times the big turnout at the AGM surprised her.
‘I arrived at the meeting late and found out that I was No. 100 on the attendance list. I’ve been a member for 10 years, and never before has there been such a turnout,’ said the former lawyer who is now a full-time mother.
Another former president, writer Dana Lam, 57, said: ‘There were many faces I had not seen before, and I found that very strange.
‘In previous years, even if there were new members, they would be known to one or more of the older members.’
The first indication that something was afoot came when Ms Chew, an Aware veteran, was challenged and defeated handsomely by new member Charlotte Wong Hock Soon for the post of vice-president.
Ms Chew was later elected unopposed as assistant honorary treasurer.
‘It was alarming,’ said Ms Lam. ‘How could a new member who had just joined for a couple of months, and whom we knew nothing about, be picked over someone who has been with Aware for more than 15 years?’
Some of the older members immediately began checking the attendance list.
Ms Tan said: ‘We found that about 80 of the 102 who turned up were new members who joined between January and March this year.’
Aware, a feminist group that has prided itself on being ‘all inclusive’, has never vetted the people who apply to be members.
Men can join too, as associate members.
As it dawned on them that a leadership grab was imminent, some older members at the AGM tried asking the newcomers who they were, what they stood for, and why they wanted to be in charge.
They got only the briefest answers, they said.
Ms Lam said she tried suggesting that new members serve a stint on Aware’s various sub-committees before standing for election to leadership positions.
But such suggestions went unheeded as the election proceeded, with more newcomers winning executive committee positions by landslide margins.
Ironically, the old guard at Aware had been working towards changing their Constitution to make it a rule that only those who have been members for at least a year would be eligible to join the ex-co.
There is currently no rule to bar a brand new member from seeking office, and that was what happened at the AGM.
Ms Tan said: ‘We were simply outnumbered. Technically, they got in legitimately.’
She added that the way the election proceeded was so unusual, it was hard to imagine that the takeover was not a planned effort.
‘It could not be pure coincidence,’ she said.
But little is known of Aware’s new leaders, aside from the fact that they include women from the corporate sector, lawyers, company directors and academics.
Older members said the newcomers spoke well but would not elaborate on their plans for Aware.
‘When asked if they believed in equality, they kept repeating they were there to support women and to make sure they got ahead and got all the opportunities given to them,’ Ms Lam said.
Older members were keen to know if the newcomers shared Aware’s vision and values, including equality for all regardless of race, religion or sexuality.
But one outspoken new member from the floor, who identified herself as Angela Thiang, said questions about the new office bearers’ religion and their stand on homosexuality were not relevant.
Former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Braema Mathi, a two-term president of Aware, told The Straits Times that she, like many other members, was concerned.
‘If you are keen to serve, you don’t challenge every position. We do not know who they are,’ said the former journalist who is now in Bangkok doing consultancy work for international women’s group Unifem.
‘It is very troubling, more so because I’ve heard the new president has resigned.’
Almost a fortnight into their new roles, the new leaders of Aware were not entertaining calls from the media this week.
New honorary secretary Jenica Chua Chor Ping told The Straits Times a press release would be issued ‘in a few days’ and added that until then, the committee would not answer any questions.
A check showed that some of those at the AGM and on the new committee have appeared in The Straits Times Forum Page.
Ms Chua, Ms Thiang and Dr Alan Chin, a male member of Aware who attended the AGM and supported the newcomers, all wrote letters to this newspaper between August and October 2007.
In a letter on Oct 17 that year, Ms Chua said NMP Siew Kum Hong had overstepped his non-partisan role and advanced the homosexual cause by tabling a petition in Parliament to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code which criminalises homosexual sex between consenting men.
In another letter on Oct 25, she took issue with a Straits Times report which said NMP Thio Li-Ann had been ‘visibly distraught’ when she opposed Mr Siew’s petition vigorously.
Ms Chua said Ms Thio had dealt with several points succinctly, with humour and passion.
Dr Chin and Ms Thiang both wrote letters to caution against the risks of promoting the homosexual lifestyle.
Meanwhile, news of Aware’s AGM has spread among older members who did not attend the meeting, as well as civil society groups.
The most frequently-asked questions: Who are the new women in charge, why do they want the leadership, and what are their plans for Aware?
Ms Mathi said: ‘The building of an institution takes many years; building its value system is even harder.
‘Why can’t they come in and be part of the process, and build it together and in a more evolutionary manner? That way, the comfort level will be high for everyone.’
Former newspaper editor and media consultant Peter Lim, a longtime associate member of Aware, said he was very surprised to learn what had taken place.
Asked why he thought a group of newcomers would want to take control, he said he did not know if it was an orchestrated effort.
But he thought Aware would be attractive to those seeking to be in charge of an established institution. Setting up a new outfit would take too much time and trouble.
‘Aware has built up its credentials over the years and achieved more than a few things,’ he said.
Three former Aware presidents – Ms Claire Chiang, Dr Kanwaljit Soin and Ms Mathi – have served as NMPs.
‘Aware is a brand name and most people regard it as the leading voice of the feminists and modern women in Singapore,’ said Mr Lim.
Minority Report
Two apparently unrelated events happened these few days. Underneath the events, however, was the crucial issue of Malay representation and engagement by Singapore political parties.
Abdul Salim Harun, who contested in Ang Mo Kio GRC the last GE, resigned from the Workers’ Party. He was the most prominent Malay community representative in the WP in 2006, and that party’s attempt to challenge the PAP’s dominance in fielding Malay candidates. His resignation was “not unexpected” as he was supposedly open to a more aggressive advocacy, something contrary to WP’s centralist inclinations.
On the other side of the field, Fatimah Lateef from Marine Parade GRC was depicted as one who could not connect with the temple elders in her ward. SM GOh Chok Tong felt that the Straits Times’ report on the new MPs and their weaknesses tarnished Fatimah’s image as an effective MP and he “disliked the inaccuracy“.
With Abdul gone from WP, the WP has to find a new poster boy to give the party a multi-racial image. Getting someone from the minority group is vital in a contest for any GRC. Parties like the WP already have a hard time in recruiting people as compared to the PAP and a Malay criterion in a candidate makes the recruitment all the more harder. The impact of Abdul’s resignation is not slight at all. The PAP’s problem is at a higher level. They always managed to recruit Malay professionals to stand for elections but now their issue to impress is whether these Malay professionals can rally the ground regardless if the constituents are non-Malay. The allegation that Fatimah could not engage temple elders is a politically dangerous doublewhammy. Fatimah could not only interact with the Chinese, she also could not connect with people from the temple. Goh Chok Tong and the PAP could not accept this insinuation.
WP will now double efforts to find a Malay MP candidate. Similarly, PAP will now double efforts to make sure the new Malay and other minority MPs give the impression that they have good rapport with the constituents regardless of race, language religion.
The Death of Dialect
If you are Chinese, Mandarin is your alloted Mother Tongue, regardless if you speak Hokkien, Cantonese, Baba Malay, English, Teochew, Hakka, Hainanese etc at home. The draconian tabula rasa language policy was one driven by pragmatism and has not been challenged since the 60s perhaps. An old ST forum letter, nicely argued to show us that there is an undercurrent of the need to relook this Mandarin-only policy. Can the clans be an agent of change in reviving interest in dialect as an extra curriculum in schools?
STRAITS TIMES
March 17, 2007
Dialect has made Singapore Chinese culture rich and colourful, but it is at risk of dying out
I HAD the privilege of growing up speaking English, Mandarin and dialect. However, dialect (meaning spoken Chinese or fangyan) is at risk of dying out and little is done to conserve and promote this integral part of local Chinese ethnicity.
If conservation of historical sites is given immense support because they are important to local culture, more should be done for dialect. Dialect has profoundly influenced local Chinese culture in numerous ways. From our dialect-inspired dishes to native lingo, dialect has made Singapore Chinese culture so rich and colourful.
As a mother, I am concerned that the global blah of TV, fast food, Internet and so on is diluting the appreciation of our roots. The local situation is worsened with increasingly more children raised by foreign maids. Local children are sent to countless enrichment classes for advancement, but given little time to learn their cultural heritage. We cannot stop modernisation, yet it is eroding local Chinese ethnicity rapidly. Many minority dialects here have dwindled or are already completely lost.
Beyond teaching our children intellectual cultural knowledge, simple dialect-speaking helps identify one’s roots immediately. Dialect is fundamental to Chinese heritage. When I started speaking dialect to my daughter, she instinctively connected herself to our family roots. Previously, our cultural roots were just ‘head knowledge’ to her. Now, she is proud that her father is Hainanese and her mother is Cantonese. She appreciates how fascinating her family history is.
Dialect links us to our roots. Many young local Chinese do not know, or even care, which dialect group they belong to. We should still use English and Mandarin language, but dialect-speaking should not be forgotten in the process. Many Chinese do not communicate in dialect to their young anymore. If something is not done to promote dialect, local Chinese culture will have little profundity eventually.
Dialect is a beautiful aspect of Chinese culture. It is not a language for the ‘old’ or ‘uncouth’. The next generation needs to see the value of dialect – it delves into our roots and reveals a bigger picture of ourselves.
Can dialect survive by itself in Singapore? Like environmental conservation, more must be done before it is too late. Everyone has a part to play. Perhaps because we are a majority ethnic group, we think dialect will thrive naturally. Unfortunately, it will not. We do not want to wait till the last breathe of dialect is spoken to realise what is authentic to us is truly lost.
Joanna Chan Yea Ling (Mdm)
Ignorantia legis neminem excusat?
The couple supposedly used the phone book to select Muslims residents for their evangelism. The Christian duo have a good story now – that since the alleged offensive material is available at a bookstore, then it means that the content is not objectionable and they can send use it to convert and caricature Muslims. Frankly, I never could figure out how effective is it to convert someone by making fun of them.
The question is all about intention, rather than the distraction that since it is OK for the store to sell it openly, it is OK everywhere and anytime for someone to distribute it. MDA is now dragged into the story and the side plot of it being negligent in allowing objectionable material in the first place is emerging. Anyway, staying focus on the main story arc, for example, kitchen knives are sold everywhere but if we mail that blade to someone, that someone can reasonably view it as a form of not subtle intimidation. No, the Christian tract is not tantamount to intimidation, but the point of it is that an item can be supposedly innocuous until the way it is used causes offence. Was the couple guilty of intending to cause offence with The Little Bride and Who Is Allah? If not offence, then intention to ridicule at least.
Jan 29, 2009
Couple on trial for anti-Islamic tracts
Man unaware of tract contents
By Elena Chong
A TECHNICAL officer accused of distributing seditious and objectionable material to three people said in his defence on Thursday that he did not know that the envelopes he had posted contained objectionable publications.
Ong Kian Cheong, 50, said he only came to know of the existence of the objectionable comic tracts titled The Little Bride and Who Is Allah? when arrested on Jan 30 last year.
He is being tried together with his wife, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 45, of distributing seditious publication, The Little Bride and Who Is Allah? to two Muslim civil servants and The Little Bride, which were deemed objectionable to a Muslim woman in 2007.
The couple are also accused of having 11 seditious publications at their Maplewoods condominium on Bukit Timah Road on Jan 30 last year.
District Judge Roy Neighbour had called on their defence at the close of the prosecution’s case. Ong, who took the stand, testified that they are members of Berean Christian Church.
In 1987, he came across an evangelical tract published by American publisher Chick Publications and shared it with his wife.
From then on, they went round buying tracts at a Bras Basah Complex book shop and another at Bukit Timah Plaza. They then dropped these into letter boxes of HDB residents to spread Christianity. They stopped distributing tracts for a while when their daughter was born in 1990.
Five or six years later, they resumed. By then, his wife had begun to order the US-published tracts direct from the company. In about 1998 or 1999 when he found out that the letter boxes were not accessible, he started posting them instead.
Either he or his wife would write the addresses on the envelopes. From 2000, he said he stopped writing the envelopes while his wife continued doing so. He did the posting most of the time.
He said he was not the one who inserted the tracts into the envelopes posted to the three Muslims in 2007. He also did not read the contents of the tracts as they were the same and repetitive.
Asked by his lawyer, Mr Selva K. Naidu, Ong confirmed that he did not know that any of the envelopes he had posted contained any objectionable publication.
Neither did he know or have reason to believe that the publications he had posted might cause feelings of enmity, hatred, ill-will or hostility between different religious groups in Singapore.
Ong also said he did not know the contents of the 11 tracts listed in the last charge. The case continues on Friday.
Sedition! Sedition! Halleluyiah!
The case slowly unfolds. While it is too early to pass judgment yet until the local media releases more information, my question is: were Muslims really specifically targeted in the couple’s evangelism or were they collateral damage in the duo’s zeal to convert anybody? The material distributed seem purposely anti-Islam from what the media reported, so perhaps the couple focused their efforts in making Muslims join their flock.
Coming from a majority perspective and taking our demographical dominance in Singapore for granted, nobody says it openly but are Muslims being over sensitive? Maybe not. We all have our stereotypes of Christian fundamentalists anyway. Some of these Christian fundies are so uptight about their struggle to amass converts by ridiculing other religions or other Christian denominations even. I have Catholic and Buddhist friends who can bear witness to that.
Dec 5, 2008
Couple go on sedition trial
They are accused of distributing offensive publications to 3 people
By Elena Chong
A CHRISTIAN couple are on trial for sedition, facing charges of distributing publications that are seditious and objectionable to three Muslims.
SingTel technical officer Ong Kian Cheong, 49, and his wife, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 45, an associate director with UBS, are alleged to have distributed a seditious publication to two men, and an objectionable publication to a woman, between March and December last year.
They were arrested on Jan 30 this year.
A police ambush party had seen Ong dropping off a stack of envelopes at a mailbox outside SingTel Comcentre in Exeter Road that morning. SingPost was asked to open the mailbox and 22 brown envelopes were recovered. Ong later admitted that he had posted them.
More items were found in his car and his Maplewoods condominium home, including laptops and four boxes of comic tracts with different titles.
His wife was arrested that afternoon. The couple were produced in court in April and their trial began yesterday.
A prosecution witness, Traffic Police staff sergeant Irwan Ariffin, 32, who received an evangelistic booklet titled The Little Bride by post, told District Judge Roy Neighbour that he made a police report after reading it on Oct 19 last year.
He felt that the booklet of comics appeared to condemn his Islamic faith. He found some of the dialogue to be disrespectful towards a religion.
He told the court that in his opinion, whatever faith one professes, one should not criticise or condemn another religion.
He felt the booklet’s contents could have easily sparked religious disagreements between Muslims and Christians.
The couple’s lawyer Selva K. Naidu offered his clients’ apologies for hurting Mr Irwan’s feelings. But the witness said the damage had been done and any apology should not be made to him alone.
Assistant administrator Isa Raffee, 35, told the court that he received the booklet, Who Is Allah?, in his mailbox last December. Going through it, he found 10 instances which were offensive to Muslims.
Mr Isa told the court that he felt anger that turned into disbelief, shock and sadness. ‘There is nothing wrong in promoting one’s religion but it is unacceptable when the person promotes his religion and offends other religions,’ he said.
He told the court that he believed that the publication was intended to provoke or incite religious and racial hatred as well as convert Muslims to Christians.
When Mr Naidu offered the same apology to him, the father of three said he would accept the apology, but it would be hard to forget what had happened.
He agreed with the lawyer that although he had been hurt by the words in the publication, they did not make him feel hostile towards anybody. ‘We Muslims in Singapore are able to think rationally and we do not let our feelings make us do undesirable acts,’ he said.
He said he had seen how Muslims worldwide had been affected after the Danish media published cartoons about Islam. ‘We do not want such things to happen in Singapore,’ he said.
Mr Isa said he had grown up with Christian neighbours and had invited them home for lunch. Some of his army officers were devout Christians as well, and they were ‘nice people’.
But he added: ‘Again, I must emphasise that offending one’s religion is unacceptable and dangerous.’
The case continues.
elena@sph.com.sg
Sexy Fragrance Prince’s Unsexy Arrest
The blogger who was the centre of attention for posting racist comments was arrested by the police after vigilantes made complaints. So much for community education and castigation, the authorities also want incarceration next seemingly.
The police probably had to respond as the public complained. Hopefully the police is merely employing a scare tactic as a deterrence, and if it does go to court, perhaps community service as a rehabilitative process for the 24-year old bigot blogger. If we see the pattern of racist netizens, the law has been more and more progressive if we want to see it positively. The first two were arrested and jailed, the third had to do community service, this is the 4th one to be arrested.
The amount of negative reaction towards that blogger is a barometer of how much displeasure there is toward such blatant racism. Ideally, the law should not be brought in at all. Furthermore, there was no incitement of violence or orchestrated hate speech from what was said about this bigot. If I remember correctly, the blogger who did community service after he gave a sob story as a plea, was worse than him as he advocated genocide. So this Prince should get a lighter sentence in the event this case goes to court. We have to wait and see if he goes to court, or is let off with a stern warning. The latter is the best option for all in a society that is coming to terms with internet regulation, racism and responsibility.
