Report by Suara Musyawarah Committee

Madam, I had announced in my Hari Raya speech in August last year that an independent committee would be set up to engage members of the Malay/Muslim community. The Suara Musyawarah Committee, chaired by Haji Sallim Abdul Kadir, has since completed its work and handed me its report on 7 July 2013. This report, Madam, is a compilation of the Committee's findings on the Malay/Muslim community's main areas of interest and concerns today, as well as their hopes and aspirations for the future.

Madam, I would like to commend the Committee for their dedication to this challenging task. In a short span of seven months, they worked tirelessly to dialogue with more than 500 members of the Malay/Muslim community from all walks of life, be they residents in rental housing, single mothers or professionals. For a small, independent committee that had to work within a tight timeframe, this extensive outreach is remarkable and it has initiated conversations with people who otherwise might not have come forward to share their stories or their views.

On the whole, the report reflects the positive ethos that the Malay/Muslim community sees itself as part of the broader Singapore community and has the desire to move forward and do better. I am also heartened by the report's comprehensive scope, which covers issues ranging from education as a conduit for upward social mobility to social consciousness.

As the report aptly points out, the passionate conversations on how to move the Malay/Muslim community forward pre-date the Committee and should continue well into the future. Pragmatically, the community recognises

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that we should leverage on collective resources to improve outreach efforts, as well as programmes and services for vulnerable segments of the community in particular.

This report sends an important signal that even the less advantaged among us are hopeful that they can do better than the previous generation. Vulnerable families whom the Committee spoke to are clear that they are not looking for hand-outs but prefer to be given appropriate opportunities to achieve self-reliance and upward mobility. This is the kind of active participation that our community needs to be open to and ready for. With greater community and national-level support to optimise the potential of vulnerable groups, the next phase of our community's development will be to contribute even more significantly to Singapore's continued success.

To this end, our community should also embrace a broader definition of success beyond academic achievement. The Committee recommends media engagement to disseminate the message that the pursuit of excellence in all that we do is an Islamic virtue. We have to strive for peaks of excellence where individuals are passionate about and rise to the top of their respective fields. Indeed, it would bode well for the Malay/Muslim community in the long term to adopt this new mind-set and develop talents in diverse arenas to serve our community and society at large.

Other recommendations in the report are also worth exploring further. I encourage organisations that have a keen interest in uplifting the community to study the report fully and develop appropriate programmes that are able to lead our community to greater success.

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Minister for the reply. While it is heartening to note that the community generally is coming together in trying to forge our way forward, I would like to ask the Minister whether existing programmes are sufficient to address these new areas of concern that you mentioned earlier and what are the specific roles that Malay/Muslim organisations (MMOs) can play in this.

Finally, how can the information-gathering process that has been started through the Suara Musyawarah initiative be continued within the community because I think that it is a very good platform to gather even more diverse views and concerns from the community?

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I thank the Member for the two supplementary questions. For the second question, there was a recommendation by the Committee that we should continue with the conversation. Clearly, we cannot do as the way we have done, which means I have to set up another committee. But the idea of reaching out to groups that we would not have heard before is an important point. We are studying this to see how best we can continue with the conversation.

One idea is to go back to the various groups that they have met to close the loop on some of the suggestions that they have made and how those suggestions have been implemented by the various organisations. But we are studying it.

On the Member's first question as to whether or not there are sufficient programmes, the short answer is that there is never a sufficient number of programmes because we need to do a lot more. But clearly, in certain areas, we need to pay greater attention and I mentioned this during the recent Hari Raya speech. One area which the Committee recommended – and I think we should do this – is about how to reach out further to the vulnerable groups. I have tasked both MUIS and MENDAKI to study this, on how best we can leverage on existing structures within the community to reach out to the more vulnerable in our community so that they have access to all of our programmes.

Here, the role of the MMOs are very important because, firstly, they have their own networks, their own resources on the ground. If we can again leverage on them and get them to do more in terms of reaching out to their clients and beyond their own existing client base, then there would be a good outcome. Secondly, I have also encouraged the various organisations to study further the recommendations, whether there is room for them to either expand their existing programmes or adopt new programmes.

We have announced new funding that the Government has given to Malay/Muslim Community Development Fund (MMCDF) and, therefore, there are additional resources for us to do a lot more. We are planning to meet the various MMOs to explain to them the areas that we would like them to go into so that we can tap on this new funding.

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