Shortage of Haj Pilgrimage Places for Singaporeans

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Saudi Government has allocated 680 Haj places to Singapore this year. This is in line with our official Haj quota as decided by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1987. All the 680 places have been allocated to applicants who had registered to perform Haj this year under MUIS' Advance Haj Registration System.

Sir, I attend the Annual Ministerial Hajj Meeting in Saudi every year to request for additional places so that more Singaporean Muslims can perform pilgrimage. The Saudi Government has been generous, granting us 1,500 additional places for Haj each year for the past four years (2008-2011). We must not take this for granted. This year, the Saudi government is unable to give us extra places in view of massive construction work around Mecca. This applies to all countries and is not unique to Singapore.

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Singaporean Muslims who made early bookings for Haj this year but eventually could not get a place, did not suffer any loss. Under the Haj Agreement, Haj operators can only accept early and progressive payment from registered applicants allocated the 680 official places.

However, some may have to forfeit some paid deposits for transport and accommodation arrangements that they had made. By catering to a larger market over and above our official quota, the agents were taking a business risk. This paid off for them in previous years. Unfortunately, because of the reduced quota this year, some of them may have suffered losses.

Sir, I share the disappointment of many Singaporean Muslims who are not able to perform Haj this year. The Prime Minister has appealed to the Saudi Crown Prince Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud. I had personally handed this appeal letter over to the Crown Prince on 29 September 2012. We are still waiting for the outcome.

The development projects in the Holy Land will take a few years to complete. We appreciate the efforts that the Saudi government is taking to ensure that more Muslims can make their pilgrimage safely and comfortably. In the meantime, we should be prepared and manage our expectations should we not be able to get additional Haj quota in the next few years.

Sir, I thank the Minister for sharing with us his comprehensive reply. Many in the community have viewed this issue involving the Saudi government as well as the Korban issue involving the Australian government as being situations in which we find ourselves at a difficult end because of the decisions made by foreign governments. The question is whether the Ministry has early warning about the risk and probability that this may not happen, and whether the public could have been better pre-empted and actions taken so as to avoid late disappointment. Pertaining to the Haj itself, I would like to ask the Minister this: does he see this as a short-term or long-term concern in the sense that is there a chance that the old quotas will be reverted in due course?

Sir, I think we better correct this: that there is no such thing as an old quota. Our quota is 680. It is just that we have been granted additional places in the last few years. We have been told that this is a short-term problem because the government is, in fact, improving the accommodation around the Holy Mosque and in other places in Mecca and Medina. And we have been assured that once they have been able to finish the construction work, they will reconsider. That is what we have been told through some of the discussions we have had with our Saudi counterparts.

As to the Member's question on whether or not we can pre-empt, I think sometimes it may be very difficult because the quota allocation is a very sensitive matter. We made our appeal earlier this year, but we have already informed all the agents that whatever planning that they have to make, they must plan based on 680 places. Beyond 680 places, it is a business risk that they have to take because we can never assume that what has happened in the last four years will continue for the next four years, even though we have been granted additional places for the last four years. Similarly, to the question on the livestock for our annual Korban, we were, in fact, alerted much earlier, and we have done our best to meet the requirements of the Australian government. We have done so and they have actually given us the approval for the 16 mosques plus two Malay-Muslim organisations.

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But going forward, we know that these are matters in which the Australian government has to consider on a year-by-year basis because there are developments over there that we have to be cognisant of. We thank them for giving us the opportunity to import livestock for this year but I think it is important for the community to prepare ourselves that we may have to first look at alternative sources and, secondly, even considering doing some of our Korban overseas. Much earlier this year, MUIS and myself have, in fact, come up to inform the public that we may have to be prepared for some other eventualities but, thankfully, we have now gotten the approval for this year. But we can never guarantee that the same approval be given for us next year. So we have to prepare for a different outcome, the possibility that it will not come for next year's Korban.

Mr Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. I would like to ask whether there has been any review conducted on the Haj system, which is managed by MUIS, since last year's unfortunate Haj circumstances. If yes, were there any irregularities discovered and how were these addressed?

Sir, the system that we have in place is, in fact, very comprehensive and well audited by a lot of other countries because we follow a very rigorous system of allocation and priority and queuing system. What happened last year was really something which was beyond our control because we were promised by the former Saudi Ambassador a certain number of goodwill visas which never materialised. But we have always taken the position that we should work on our official quota, plan based on our official quota, and anything that comes extra is a bonus. On the part of the community, we actually have different queues for people with different priorities. And so if we have additional quotas, we will give those on a different queue those places. But those who are on the first priority list, which is what we call Category A and Category B, they will be given the official quota. At the end of the day, I think our planning norms are all right, but there are a lot of uncertainties in this particular business because issues regarding allocation and places within the Holy Land are really beyond our control.

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