Issues of minority Malay are Singapore's issues

Issues of minority Malay are Singapore's issues

By Asad Latif

SINGAPORE: If there is one face that symbolizes the Malay Singaporean, it is the face of a boy I saw some years ago. He was returning home from his weekly religious lessons. Pasted on the front of his white cap was a miniature flag of Singapore.

I saw him around National Day, but the point he made held true for the rest of the year as well, and continues to do so.

I remembered him during the recent re-surfacing of sensitive issues such as perceptions of Muslim women wearing Islamic headscarves and Malay loyalty in the armed forces.

The flag pasted on his cap proclaimed that, far from religious and national identities being contradictory, they can reinforce each other. The boy symbolized an ideal which is reassuring to anyone who believes in the reality of multi-racial and multi- religious Singapore, as I certainly do.

However, as the recent controversy revealed, how each identity fits into the other is an evolving exercise. The challenge for a community, particularly a minority, is to seek solutions to its problems without giving others reason to believe that it is trying to carve out greater religious space within the nation.

This responsibility falls on not only Malays, but other religious and racial groups as well. However, I shall restrict myself to Muslims because this piece is about them.

Whether the issue is the tudong (headscarf) or Malays in the armed forces, madrasahs (Islamic schools) or Malays' economic position in Singapore, the crucial point is that the quest for a resolution must take a national and not a communal form.

For example, the prospects of Muslim children who attend madrasahs are a matter of national interest because they are citizens. The state not only enjoys the right but also owes the duty to protect their future.

Therefore, a resolution of the issue cannot be a purely Muslim affair but must reflect the economic and social imperatives which determine the purpose and the form of Singapore's national education system.

Or consider Muslims' economic position. Is it a communal or a class issue? If communal, then the resolution will occur along communal lines, wherever it may lead. But if the issue is one of class, then the resolution will reflect the shared experiences of fellow-citizens belonging to other communities.

I am not suggesting that the condition of Singapore's working class -- be it Malay, Indian or Chinese -- calls for a revolutionary solution. I use the word "class" merely because of its precision as an economic and social indicator.

By the same yardstick, the presence of Malays, along with the other communities, in Singapore's substantial middle class is a matter of national and not only Malay pride.

Permit me to reiterate this: Religion does not detract from a person's national loyalties.

However, there is a good reason for thinking in categories other than the religious one when it comes to issues which go to the heart of national life.

The reason is that thinking "nationally" is an inclusive exercise -- it highlights what different communities possess in common -- whereas thinking along communal lines must, at a certain point, exclude those who do not belong to the community in question.

This principle holds true for both the majority and the minorities, but it is especially important for the latter because, whereas the strength of numbers ensures that the majority will prevail, the minorities need the majority's support to prevail. They can hope for that support by thinking inclusively.

Such thinking has real advantages in Singapore, whose multi- racial and multi-religious model does not rest on giving different races different positions in society, on empowering one community in one way and allowing others to develop themselves in other ways.

Multi-racialism here consists of communities holding rights in common. Meritocracy determines how these rights are translated into actual results in the educational and economic sphere.

Consider meritocracy in education, where the races perform differently. But is race the issue? Meritocracy is not perfect -- not because it is biased but, paradoxically, because it is unbiased.

Meritocracy, by its very nature, finds it difficult to distinguish between the child of a blue-collar worker and the child of a doctor.

The issue is one of class, not religion or race. Thus, instead of thinking of the Malay (or Indian or Chinese) child who is not doing well in his studies, why not think of a child whose father has neither the education nor the time to give his child that extra push in school or junior college?

How can we, as a nation, stand in for that father?

Indeed, it is as a nation that we must address the issue. After all, there is nothing intrinsically racial in academic under-achievement (or in good performance).

The problem is the distance between the immense educational opportunities available Singapore, and the ability to use them, an ability that in turn reflects how society empowers its weakest members.

The issue is not religious or racial but national.

In that context, I do hope that the self-help groups come closer and broaden their areas of overlap so that every Singaporean is empowered to achieve the most for himself and the country. Thinking along communal lines will, by contrast, shrink common opportunities.

Let the little boys who wear the Singapore flag on their caps always hold their heads up high.

They will.

--The Straits Times / Asia News Network