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Friday, 29 October 2010

Jufrie Mahmood

Visitors to the Kent Ridge Park would not miss a plaque dedicated to the memory of a 27-year-old officer of the Malay Regiment. Lieutenant Adnan Bin Saidi and almost an entire platoon of 42 soldiers of the Malay Regiment under his command died in defence of Singapore in 1942.

Though badly wounded Lt Adnan survived the Japanese onslaught. He was taken prisoner, hanged from a cherry tree and subsequently bayoneted till he died.

There was another Malay who made history in Singapore. Madam Sahora Ahmat won the Siglap seat for the PAP in a 6-cornered contest in the 1959 Legislative Asembly elections. Not many Singaporeans knew Mdm Sahora. I, too, neither knew nor met her. But I know that one of the candidates she defeated was my foster maternal grandfather, Mohd Sidek Bin Abdul Hamid, a former Minister of State for Education in the previous government.

A littke known fact is that Mdm Sahora was responsible for saving the PAP from defeat in 1961. She had been persuaded to leave her hospital bed to travel by ambulance to the Legislative Assembly Hall to cast her vote for the PAP.

Because of her vote, the PAP survived a no-confidence vote by a majority of one.

Many from the PAP credit the saving of the party to Mr Chan Chee Seng who was said to have persuaded and rushed Mdm Sahora to the Legislative Assembly. That recognition, I feel, should rightly go to Mdm Sahora. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you surely cannot make it drink.

Then there was Haji Yaacob Mohamed who in 1957 risked being ostracized and branded a traitor by the Malays when he joined the PAP from UMNO because he believed in, and was committed to, building a multi-racial Singaporean Singapore.

Haji Yaacob, whose last appointment was that of a Minister of State, together with a small band of Malay MPs, stood through thick and thin with the PAP, until several years before his death in 1989.

Towards his later years Pak Yaacob became disillusioned with the PAP. For reasons not made public he was sent away to serve as ambassador to Egypt and later as high commissioner to India. Some took that as some sort of banishment for speaking up against the PAP leadership.

I had gone to see him at his house in Lorong Marzuki before he passed away to have a chat with him and also to listen to his woes. He was against the PAP’s decision to introduce the GRC system. He did not agree with the PAP’s contention that Singaporeans were voting along racial lines - and he emphatically made this clear to me.

As early as the mid-80s he had said that the PAP “had gone off track” and he would strive to bring it back on track. When I ventured to ask him what would he do should he fail to do that, he looked me in the eye and said “I would join you!”

If Lt Adnan, Mdm Sahora, and Haji Yaacob were alive today, what would they say?

Would Lt Adnan let the PAP get away with its policy of discriminating against the Malays in the armed forces? Chances are he would fight another battle and teach the PAP what loyalty to one’s country really means. He would surely want to put things right.

Would Mdm Sahora, after having seen how the PAP is treating the Malays and giving lip service to the National Language, feel betrayed and regretted her decision to cast her crucial vote for the PAP? The PAP's development would have turned out very differently.

Would Haji Yaacob not have joined the opposition lead the charge for change?

These Malays were loyal to Singapore because they were Singaporeans. Yet, somehow the loyalty of their descendants to this country are now being questioned. Have the Malays changed or is it the PAP who has changed?

Jufrie Mahmood is a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Singapore Democratic Party.

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Comments (7)

Fri 29 Oct 2010 11:38 PM | freedomT

This is so true. PAP is playing by the racial cards for a very long time. Whoever enter the NS would know that no malays are allowed in signal coy, arti, armour,commando, air force and the navy. Even OCS is selective based for the malays. Most of the malays are in logistic and infantry. Where is the trust? That old emperor had said many times that Malays cannot be trusted and if placed in important position they will betray the rest of Singapore and sell secrets to Malaysia. You think the Malays have the time to go all the way to Putrajaya and knock on PM Najib door to sell Singapore out or sneak into Istana negara and tell HM the Agong. Please ah, I have many Malays friends and I do feel their pain here. Government scholarships such as PSC are even out of reach of qualified Malays. I know of a friend who did really well for her A levels and scored 5 As and been accepted to do dentisry at NUS and she applied for government scholarship to help her to pay her tuition fees and she was rejected. Her CCA are very impressive and she did outside activities as well. The only reason that they gave her was that she is a Malay. And that one over the phone when her father called them. If you can sponsor international students to study here, why can't you sponsor a Singaporean regardless of her background?? You cannot be the PM of Malaysia, that is your fate as dictated by God but please don't use this as an excuse to HIT back at the Malays. The people that rejected you have already passed on. Leave the past behind or it will haunt you to your grave.

Sat 30 Oct 2010 1:35 AM | Muhammad Shamin - Malays Strategic Position

In the field of defence, Malays hold a strategic position in maintaining peace with our neighbours.

Sat 30 Oct 2010 9:43 AM | seebeng - Indians too feel discriminated

I've heard from my Indian friends that Singaporeans of Indian origin too feel the intense "heat" of racial discrimination in multi-racial Singapore.

At one time they were denied entry to the medical and law faculties. The Indian ministers in the PAP government are not recognized by the Indians as their representatives but only as stooges to further the interests of the PAP to make sure that "things" are under total control.

Indians are resentful about the insistence of the manpower ministry to employ only China nationals in Indian restaurants selling Indian food and catering mainly to Indian customers.

My Indian friends also tell me that highly qualified local Indians have emigrated to other countries with their families because of PAP's discriminative practices. And to make up the Indian numbers the government is selectively allowing "Indians" who don't speak Tamil into Singapore, leading to social, cultural and language animosity between the locals and the recent arrivals. These instant Indians are said to be using Singapore as a stepping stone to go to other countries in search of better paying jobs.

Sat 30 Oct 2010 2:39 PM | freedomT - there are more Indians ministers compared with 1 M

Talking about the Indians MPs, there are more Indians ministers compared with 1 Malay Minister and that also in either environment or MCYS. Do you see a Malay becoming the deputy minister or a defence minister? Nothing just jaga water, rubbish or old people issues. Even in Malaysia, a chinese can be the chief minister of a state and they allowed LKY to be chief minister of Singapore, transport or health minister. A chinese student can even managed to get the Yang dipertuan Agong scholarship. Last year a chinese girl from penang got it. Here the malays got nothing. Even our head of state is Indian. If you see the logic behind it, a Malay was only a head of state for only 1 time compared with other races. Then how about the SAP Schools. No Malays are allowed to be in those too as well as the gifted programme in primary school. Do you see a MALAY STUDENT in nanyang pri or henry park pri? You can see other races but not malays. Malaysia slogan is correct. Rakyat di dahulukan, percapaian di utamakan. translate to english, the people come first!! progress is formost. Look at the first line. " The people come first" but in Singapore it cannot be done. Foreigner must come first and we become 2nd class citizen. As a Chinese I feel disgusted by their policy. Vote for a change now!!! Unite and be fair to all races.

Sun 31 Oct 2010 10:37 PM | intanbiru - I am a Singaporean, too.

From its first inception, in my mind's eye, the PAP has never been honest in it's multi-racial policies. I do not have to elaborate on this. But, what really irks me is this - that my community's loyalty to Singapore is being questioned. The Malays are known for their courage (biar berputih tulang, jangan berputih mata), devotion to country (dimana bumi dipijak, disitu langit dijunjung), trustworthy (setiakawan). It is these qualities that have kept Lt Adnan and his men defending Singapore to the last man. It is these same qualities that kept Singapore Malays from migrating to Malaysia after the separation. Yet, my community has been - and always will be - discriminated against, sidelined. We have been made out to be the black sheep. The yearly report card given out on National Day rally - the Malays failed miserably. The time has come for the Malays to be able to stand up and say 'I am a Singaporean, too. Singapore can count on me'. No questions ask.

Tue 02 Nov 2010 1:34 PM | Tan Tai Wei

With regard to Malays being excluded from certain functions of the SAF, I had tried to test government's concern. During a tutorial, at my job at a tertiatry institution, prior to retirement, I asked a Malay youth, who aired the usual protest that Malays were being excluded, whether, should Singapore go to war with Malaysia, he would fight Malaysia.

He smiled, meaning he wouldn't. But what got me wondering was the way other Malays in the group reacted. They retorted that should Singapore war with China, would Chinese fight?

Perhaps, Singapore and Malaysia are so knitted that it is inconceivable that she would war against Malaysia. The real test is that should Indonesia or China war with us, would we, Singaporaens and Malaysians fight. The Indonesian confrontation with us proved that we would!

Even the Chinese wouldn't fight, I think, should we fight Malayaia. My wife is a Malaysian, and my inlaws. We are Chinese!

Tue 02 Nov 2010 4:49 PM | freedomT

If the Malays are so bad as made out by the PAP then the Sultans in Malaysia would not agree to give citizenship to the non-malays and also during the Malacca Sultanate, the Sultan can expel all Non- malays from the kingdom but he did not. Instead he married a Ming princess and allow the Chinese to live and do business here. The chinese has been living among the Malays for a very long time. Friendship have grown and we even played in the sungei together. So what is the problem?? My family was saved by a malay family during the Japanese occupation and during the racial riots. Not once but many times and we are own our lives to these malays for being there for us at the expense of their own family lives. What I can see is that somebody is being selfish and a sore loser for not being able to rule the whole Malaysia by his own terms and in turn blame it on that race for it.