Faiths in Harmony

Members of the Working Committee for Racial and Religious Harmony,
Chairpersons and members of the Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circles (IRCCs),
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. A very good morning to all. I see many familiar faces, people who I have worked very closely with when I was the IRCC chairman. So for those of you who continue to work from day one till now, I really want to thank you for your support and perseverance. I am very happy to join all of you here today at this morning’s very meaningful annual National Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle Workshop. This workshop is important as it brings us together, to collectively look at ways we can enhance efforts to protect our racial and religious harmony.

2. Singapore is a unique country with a multi-racial and multi-religious population living harmoniously with one another. But we must never take our state of peace and harmony as a given, because in many other countries, such peace amidst diversity is not the norm. We thus have to keep working at it, and never let our guard down to take this current state of peace and harmony for granted. 

3. More so, given that our people are highly interconnected, through our travels, and also through social media. There are many external and extremist influences we need to be mindful of, and to guard against. Such harmful forces may be found closer to us than we think. On 19 Aug, Malaysian police managed to foil plans for a wave of bombings targeting popular night spots in Putrajaya, Malaysia. The plan was drawn up by radical Islamic militants, influenced by Iraq’s extremist jihad group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). They held visions of establishing a hardline Southeast Asia Islamic caliphate, spanning Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. Fortunately, the 19 suspected militants, including 2 housewives, were arrested from April to June this year.

4. This episode reinforces the importance of staying vigilant.  I encourage all of you to remind your congregations and communities to do so too. We should all always exercise restraint, thoughtfulness and understanding where race and religion are concerned. But we must also be vigilant against the influences which can inspire some to even contemplate acts of terror amongst their own people.
   

Overview of achievements

5. I know each of you in the 87 IRCCs have been unwavering in your effort towards keeping our society harmonious. Thank you for your commitment towards this important mission and undertaking. The IRCCs are now into their 4th term of office and there are many achievements that we can be proud of. Membership and engagement levels have risen steadily over the years.

6. Today, we have about 1,500 members in our IRCCs who help to constantly engage our religious organisations and individuals on these important matters. This engagement has been growing steadily through the years, with our 800 religious organisations. To date, our IRCCs have reached out to almost all religious organisations in Singapore. This is encouraging, as I note that in 2006, when this Community Engagement Programme started, only about one in five were engaged. We have come a long way and made encouraging progress.

7. Many of you here, including the religious leaders, have been with us since the beginning of our journey. When we had a review in 2007 of how the IRCCs should carry out our outreach, one key idea was to have networking sessions between various religious communities to foster friendships and promote bonds between the different religious organisations. These networking sessions became highly effective.

8. Each session, usually held at the premises of the host religious organisation, attracts 30 to 80 attendees. This has spurred more religious organisations to also step forward to express interest in joining in such engagements. I am especially heartened that many of you have pledged your support by joining the IRCCs and are now participating actively in the programmes organised by the IRCCs.

9. Beyond networking sessions, I am glad that many of you have taken ownership of the community engagement effort by spearheading and initiating many meaningful programmes and to further promote the IRCCs to your communities.

10. Let me share a few examples. On 31 May this year, the Geylang Serai IRCC organised the “Heritage in Harmony Seminar & Exhibition” in collaboration with the various religious groups in the constituency. At the event, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong launched the coffee table book entitled “Heritage in Harmony”. The book highlights Geylang Serai’s history, evolution and the practices of the various religious and community organisations and associations in the constituency. It was compiled by the Geylang Serai IRCC, with input from the religious organisations and clan associations, who also worked together on the layout of the book. The book serves as a resource to create greater awareness of the constituency's unique heritage and diversity for future generations of Singaporeans to understand.

11. Another example of a joint collaboration between religious organisations was the event organised by Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng IRCC in May this year. Initiated by the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum, it brought together other religious organisations such as Masjid Jamae Chulia, Sri Mariamman Temple and Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka to celebrate Vesak day as well as promote the spirit of IRCC Cares. Volunteers from these religious organisations helped to pack goodie bags and serve a vegetarian dinner to more than 250 needy participants of different races and religions.
    

Harmony Fund

12. We hope to see more of such ground-up initiatives. I would like to encourage the religious leaders here to lead your organisations, just like the organisations I’ve shared, to further reach out to the community, regardless of race or religion.

13. You may apply for the support of The Harmony Fund to grow your initiatives. The Fund was launched in April last year to support initiatives organised by non-profit organisations to promote racial and religious harmony. The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), has set aside a $5 million budget to support community groups over these three years. Between the launch in April 2013 and July 2014, 39 projects amounting to funding of more than $1.19 million have been approved. I am happy to know that 18 of these projects were organised by youth, or for the youth. Seven projects were organised by religious or religious-affiliated organisations.

14. One such youth project was an International Youth Leaders’ Summit organised by SIM last year. With the theme of “Be local, be global”, the international youth conference was held in conjunction with Racial Harmony month. It comprised a series of workshops on topics promoting inter-racial and religious understanding, local heritage and integration of new immigrants. There were also activities such as a heritage-themed amazing race to promote interaction among 700 youth participants from various races and religions.
    

Youth engagement

15. It is crucial to involve and engage our youth in matters related to race and religious harmony. This will provide for the future rejuvenation of the IRCC while providing a perspective from the younger members of our society. Currently, an estimated 30 out of 1,500 IRCC members are below 35 years old. I believe we can do more to reach out to our young people. We need to engage and nurture youth leaders for the future, as well as to groom second and third tier leaders in the IRCC. Doing so will ensure that there is continuity and leadership renewal among the committees.

16. One good example of such youth involvement can be found in the Radin Mas IRCC.  It had started an initiative to organise an event for youths on World Religion Day, which falls in January. In 2013, they organised an event “Run with Faith” for the youth leaders and received highly positive response. By building on the event’s success, in January 2014 this year, over 70 youths came together and held a dialogue session named ‘Faith in YOUth’ at Church of St Teresa. With the strong support from the religious organisations under Radin Mas IRCC, the session allowed young people an opportunity to reflect on the roles that they could play in building social cohesion. Youth leaders also recognised the importance of stepping out to play a more active role, so that they themselves can be an ambassador among their peers.
    

Conclusion

17. Indeed, everyone, both young and old, has a part to play in contributing to racial and religious harmony in Singapore. The peace we enjoy today has been positive through the work of all of us in the community. Let’s continue with this journey together, to make Singapore a happy and harmonious place, a place we call Home. I wish you a fruitful discussion.