Speech By Minister For The Environment And Water Resources & Minister-In-Charge Of Muslim Affairs, Mr Masagos Zulkifli At The M³ Forum On 8 February 2020 At Suntec Singapore Exhibition & Convention Centre
SPEECH BY MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER RESOURCES & MINISTER-IN-CHARGE OF MUSLIM AFFAIRS, MR MASAGOS ZULKIFLI AT THE M³ FORUM ON 8 FEBRUARY 2020 AT SUNTEC SINGAPORE EXHIBITION & CONVENTION CENTRE
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Assalamualaikum wr wb and Good Morning.
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We are now at Dorscon Orange. We have to heighten our hygiene practices to prevent a community spread. When Mr Goh Chok Tong was the Prime Minister during SARS, he introduced the namaste1 greeting. This allowed us to acknowledge each other but at the same time, minimise physical contact. For us Malays, we can do the gua caya lu2 salam. We have to adjust but it does not mean we stop what we are currently practising. For example, last night, the Chinese community celebrated Chap Goh Mei, which is the 15th day of Chinese New Year. Therefore, we should extend Lunar New Year greetings to our Chinese friends.
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This is the first time we are all gathering together, M³ activists as well as agencies and supporters - coming together to exchange views and ideas, to share our experiences and celebrate the milestones that we have achieved together.
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When we first started M³, it seems quite complicated simply because it is not a structure we are used to. M³ is different because unlike our past practices, we are now combining community resources which so far have been developing on its own. Now, we are putting these assets and people together to resolve issues and achieve a common purpose. By working together, we can use our assets in more ways.
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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged about the M³ framework in the National Day Rally 2018 - what M³ is supposed to do, and if I can quote him, M³ “combines resources and volunteers and collaborate with the Government and other Malay / Muslim Organisations3” to tackle community challenges. Within a span of 18 months, we also launched 3 major areas that we will focus our community resources on. They are :
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i. To ensure that we have strong families starting from the journey of marriage, and this is led by SPS Dr Faishal Ibrahim
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ii. At the same time, not all marriages are without challenges. Sometimes the challenges are really difficult especially when - usually the husband - gets incarcerated. Therefore, we also have to look at how we support families that are going through these challenges. SPS Amrin Amin is in-charge of that.
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iii. We also need to make sure that as children grow up to become youth, they can look up to people who are successful and access mentors who will hopefully inspire them to become more than what they are exposed to in their family life. Through mentoring, we want to make sure they realise their fullest potential. This area is under Adviser Rahayu Mahzam.
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When we laid out the foundations of M³ at the M³@Towns, we started with the possibility of a collaboration. We wanted M³ institutions, MENDAKI, Muis and MESRA, to collaborate on the ground. You watched a clip of the dance that our KMM@CC kids performed earlier. That dance is special, not only because they are KMM@CC kids - mentored, tutored, and developed by MENDAKI. But they were dancing in a CC. This is an example of how a collaboration between institutions allowed the children to not only be developed to realise their potential, but also for institutions to collaborate, to use resources, facilities and enable more assets to be deployed for our community.
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So, these physical assets are assets that the community does not own but the community can use. Therefore by coming together and collaborating, we not only have people working together, we also have facilities and resources that we can use with and for one another.
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One of the best facilities, which has become a focal point of our community – one that everyone knows “this is ours, we can do this there, we can do things together” is Wisma Geylang Serai led by Dr Maliki Osman. Not only does it provide a social centre where activities are organised, it is also one where many of our MMOs have come together as Kurnia@WGS to provide a one-stop service centre. And I hope that this facility at Geylang Serai becomes our flagship facility. I hope MESRA, MENDAKI and Muis will use it as much as possible. For the Malay/Muslim community, when we have activities, Wisma Geylang Serai is our go-to place. Not just for Hari Raya Bazaar, but also almost every weekend because we want to spend time with the community and to do things for the community.
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After almost 2 years, we have, alhamdulillah, brought together 1,400 volunteers for M³. This is no mean feat because in the past when we count volunteers, we double-count volunteers – the same people who come again and again. For example, when I go to a function, I will meet the same people again and again. But today, I am glad people from different walks of life, people who would not have volunteered in the community in the first place are now coming forward to do what they think would be impactful for the community. Sometimes, from the perspective of their professions, as Imran mentioned in the video earlier. They understand the problems that our community faces, such as legal issues or not being aware of legal issues. So our lawyers have come together, organise events for the community and use M³ as the platform to reach out to the community.
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These foundations would not have been possible if we did not have three important types of relationships. One is the commitment and partnership between the M³ agencies (MESRA, MENDAKI and Muis) to work with one another. We can always make it look like it is working, we can always force people to work together, but if we do not find real synergies, you would not find real work done. I am glad that from my sensing on the ground, with feedback from the volunteers as well as Advisers, M³@Town is working well. Each of M³@Town has their own ground pilots that they are implementing, sometimes from the 3 Focus Areas that I mentioned earlier. At times, the ideas that they have bounced off with one another to be implemented on the ground is exactly what the community needs.
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For instance, M³@Bedok decided to do something for the community, in terms of social support. They implemented a framework called “C.A.R.E”, a unique outreach way for our community where they do a weekly household survey to understand profiles and optimise their coverage of HDB blocks. This is an area which MESRA can do and lead. MESRA lives with the community and it is a pity that we live in our own community and we do not know our neighbour. So, we need to structure a way to reach out to our neighbours, to know what they need and deliver these services to them. With this framework, after linking up with the M³ and social services agencies, the volunteers continue to check in with the residents. So, it is not just about “Here is a service you can use but can we be friends? Can we know each other better? Can we be a better neighbourhood?” And therefore, they not only close the last mile delivery, but they also have started to build strong and resilient communities.
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The same thing is being done by M³@Chua Chu Kang through a programme called Nakhoda Bahtera. This programme was targeted for busy working fathers because at times, fathers may not be aware of their family issues including health problems as they think that the wife will settle everything. Therefore, we need to get fathers involved to understand why fathers need to be there with your wife to make sure their families remain are strong. It started with a health talk called Bicara Adam and, to their surprise, over 200 participants came with 4 out of 5 were men. This is an achievement because usually when we organise talks, most of the participants will be women. If you want to know the secret of how they got the men to come, do ask the M³@Chua Chu Kang team later during their breakout session. So, this spirit of collaboration - gotong royong4, and wanting to solve things together, throwing away structures, throwing away ranks and hierarchy, so that we can get work done.
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Secondly, the willingness of many members of our community from various areas and aspect of their lives (ie. professionals, youths, Asatizah, community leaders) coming together and throwing away these cloaks of differences and coming forward to work with the M³ agencies. Some of them may come as an organisation, but when they join M³, they forget about their organisation. Some of them come as policemen, soldiers - I got one of my directors from PUB to come and help. They have thrown away all these titles and say “I just want to come (and) bring my skills in here to see how my skills can help to get things done”. Regardless of their age and background, I’m glad to see a whole diversity being represented here. I think there are as many men as women here. Many young people as well as our seniors, veterans and people who are new to working together, coming together to help our community. When we come together, we can be creative and innovative to do something important but in a fun way. One example would be how our lawyers educated our community on scams targeting many of our seniors. They called it very nice titles like Tipah Tertipu5 so people would be interested in the programme and then discovered that it is about getting yourself protected against scams.
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One other group of people which I am also happy to welcome are our youths from the mosques. Our youths are attracted to serve in the mosque. This is fantastic, however we need to serve the community beyond the mosque. We need to help those beyond our community, and bringing our youth out of the mosques have given them the opportunity to learn what it takes and why it is important to serve even beyond the mosque community. One of the most exemplary volunteer is Nur Adibah Binte Mazeli. She is a volunteer at Darul Ghufran Mosque in Tampines since the age of 14 - the group called Fityan Ghufran or Young Ghufran. Today, after joining M³, she is not only active in M³, she is now the Chairman of the Tampines West CC Youth Network. This is a big leap from just being in a mosque, but being a leader of youth of all races and religion in the CC. In the same vein, I hope that more will rally to join our friends - This merging of roles and serving in different capacities and going beyond our community is what makes our community unique. While it is easy to rally people to serve our own community, it is really a big leap of faith for us to serve beyond our own community. In fact, if we are successful, this is what we will be known for - the spirit of service of the Malay/Muslim community, spirit of care beyond our own.
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Besides this, we also want to rally more of our friends to join the different activities within M³. For example, we need volunteers for the Bersamamu6 programme, which Dr Faishal is leading. We want people who have gone through 30, 40 years of marriage, people who have gone through the ups and downs to share and talk about their experiences with young couples, who are going through tumultuous times of their marriage. So that they can understand that these challenges are quite normal. They need someone to tell them that - someone who is experienced enough and therefore, this is where volunteers can come in a very meaningfully way. At the same time, the F.I.T.R.A.H office is there to help individuals who are incarcerated. Volunteers will be trained, and you will make really meaningful outcomes if you can support these ex-offenders so that they can become useful members of the community.
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Besides raising volunteerism, we also need to increase residents’ awareness of M³ so that they can benefit and refer someone who would benefit from these initiatives. Today, we are launching Bicara M³, a new Whatsapp Broadcast Channel. We want to encourage residents to come on board so that they can get news about our community through Whatsapp. As you know, Whatsapp is also being used to send many, sometimes funny stories, sometimes incendiary stories and even batu api7 stories. Through Bicara M³, we want to send good and strong messages that are useful to the community. So, what we need is for you to get friends and yourself too to subscribe. Share the QR code with your families and friends.
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Lastly, the close collaboration between M³ community with all the agencies (ie. MCCY, MSF, MHA, MOE and ECDA). This is key to the success of M³. Indeed, the Government and the ministry do not devolve its responsibility to uplift the community. What we are doing is to make their work even more effective. Through our cultural approach and our nuances through religion, we can make their programmes more effective for the community. At the end of the day, this will make sure our community benefit even more.
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This was in the same spirit why MENDAKI was formed. MOE is ultimately responsible to give the best education to the community. But it was through MENDAKI, which was formed more than 30 years ago, that we rallied the community to come together, to understand the importance of education and to pursue education to its very best end. Today, you see really good outcomes. Only 1 percent of our community do not finish 10 years of education. Only 1 percent. There are no minorities in the world that is only 1 percent that do not finish 10 years of education. Only Malay/Muslim community in Singapore has achieved this. Our community too today, in terms of achievement, are better on average than the OECD countries. The Malay community perform better than other countries within the OECD. What is the OECD? Countries like Japan, Korea, US, Europe - Our Malay community are better than them. That was because of the collaboration between MENDAKI and MOE, and of course, the work that all of us have put in all these years.
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KMM@CC, for example, is one collaboration for us to focus on so that we can get many young pre-schoolers to get a good head start in pre-school. Even looking at financial issues of the family - Not to get them a fish but to get them to learn to catch a fish. So that was why M³@Woodlands initiated Kewangan, Kekeluargaan and Kesihatan8 - 3K, which you can learn at the breakout session later.
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Finally, we need to co-create solutions. The ideas are all out there. We need to co-create solutions going forward. Which is why Zaqy will be heading CiptaSama@M³, to get us to understand what it takes, to not just learn to collaborate like what we are doing today, but to actually produce policies, laws and support mechanisms that today only Governments think about. We want this to be ground-up and to learn to do this better so that at the end of the day, our future generations learn to govern together, learn to govern responsibly and learn to know what it takes to continue to make our community and Singapore the best place.
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So, in the coming weeks, you will see the first wave of engagement led by Zaqy. We will fund the best ideas and scale it across M³@Towns. Learn how to work together, to improve what we are already doing, or do new new things. So, these are areas which we want to tap, now that we have more than the usual group of people coming together, to work together and be able to not just to solve our problem, but to co-create solutions as well.
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I would like to end by thanking all of you for joining us today.
To all of you (ie. activists, professional groups, MMOs) who have come forward and contributed to M³’s strong start. I would like to thank all my partners who have worked with me, collaborated with me, including SMS Dr Maliki Osman, MOS Zaqy Mohamad, SPS Dr Faishal Ibrahim & Amrin, Encik Zainal Sapari and Rahayu. They all have worked really hard on the ground– to make sure that M³@Town works. -
Also, to the M³ agencies, volunteers and staff. I know staff are not used to working like this. They work really triple hard to make sure these things work. They have to throw away the authority (and) the structures that they have, to work on a common level field with everybody. At the end of the day, I believe that even if you do not see the impact of what we do today, I promise you, insyaAllah9, in 10 years’ time, you will see better outcome than what I shared with you in the OECD outcome for our education.
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Let’s learn from each other today. Let’s bring back the best to our towns. I am confident these are all the strong foundations to what I believe our community is. We are a Community of Success.
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Thank you very much. Wassalamualaikum wr wb.