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Chitchat The race to be be more Malay

scroobal

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http://mothership.sg/2017/07/the-un...ding-into-a-competition-of-who-is-more-malay/

The unofficial race to Istana is descending into a competition of who is “more Malay”
Reserved elections will give us a minority President and also heightened race consciousness.

By Chan Cheow Pong | 8 hours 882

The upcoming reserved election in September for a Malay candidate to become the next Elected President (EP) is meant to ensure minority representation at the highest office in Singapore.

If there were any hopes that race will not be a factor in this election, they are well proven to be misplaced, given how the race to Istana is fast descending into a contest of who is “more Malay“.

Looking at the background of the three potential candidates, it is perhaps understandable why there’s considerable interest with respect to this issue:

Salleh Marican, Second Chance Properties CEO. He has Indian heritage, and struggles to speak Malay.
Farid Khan, chairman of marine service provider Bourbon Offshore Asia Pacific. His race is indicated as “Pakistani” on his identity card.
Halimah Yacob, Speaker of Parliament. Her father was Indian-Muslim.

But what is a Malay, anyway?

Enter Straits Times Political Editor Zakir Hussain.

His opinion piece published on Jul 20, tracing the history behind how Malay was defined as an ethnic group, was a timely lecture educational take on the topic.

Explaining why “Doubts about presidential hopefuls not being Malay enough are off track”, he said:

“Singapore’s Malay community has long held an expansive view of race — and been open to newcomers and others keen to identify with it.

It is a signal of confidence and courage — and nothing could be further from that than questioning whether someone who identifies as Malay and is accepted as Malay is ‘pure Malay’ or ‘Malay enough’.”

So long as a person identifies as Malay and is generally accepted as such by the community, his Malayness should not be questioned.”

SIA can just serve nuts when passengers request it
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S’poreans apply pressure on HDB to explain if flat buyers are really homeowners
Singaporeans asking hard questions.

So who will decide?

Notwithstanding Zakir’s take on the issue, the discussions on the ground about “Malayness” are unlikely to count for much in the first place.

Eventually the decision on whether a candidate belongs to the Malay community will be taken by a committee.

The Community Committee, which will assess whether a Presidential candidate belongs to a specified racial group, is headed by Timothy James de Souza, a member of the Presidential Council of Minority Rights.

The Malay community sub-committee, overseen by him, is the one that issues the Malay Community Certificate to these candidates. Members of this sub-committee include:

Imram Mohamed, Association of Muslim Professionals’s former chairman, who heads the sub-committee
Fatimah Azimullah, Singapore Muslim Women’s Association’s immediate past president
Alami Musa, Inter-religious relations scholar
Yatiman Yusof, former Senior Parliamentary Secretary
Zulkifli Baharudin, Non-resident ambassador to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
It will likely be based on a similar approach to the Parliamentary Elections Act, that forms the basis of vetting candidates contesting in a Group Representation Constituency (GRC), which define a person belonging to the Malay community as

“any person, whether of the Malay race or otherwise, who considers himself to be a member of the Malay community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Malay community by that community”.

Whatever the case, as this is the first reserved EP election, ascertaining the race of a candidate could be more than a formality in the eyes of the electorate — in particular among the Malays.

How to choose a Malay President?

The focus on the issue could well be a case of “don’t know how to choose” a President. Especially when the qualifying criteria has also been tightened, resulting in the relative lack of differentiation among potential candidates.

For the majority of Singaporeans who are apathetic about this election Chinese, this is unlikely to be an issue. Come September, we will still have a Malay President, whoever it may be.

For Malay Singaporeans, though the discussion on “Malayness” may be deemed “off-track”, it is unlikely that they will stop caring about the issue.

Will the upcoming election unite or divide Malays Singaporeans? In the words of former PAP member of Parliament Irene Ng, one of the takeaways of the upcoming Presidential Election could well be heightened race consciousness.

Then again, given the uncertainty surrounding the qualifications of two aspiring male candidates, much will still depend on whether there is an election in the first place.
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
Now the propaganda piece from the Toa Payoh Brothel.


http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion...hopefuls-not-being-malay-enough-are-off-track
Doubts about presidential hopefuls not being Malay enough are off track

Zakir Hussain
Political Editor
PUBLISHEDJUL 20, 2017, 5:00 AM SGT
F
Singapore's Malay community has long held an expansive view of race, a stand that reflects its confidence
The coming presidential election is the first to be reserved for candidates from the Malay community, following changes to the Constitution to ensure the highest office of the land reflects Singapore's multiracial society.

Yet there has been some contention on social media over the "Malayness" of would-be candidates, with some asking whether any of the aspirants who have stepped up or are mulling over a bid is "truly Malay".

It is as if the very nature of this year's contest has misdirected energies towards securing the "most authentic" candidate instead of a Malay candidate who would make the best head of state.

Ironically, all three hopefuls - businessmen Salleh Marican and Farid Khan, and Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob - have been acknowledged by the community, peers and the media as prominent Malay individuals.

ak Malay, follow Malay customs and are, to some extent, role models for the community in business and public service. Why, then, has the question of whether they are "pure Malays" or "Malay enough" cropped up when it comes to the presidential election?

Media attention on them may have played a part. Businessman Mohamed Salleh Marican, whose father is Indian, has been criticised for not being fluent in Malay, after his fumbling during a Facebook Live interview conducted outside the Elections Department where he had gone to collect the forms for the elected presidency contest.


Businessman Mohamed Salleh Marican has been criticised for not being fluent in Malay, after his fumbling during a Facebook Live interview. ST FILE PHOTO
Marine company chief Farid Khan has been panned for stating openly his Pakistani ethnicity, while declaring that he has always seen himself as a member of the Malay community as he speaks the language, practises the customs and gives back to it.

Madam Halimah too has been pressed on the issue - past media reports noted her father was Indian - but she considers herself as very much a member of the Malay community, and has contested four general elections as a Malay candidate in a GRC or Group Representation Constituency.

A number of community leaders and observers say the critics' obsession with authenticity and purity flies in the face of tradition - it neglects the open, inclusive view of race that many Malays have adopted in welcoming new members to the community, which includes a wide range of admixtures and ethnicities.


Mr Farid Khan has been panned for stating openly his Pakistani ethnicity, while declaring that he sees himself as a member of the Malay community. ST FILE
WHAT IS A MALAY?

Official records since 1824 have classified inhabitants of Singapore into four broad races - Malays, Chinese, Indians and Others. While Chinese and Indians have generally been understood to refer to people with forebears from China and India and migrants from the archipelago who trace their roots to these countries, Malay has included a variety of ethnicities regarded as indigenous to this region: Acehnese, Baweanese, Bugis and Javanese, among others.

Yet the sense of affinity to a Malay identity was not strong up till the 1930s, when the burgeoning Malay-language press helped promote a nationalism that sought to improve the lot of the Malay community.

The formation of the United Malays National Organisation in 1946 in Johor Baru - just across the Causeway - focused the minds of many Malays on issues of identity at a time of rapid change. For the first time, Malay would be clearly defined. Because the vast majority of Malays were Muslims and Islam had become closely associated with the Malay identity, the official definition of Malay in the Federation linked race with religion.


Past media reports on Madam Halimah noted that her father was Indian - but she considers herself very much a member of the Malay community. BH FILE
Article 160 of the Malaysian Constitution thus defined "Malay" as a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay custom - and was before Merdeka Day born in the Federation or in Singapore, or one of whose parents was born in the Federation or in Singapore or living in both places; or is the issue of such a person.

Article 152 of the Singapore Constitution also made clear the Government's responsibility to constantly care for the interests of minorities, and referred to the special position of the Malays, "who are the indigenous people of Singapore", and whose interests and language it had a duty to safeguard and support.

After Separation, a Constitutional Commission headed by Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin discussed the issue of safeguards for minorities as well as, among others, the definition of Malay. It rejected calls to expand the definition to non-Malay Muslims and have Islam as a marker of Malayness. Instead, it chose not to explicitly define the races, languages or religious minorities in Singapore, in the hopes of a "united, multiracial multicultural society".

GRC DEBATES

However, concern over ensuring enough Malays will be represented in key institutions - Parliament, and more recently, the Presidency - meant there was a need to define who is a Malay in Singapore's context.

Thus when the concept of Team MPs - later GRCs - was discussed in the late 1980s, it was inevitable that the debate on what is a Malay should resurface.

The Government said the idea behind GRCs was to ensure Parliament remained multiracial and to prevent the spectre of a House that might one day be without minorities.

A Select Committee held hearings involving a wide range of representatives in 1987 and 1988, and many Malay leaders felt strongly about having Islam included in the definition of a Malay.

The committee took the view that as Singapore is a secular state, it would not be appropriate for the state to spell out that a Malay must also be Muslim to contest in a GRC.


There was one other issue: a good number of Malays had Indian, Arab or Other on their ICs due to their ethnicity or parentage, even though they had long associated with the Malay community.

The Select Committee recognised this point. It also accepted a submission that sociologically, self-definition is the only valid way to define an ethnic group. "A person belonging to the Malay community must think of himself as Malay, and must be acceptable to the Malay community," it said. "Therefore the legislation should not lay down prescriptive criteria as to who does or does not belong to the Malay community, but should define a mechanism to let the community decide for itself."

This mechanism has taken the form of a community committee, which the Select Committee report said would be "a safeguard against an unacceptable candidate being wrongly certified as a member of the Malay community".

At the same time, the Parliamentary Elections Act - and the latest amendments to Article 19B of the Constitution - define a person belonging to the Malay community as "any person, whether of the Malay race or otherwise, who considers himself to be a member of the Malay community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Malay community by that community".

A similar approach has been adopted for aspiring candidates for the presidential election in the latest round of changes to the law.

Associate Professor Eugene Tan of the Singapore Management University School of Law notes the criteria for running as a minority in a GRC is the same as that for a presidential election.

And during the debate on changes to the Presidential Elections Act on how race is defined earlier this year, MPs called for a broad, inclusive approach to be adopted.

Singapore's Malay community has long held an expansive view of race - and been open to newcomers and others keen to identify with it.

It is a signal of confidence and courage - and nothing could be further from that than questioning whether someone who identifies as Malay and is accepted as Malay is "pure Malay" or "Malay enough".

So long as a person identifies as Malay and is generally accepted as such by the community, his Malayness should not be questioned.
 

borom

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
It would be interesting to find out how they decide a person is " generally accepted as a member of the Malay community by that community".

Generally means majority or what percentage?- and how the figure is obtained -via polls, survey, referendum?
 
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scroobal

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The way that I am familiar is by way of marriage, Islam, Language and thereafter going to Malay mosques as opposed to Indian Muslim mosques.

Say for example, Syed Kadir, a full blown Indian fob lands in Singapore and marries Dynah bte Kassim the following week. Syed from then on does everything along Malay lines, he would be accepted within a matter of months. He would not be impeded by the majority of the Malays. It closer to adoption by the Malay community. He acquiring the language speeds up the process. Its something that you find within the majority of Muslim.

It will be same if it was a Muslims from Africa, Eastern Europe etc. For converts, the route is completely different. They have bee more muslim than born muslims. It is also psychological for the convert who wants to prove himself. They even start to be more confrontational when issue of Muslims and Malays are raised as they are looking acceptance, very similar to new christian converts. You should see Chinese females who convert into Muslims, the dressing and mannerisms changes dramatically overnight. Very conservative even by the average Muslim female standards. Same with newly converted christians who think they were born with the bible want to convert you.

By the way, the same rules apply when GRC was first introduced as most of the PAP MPs are not pure Malays and you need a certificate to contest for Malays minority position for some GRCs.

It would be interesting to find out how they decide how a person is " generally accepted as a member of the Malay community by that community".

Generally means majority or what percentage and how to find out-via polls, survey, referendum?
 
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zhihau

Super Moderator
SuperMod
Asset
Shameless. I'm asking my kakis to throw in a valid vote for anyone except Pukimah. Ptui!
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
Yes, don't spoil the vote, make every vote count against the PAP. I will happily vote in a pedo, an axe murderer, a bicycle thief, even serial murderer as long as it counts towards taking out a PAP candidate. Even after donkey years and with the life example of the Barisan Debacle, people are still contemplating spoiling the vote.

Shameless. I'm asking my kakis to throw in a valid vote for anyone except Pukimah. Ptui!
 

JohnTan

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
If the PE is based on the current 3 candidates, my vote is firmly for Halimah. She appears to be a much more credible candidate than the other two jokers.
 

Jah_rastafar_I

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Asset
The way that I am familiar is by way of marriage, Islam, Language and thereafter going to Malay mosques as opposed to Indian Muslim mosques.

Say for example, Syed Kadir, a full blown Indian fob lands in Singapore and marries Dynah bte Kassim the following week. Syed from then on does everything along Malay lines, he would be accepted within a matter of months. He would not be impeded by the majority of the Malays. It closer to adoption by the Malay community. He acquiring the language speeds up the process. Its something that you find within the majority of Muslim.

It will be same if it was a Muslims from Africa, Eastern Europe etc. For converts, the route is completely different. They have bee more muslim than born muslims. It is also psychological for the convert who wants to prove himself. They even start to be more confrontational when issue of Muslims and Malays are raised as they are looking acceptance, very similar to new christian converts. You should see Chinese females who convert into Muslims, the dressing and mannerisms changes dramatically overnight. Very conservative even by the average Muslim female standards. Same with newly converted christians who think they were born with the bible want to convert you.

By the way, the same rules apply when GRC was first introduced as most of the PAP MPs are not pure Malays and you need a certificate to contest for Malays minority position for some GRCs.

so u mean if someone of arab ancestry for example starts going to malay instead of indian muslim mosques he will become more malay?
 

bobby

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Loyal
Yes, don't spoil the vote, make every vote count against the PAP. I will happily vote in a pedo, an axe murderer, a bicycle thief, even serial murderer as long as it counts towards taking out a PAP candidate. Even after donkey years and with the life example of the Barisan Debacle, people are still contemplating spoiling the vote.

My take is that there will some sort of "engineering" by the pro gahmen select committee and eventually there will be a no contest with only the Speakeress as the candidate.
 

JohnTan

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Anyone can be 'Malay' as long as they embrace islam and wear the hijab or songkok.
 

zhihau

Super Moderator
SuperMod
Asset
My take is that there will some sort of "engineering" by the pro gahmen select committee and eventually there will be a no contest with only the Speakeress as the candidate.

Fuck the PAP dead! :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 

gatehousethetinkertailor

Alfrescian
Loyal
Yes, don't spoil the vote, make every vote count against the PAP. I will happily vote in a pedo, an axe murderer, a bicycle thief, even serial murderer as long as it counts towards taking out a PAP candidate. Even after donkey years and with the life example of the Barisan Debacle, people are still contemplating spoiling the vote.

On the assumption that the other current announced candidate actually qualify - right now the other two have yet to be accepted as qualifying as candidates. So if they don't make it and nobody else steps forward its not really much of an election then.
 

The_Hypocrite

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Asset
On the assumption that the other current announced candidate actually qualify - right now the other two have yet to be accepted as qualifying as candidates. So if they don't make it and nobody else steps forward its not really much of an election then.

Confirm will be walk over. If got contest the pappies will allow multiple candidates to contest hence splitting the vote. That is how KFC won the election. N worse thing in the pap refuse to allow a run off election hence a 30% candidate can win an erection
 

bobby

Alfrescian
Loyal
Confirm will be walk over. If got contest the pappies will allow multiple candidates to contest hence splitting the vote. That is how KFC won the election. N worse thing in the pap refuse to allow a run off election hence a 30% candidate can win an erection

There you have it...our very own democratic racial wayang meritocracy.
 

whoami

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
The way that I am familiar is by way of marriage, Islam, Language and thereafter going to Malay mosques as opposed to Indian Muslim mosques.

Say for example, Syed Kadir, a full blown Indian fob lands in Singapore and marries Dynah bte Kassim the following week. Syed from then on does everything along Malay lines, he would be accepted within a matter of months. He would not be impeded by the majority of the Malays. It closer to adoption by the Malay community. He acquiring the language speeds up the process. Its something that you find within the majority of Muslim.

It will be same if it was a Muslims from Africa, Eastern Europe etc. For converts, the route is completely different. They have bee more muslim than born muslims. It is also psychological for the convert who wants to prove himself. They even start to be more confrontational when issue of Muslims and Malays are raised as they are looking acceptance, very similar to new christian converts. You should see Chinese females who convert into Muslims, the dressing and mannerisms changes dramatically overnight. Very conservative even by the average Muslim female standards. Same with newly converted christians who think they were born with the bible want to convert you.

By the way, the same rules apply when GRC was first introduced as most of the PAP MPs are not pure Malays and you need a certificate to contest for Malays minority position for some GRCs.

Huh? Got such thing as Malay mosque? Ur a joke.
 

gatehousethetinkertailor

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Loyal
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