COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME (CEP)

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME (CEP):

(Plans to promote greater religious tolerance and harmony): 4.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs what plans or programmes does the Ministry have, within the framework of the Community Engagement Programme (CEP), to promote greater religious tolerance and harmony at the grassroots level.

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Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee (for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Community Engagement Programme is a long-term effort to ensure that our multi-religious, multi-ethnic society will stay united should a terrorist attack occur in Singapore.

To achieve this, we need to identify and work with community leaders who will help to ensure calm and unity amongst the different communities in a crisis. We will develop and sustain platforms for these community leaders to interact and forge closer bonds. We will also work with them to develop and validate actionable response plans to manage any communal tension that could arise.

Since the launch of the programme by the Prime Minister in February last year, MHA has worked together with the People's Association and other Ministries overseeing the five community clusters to develop the necessary supporting structures to facilitate the CEP efforts. We have also started engaging the community leaders and putting in place a national CEP response framework.

Let me briefly highlight some of these structures. In July last year, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts set up the Media Emergency Forum. This forum provides a platform for open and frank exchange of views between local senior media editors and the Government on crisis issues. In October, the Ministry of Manpower set up the Tripartite Panel on CEP at Workplaces. This panel, comprising Government, business and union leaders, will reach out to businesses and unions on the importance of maintaining communal harmony at the workplace, especially in the aftermath of a crisis. Also in October, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports formed the National Steering Committee on Racial and

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Religious Harmony. This is a national platform for ethnic and religious leaders to dialogue, build networks, and formulate strategies to strengthen engagement across ethnic and religious organisations. The National Steering Committee will also chart strategic directions and provide guidance for the reconstituted Inter-Racial Confidence Circles, which will act as the local platforms to lead in building inter-religious and racial understanding and in responding to tensions with religious or racial dimensions.

For the Community Engagement Programme to be sustainable, the key point must be that initiatives must come from the people. It is only when Singaporeans on the ground own these programmes that we can truly unleash the full potential of the CEP. The Government will help to connect people and provide support and resources so that they can sustain these initiatives.

In the past year, it is heartening to see communities answering the Government's call and taking the initiative to organise such activities. I think Members would either know them or know about them or have indeed participated in some of these ground-up activities. In September last year, the Chinese and Malay communities got together to jointly organise a job fair to provide job opportunities and skills upgrading courses for Malay workers. A number of inter-faith events, dialogues and forums have also been held. In this vein, in October last year, PM Lee officiated at the opening of the Harmony Centre at An-Nahdhah Mosque. The Harmony Centre seeks to promote greater inter-faith understanding and bring people of different religions together by hosting exhibitions, seminars and forums. Early this year, an inter-faith forum and dinner was organised jointly by the University Scholars Programme, Ba'alwie Mosque and Inter-Religious Organisation to discuss ways to enhance inter-faith understanding.

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Moving ahead, we will be organising a National Seminar on the Community Engagement Programme for the community leaders from the various clusters. This seminar will help to build bonds between the community leaders across different clusters and familiarise them with the community response plans from other clusters. We will then be conducting a CEP exercise later this year to test and validate these response plans. MHA will be providing more details at the upcoming Committee of Supply debate.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo (West Coast): Sir, how would the Minister engage the traditional religious leaders? Already, Muslim ustaz who got involved in the religious rehabilitation group have been labelled Government ustaz by some elements of the Muslim community. This may actually discourage other well-meaning religious leaders from getting involved or identified as part of the Government effort. How can the Ministry mitigate such labelling?

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: Sir, if the Member had asked this question and made this point several years ago, it would probably have been quite valid. But since then, as I have enumerated, we have bridged the gaps between the communities. We are not quite there yet, but certainly there is now deeper understanding and trust, and this is expressed in many activities that have been happening.

Sir, in light of the many activities that have been organised, even the initial scepticism that surfaced amongst the community when these religious leaders volunteered to join the programme, I think that has been overcome. Indeed, our moderate Malay leaders are now going to the ground to talk to the rest of Singaporeans.

At the COS debate, we will explain more on how, going forward, we will

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continue to build this pyramid. I think we are going up. We have certainly improved in the last three to four years. But more can be done. Let us see how we can do more together.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong): Sir, may I just ask the SMOS, in assessing the effectiveness of our Community Engagement Programme, do we just measure by the number of activities and programmes, or are there any other indicators that we use to determine effectiveness?

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: Sir, it is not just the number of activities but the quality of the programme, the outreach of the programme and the objectives of the programmes achieved. For example, the programmes that I mentioned just now, some of these in fact surfaced from the ground. Just two or three days ago, a youth seminar was spearheaded by Taman Bacaan, a voluntary group out there. It was not initiated by the Government. Mr Zaqy Mohamad and Mr Zainul Abidin Rasheed were there. Dr Muhd Faishal I think was also there. But they were not there to just tell their own stories. The students there shared their perceptions as students of what community engagement is all about and what building bonds amongst races is all about. We had students from the madrasahs and the JCs all taking part. This is only one example.

Sir, if we recollect in our own experiences, the examples that are happening on the ground, plus the clusters that have been formed and the initiatives that are surfacing, we can see that, qualitatively, we are progressing. But, like I have said, it is never done. It is work-in-progress, because we can never take this area for granted. So, let us continue to do more.

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Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah): I am glad to have been part of the initiative which the Minister mentioned earlier. I would just like to make a slight comment based on the approach that has been taken for the CEP.

Mr Speaker: Are you asking a question or making a comment, Mr Zaqy?

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I am asking a question as well. What are the programmes in place for the CEP to engage the new media segment? A lot of these programmes have been around traditional media and religious leaders, but what have we been doing in that space so far?

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: MICA has formed a cluster that will engage the members of the media and also the arts. And the Member is right, especially for young people, we need different platforms to reach out to them. So, in March, when we look at the MHA's budget and we talk about it in the COS debate, more of these plans will be shared.