Speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at MENDAKI's 30th anniversary dinner

                                     “Building on a Legacy, Imagining the Future”

MALAY SPEECH

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim
Pengerusi, Lembaga Pengarah MENDAKI

Puan Moliah Hashim
Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif, MENDAKI

Saudara-saudari yang dihormati

1. Saya ingin ucapkan setinggi-tinggi tahniah kepada MENDAKI atas ulang tahunnya yang ke-30!

2. Malam ini kita raikan bukan sahaja 30 tahun pencapaian MENDAKI, tetapi juga 30 tahun kemajuan masyarakat Melayu. Orang Melayu hari ini lebih berpendidikan dan menikmati taraf hidup yang lebih tinggi. Lebih ramai juga berjaya dalam kerjaya mereka. Walaupun masih ada beberapa cabaran yang perlu ditangani, seperti keluarga pincang dan penyalahgunaan dadah, secara keseluruhan perubahan masyarakat Melayu adalah ketara.

3. MENDAKI telah memberi sumbangan besar kepada kemajuan ini. Program-program seperti Skim Tuisyen MENDAKI telah membantu pelajar meningkatkan prestasi di sekolah, sementara program Keluarga AKRAB membantu mengukuhkan institusi keluarga. MENDAKI telah menggerakkan masyarakat Melayu untuk saling bantu-membantu, dan memupuk semangat bangga dan pencapaian dalam masyarakat. Syabas!

4. Dalam fasa selanjutnya, MENDAKI akan terus memainkan peranan penting. Kita mesti terus membina pencapaian dari asas yang lebih tinggi. Kita akan terus membantu golongan kurang bernasib baik, mendidik pelajar dan pertingkat pekerja kita. MENDAKI dan kumpulan bantu diri yang lain mesti terus menggerakkan masyarakat mereka untuk membantu antara satu sama lain dan membaiki diri.

5. Pemerintah akan terus menyokong MENDAKI dan badan-badan Melayu/Islam yang lain untuk membantu orang Melayu maju bersama negara. Para individu juga perlu memainkan peranan mereka, dengan menguatkan usaha, memanfaatkan sepenuhnya program-program MENDAKI, dan menghulurkan bantuan kepada golongan yang memerlukan. Semangat gotong royong ini adalah penting jika kita ingin membina masyarakat yang bersepadu dan penyayang.

6. Itulah sebabnya saya gembira bahawa MENDAKI akan melancarkan Anugerah Masyarakat Ridzwan Dzafir malam ini. Pak Ridzwan adalah contoh teladan semangat gotong royong. Beliau telah berkhidmat kepada masyarakat Melayu sepanjang hidupnya, termasuk sebagai Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif (CEO) pertama MENDAKI. Beliau juga memberi khidmat cemerlang kepada Singapura, sama ada sebagai Duta Kelana atau sebagai anggota Majlis Penasihat Presiden. Anugerah ini adalah satu penghormatan yang sesuai untuk Pak Ridzwan, dan saya berharap ia dapat memberi inspirasi kepada satu generasi baru untuk mencontohi sifat ihsan dan murah hati beliau, dan menyamai sumbangan beliau kepada masyarakat dan negara.

7. Tahniah saya ucapkan kepada MENDAKI sekali lagi!

ENGLISH SPEECH

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim
Chairman, MENDAKI Board of Directors

Mdm Moliah Hashim
CEO, MENDAKI

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

8. I am very happy to join you tonight for the 30th anniversary of Mendaki.  Back in 1982, Malay community leaders, MPs and activists came together in the spirit of “gotong-royong” and formed Mendaki.  They were worried about the community’s education and socio-economic performance and were determined to do something about it.  So, they galvanized the community, roped in volunteers and mobilised successful members to help the weaker ones and through their hard work and patient service, they uplifted the entire Malay-Muslim community. 

9. Mendaki made education its top priority.  The community leaders recognized that this was the single key item critical to the progress of the community.  So, they launched many initiatives.  The Mendaki Tuition Scheme which started off serving 900 students in six tuition centres serves more than 8,000 students per year now.  They launched the Education Development Fund and helped more than 15,000 students pay for their education.  Mendaki shaped mindsets. The community soon appreciated the importance of education and dedicated themselves to lifelong learning.   The community’s education performance has improved significantly in these last 30 years.  It does not matter which indicator you look, there has been progress.  Many more are making it all levels and recently MOE put out some data which showed that the proportion of Malays going to post-secondary institutions have risen to the highest it has been and in fact the progress in the last ten years was the most amongst the Malay community compared to the other communities. So, the gap there is narrowing.

10. The socio-economic status of the community has risen as your education has improved.  Malays now excel in business, sports, culture, many fields.  We saw some of the pictures just now of successful Malays.  Mature ones and young ones too in the exhibition before dinner.  Incomes, standards of living have gone up. There are still some areas for improvement.  But overall the community has done well in a meritocratic environment through your efforts and Mendaki has played an important role in this success. 

11. Of course, the community has also benefitted greatly from the contributions of other Malay/Muslim Organisations (MMO), e.g. PPIS, Jamiyah, 4PM and AMP.  Each serves and draws on a different segment of the community but all share the same broad goal – to help the community progress. 

12. The CLF, the Community Leaders’ Forum, is a useful platform to bring together all these efforts and consolidate them and enable all these groups to work with one another.  Mendaki is the secretariat for the CLF and it partners other MMOs to meet the community’s needs. By sharing knowledge and resources, the CLF has made good progress addressing the community’s four identified priorities – education, youth, family and employability.  And nearly 150,000 people have benefitted from the CLF programmes. One of them for example is called “Max Out.”  Mendaki does it with Jamiyah Business School and Ain Society to help dropouts through academic and character development programmes. 

13. So, I encourage MMOs as well as volunteers to make full use of what the CLF can do for you and for the community.  Build on the successes and sustain the improvements in education, in character development and social economic progress, in jobs.  At the same time address new needs for the community like skills upgrading and engage the younger members through CLF Labs for example.  There will be friendly competition and I think some friendly competition is good but do not allow competition to become rivalries and to split or polarize the community.  That would be counter-productive. 

14. I hope that MMOs will continue to work with the government and support national programmes. The Government has many schemes to support Mendaki and the MMOs. For example, the dollar-for-dollar matching donations which are channelled to the Malay/Muslim Community Development Fund and administered by Mendaki on behalf of its institutional MMOs.  One million dollars is allotted every year through this fund but the MMOs have not been fully using up this one million dollars.  I encourage MMOs to make full use of this scheme, the money is there, you need the ideas, you need to raise the matching funds.  It can be done but I think funding must not be the main constraint.  If MMOs can use up fully the matching contributions and you can come up with worthwhile projects and more of them, the government will be happy to increase the amount of matching grants.  So that's an offer, but at the same time, that's a small challenge.  Do it.

15. The next few decades will present new opportunities and new challenges.  The world is becoming more connected than ever.  Globalisation will expose us to foreign influences and international competition.  And therefore we have to strengthen our social cohesion and also our competitiveness.  And we have to define our shared vision for Singapore’s future and work together to realise this vision. 

16. Therefore, I welcome the committee chaired by Sallim Abdul Kadir which was formed recently, the "Suara Musyawarah".   As the name implies, the committee will engage the community, draw out ideas and develop recommendations to strengthen the community for the future, for the next phase.   So, I encourage the community to cast the net wide and I encourage the Malay/Muslim organisations and individuals and the whole community to participate in this exercise. 

17. In terms of substance,  I hope the committee and all the participants will focus on the community’s practical issues and pressing needs, what needs to be done, what can be improved and build on the success and progress of the last 30 years.  Recognise what we have achieved but identify and strive for where we can aim higher. The outcome should not be just a list of issues or even a well-written report.  But ultimately also actions and organisation by the community to improve things and to help Malay-Muslims in Singapore progress further.

18. Mendaki too must prepare itself for the next 30 years and beyond.  It organised the 30th anniversary conversation series to discuss the future and the participants agreed that Mendaki should continue to focus on education, to uplift the community and to promote greater engagement and collaboration, to built stronger relationship and trust and I agree with this.

19. Education and employability are essential to progress, for Malay/Muslims and for Singapore.  We must push those who are excelling to their fullest potential, mentor them, tutor them. Put them on a protégé programmes. Help those who are average or doing okay to do better through targeted programmes.  Ensure that children from disadvantaged families also receive a good education.  So, we raise the whole pyramid tier by tier.

20. We should also involve the younger members of the community.  Mendaki needs to do that but in fact all MMOs need to do that.  Encourage the youth to contribute, for example through Mendaki Club.  But groom younger leaders for future leadership positions and progressively renew the leadership so it stays vigorous, in touch and reflective of the new community.   And this way stay abreast of the times and fulfil the aspirations of the new generation.

21. We should also continue to foster the “gotong-royong spirit”.  Self-help and pride is the strength of the community.  More Malays are doing well.  We should encourage them to give back to society and to help the less fortunate.  So the Ridzwan Dzafir Community Award is a good step, it is a worthy tribute to Pak Ridzwan who served the community and nation with distinction his whole life and it will encourage more to come forward to serve the community and serve Singapore.

22. I congratulate Mendaki on your 30th anniversary.  I hope you will continue to work with the community to uplift all of us and progress with the country.  And I am confident that Mendaki and the Malay/Muslim community in Singapore will achieve greater heights together.  Thank you very much.