Transcript of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s speech at Berita Harian Anugerah Jauhari event

Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Press Holdings
Mr Alan Chan

Editor-in-chief, English Malay Newspaper Division SPH
Mr Patrick Daniel

Editor Berita Harian
Mr Saat Abdul Rahman

Good evening to all of you, ladies and gentlemen. Let me begin with a few words in Malay. Para tetamu sekalaian. Pertama sekali saya ingin mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri kepada semua umat Islam.

Saya gembira diberi peluang malam ini, untuk menyampaikan Anugerah Jauhari kepada Kumpulan Pemulihan Agama atau RRG. RRG mula dibentuk 11 tahun lalu apabila kita mendapati kita perlu menangkis fahaman radikal anggota Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) yang sesat mengenai Islam ekoran penangkapan mereka di Singapura.

Saya berterimakasih kerana beberapa asatizah dan ulama yang dihormati, tampil ke hadapan. Mereka menawarkan khidmat kaunseling kepada para tahanan serta keluarga mereka. Mereka lakukan ini dengan begitu berani dan tekun walaupun mereka belum tahu hasilnya atau kejayaannya. Mereka juga berdepan dengan kemungkinan bahawa usaha mereka ini, akan dipandang serong oleh masyarakat.

Usaha RRG telah mencapai kejayaan yang tertentu. RRG telah mengekalkan keharmonian kaum dan agama dalam masyarakat kita, dan memastikan Singapura selamat. Misi RRG terus penting hari ini, ekoran pergolakan di Timur Tengah dan dengan Afrika Utara menjadi markas bagi kumpulan ekstremis. Terima kasih RRG!

Kemajuan Masyarakat Melayu

Usaha RRG mencerminkan semangat “gotong-royong” masyarakat Melayu. Semangat ini, ketara di kalangan golongan Perintis Melayu, yang kita sanjung di Rapat Hari Kebangsaan, dua hari lalu, seperti Encik Yusof Ishak, Presiden pertama kita dan Encik Rahmat Yusak, yang memandu Encik Lee Kuan Yew berkunjung ke merata Singapura pada tahun 60-an.

Semangat ini telah mendorong pencapaian dan kejayaan besar masyarakat Melayu.l Pendapatan keluarga telah meningkat. Lebih ramai pelajar mengikuti pengajian lebih tinggi. Dan tahun ini, ada lebih kurang 35 graduan Melayu/Islam mendapat ijazah sarjana muda kepujan kelas pertama, termasuk Afzal Ali dan Fauziah Ally. Ramai karyawan cemerlang yang menjadi pemimpin bidang masing-masing, seperti Abu Bakar dan Iswandie Wanhar. Dan tadi, saya gembira dapat bertemu dengan pendayung negara, Saiyidah Aisyah Mohammed Rafa’ee, pemenang Anugerah Jauhari Harapan, tahun ini.

Jadi, malam ini, kita bukan setakat meraikan para pemenang Anugerah Jauhari, tetapi lebih tepat lagi, kita meraikan kejayaan masyarakat Melayu. Dan saya yakin kita akan menyaksikan lebih banyak kisah orang Melayu di puncak jaya di tahun-tahun akan datang, lebih-lebih lagi apabila kita membuka lebih banyak laluan kejayaan. Syabas! Sekarang, izinkan saya meneruskan ucapan dalam Bahasa Inggeris.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very happy to be here this evening to be able to present this year’s Anugerah Jauhari award. This award exemplifies the spirit of excellence and it reflects the progress and the success of the Malay community. I am happy that this year, Berita Harian has extended the award to institutions and organisations.

And I am especially delighted that the first recipient of the Anugerah Jauhari as an organisation is the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG). The RRG started 11 years ago when we uncovered the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group, and realised that we needed to counter the members’ radical misinterpretation of Islam. I am very grateful that several respected religious scholars and teachers shared our view and came forward even though they could not be sure that they would succeed. They worked closely with Government, putting their reputations on the line, knowing the risk of being misperceived as doing the Government’s bidding. And they persevered over many years in the difficult work of counselling the detainees and their families.

10 years on, we can now see the results and we know how invaluable the RRG’s work has been. It is not just fighting the extremist ideology but also in helping to maintain racial and religious harmony in our society, strengthening the trust between Government and the community and keeping Singapore safe.

The work of the RRG continues to be important. The Middle East and North Africa are in upheaval. There is an ongoing, very bad conflict in Syria and in Iraq which is feeding the terrorist narrative and drawing thousands of foreign fighters from all over the world. And in North Africa, the states are weak, desert areas are vast, the Government is hardly present, and it is becoming a new sanctuary for Al Qaeda and the extremist groups.

The effects of these are being felt all over the world, even in our neighbourhood. We see some people getting self-radicalised on the internet, our neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Indonesia, are also concerned that a number of their citizens have joined in the fight, and even carried out suicide attacks. And a few Singaporeans have gone there too, and a few others have been intercepted who were planning to go.

The danger is that they learn the techniques of terrorism, they are infected with this radical ideology and they forge an international brotherhood of fighters and produce a new generation of terrorists.

So I am very relieved that in Singapore, we have the RRG providing proper religious guidance to the community, and faithful. Offering a robust ideological counter to the terrorists and extremists, and preventing the vulnerable from being led astray and drawn into this. So the RRG is playing a vital role in this battle for hearts and minds.

Recently the RRG launched the Resource and Counselling Centre at Khadijah Mosque – to be a one-stop shop for those seeking advice and guidance on such issues. I trust this will help the RRG to become more effective and I look forward to visiting the Resource Centre before too long.

So I am very grateful to the religious leaders who have given their time and who have made this tremendous effort. Certainly the two Co-Chairmen who have been there from the beginning – Ustaz Ali and Ustaz Hasbi. Also the pioneer members who are still volunteering, people like Ustaz Mohamad Rais, Ustaz Saripi Bin Rawi, Ustaz Yusof Bin Ali. And we also remember the contributions of many respected asatizahs who had worked with the RRG and have sadly passed on over the last 10 years like Ustaz Ahmad Sonhadji Mohamad, Ustaz Syed Ahmad Muhammad Semait, Ustaz Hassan Mustakim and Ustaz Ibrahim Kassim who passed away just a few months ago.

Therefore, it is with considerable satisfaction and delight that I see the RRG receiving the Jauhari award. Congratulations and thank you very much!

I am also delighted that we are celebrating the achievements of our youth through the Anugerah Jauhari Harapan award. And I hope this will encourage the young people to continue the pioneering spirit – to do their best for themselves and for the community.

This year, we celebrate Ms Saiyidah Aisyah Mohammed Rafa’ee, who bagged Singapore’s first rowing gold in the South East Asian (SEA) Games in Myanmar since 1997. And she achieved it with true grit, and plenty of sacrifice and with spunk, and she showed some of that just now when she made her speech on stage.

She took no pay leave from her job at Ngee Ann Polytechnic to train in Sydney for three months, she paid most of her training expenses and rowing equipment out of her own pocket. And when rowing was at first left out of the 2015 SEA Games, next year, which we will be hosting, she convinced Sport Singapore to include it. I think she must have been very convincing. I think Aisyah was driven not just because she was rowing for herself, but for the future of the sport in Singapore. So well done and may you go far and do well.

So I congratulate the winners this year, may the award spur you and spur the Malay Muslim community to achieve your vision of becoming a Community of Excellence. Each year, takes us one step closer to that goal. Thank you very much!

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