Speech by Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, Senior Minister of State for Defence, at the Debate on the President's Address 2016

Madam Speaker, I support the motion of thanks to the President for his speech at the opening of this session of parliament.

Madam Speaker, within the past few months, violent extremism has affected the lives of many in various societies. Turkey and Paris suffered terror attacks, leaving scores of people dead and many more injured. The threat of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is spreading beyond the Middle East to Asia. Jakarta was attacked two weeks ago, leaving eight people dead. India arrested four students with links to ISIS who were planning attacks within Delhi, and over the weekend, Malaysia arrested seven suspected ISIS militants who were planning attacks in several locations in Malaysia. Singapore is no less vulnerable. In October 2015, two Singaporean teenagers were arrested and detained for being involved in terrorism-related activities. More recently, MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) arrested and repatriated 27 radicalised Bangladeshis in Singapore, who were planning to take part in extremist activities outside Singapore.

Since 2011, over 25,000 fighters from 100 different countries have travelled to Iraq and Syria, with rising numbers of Indonesians and Malaysians amongst them. Our counterparts in Indonesia have identified Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian based in Syria, as the mastermind of the recent attacks in Jakarta. In fact, militant extremist groups have voiced their ambitions to establish a "satellite caliphate" within the region, to become the unifying force for Islamic State supporters.

The social fabric in our region faces the compounded challenges of returning Southeast Asian fighters, radical ideological narratives online and offline, and competing extremist groups for leadership. Scenarios like those attacks in Paris, Jakarta and others can happen in Singapore despite our strong security measures.

These events highlight one salient point - the nature of threats we face has changed in important ways. We are now faced with a battle of ideologies, and the ubiquity of social media has allowed radical ideologies supporting terrorism to invade the thoughts of people without extremists having to physically enter a society. There are some 46,000 Twitter accounts globally and at least 1,000 Facebook accounts in Southeast Asia supporting ISIS. As a result of such pervasive social media outreach, as many as 1,000 Southeast Asians have travelled to Iraq and Syria since 2011, including two Singaporean families that joined ISIS since 2014. Terrorism is closer to home than we think.

Madam Speaker, as the threat of ISIS to Singapore is very real, we need to continue to address the problem collectively, collaboratively, comprehensively, and at its source. Singapore was the first Southeast Asian country to join the counter-ISIS coalition in November 2014. The SAF had contributed to the counter-terrorism effort within our means and in niche areas of value to the coalition. The Minister for Defence will be speaking on the SAF's contributions in greater detail. MINDEF (Ministry of Defence) will continue to support MHA, SPF (Singapore Police Force) and other social and security agencies in their counter-ISIS efforts and to strengthen Singapore's Total Defence, in the combat against extremism and terrorism. Internationally, our intelligence agencies will continue to work closely with their counterparts in the region to protect our borders.

However, a military solution will not be sufficient to fight against radical ideologies and terrorism, which aims to exploit potential racial and religious fault lines and de-stabilise society by causing mistrust amongst different religions and races. We need a Whole-of-Society response to this threat of radical ideologies and terrorism. I would like to commend the efforts of Government agencies like MHA, MCCY (Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth), and MUIS (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura) for their support of programmes that help to tackle radicalisation and extremism head-on. Looking forward, MINDEF will continue to support MHA, SPF and other social and security agencies in their counter-ISIS efforts. In addition to what the Government must do, I would also like to highlight that each of us needs to pay special attention to strengthening our social and psychological defences, which are two of the five pillars of Total Defence. Conceived over 30 years ago, Total Defence has enabled us to face and overcome national challenges, and will continue to do so in the years ahead. But we will all need to continuously translate the ideas of Total Defence into effective actions. 

The fight against violent extremism will not be a quick or easy one. It is an ideological war against terrorists whose goal is social destruction through fear and mistrust and not only physical destruction. To put it simply and directly, these terrorists are criminals who have exploited and misrepresented Islam and deceitfully portrayed themselves as practicing and religious Muslims. Scholars and Islamic religious leaders have noted that terrorists who claim to be motivated by Islamic religious ideology often turn out to have little and incomplete understanding of Islam.

Unfortunately, such misrepresentation of Islam has caused anxiety and even fears in inter-group relations between Muslim and non-Muslim groups in Singapore. But while the inter-group tension is understandable as a natural human reaction given the misinformation, if left unaddressed, it will surely - and not necessarily slowly - lead to suspicion and one group blaming the other. Very soon, inter-group relations will deteriorate and tensions escalate and everyone in Singapore will suffer when the social harmony that we are used to, abruptly erodes.

Hence, every group needs to make the effort to understand the other group, and act and react in constructive and adaptive ways. Non-Muslims need to understand that terrorism is based on radical ideologies and teachings that are completely un-Muslim and un-Islamic. To believe that violent extremism is Islamic and that terrorists are religious Muslims, our society will fall into the terrorists' trap to sow discord. All non-Muslims in Singapore can help preserve social harmony by doing small but important things such as correcting misconceptions or stereotypical and anti-Muslim remarks or actions by family members and friends, and also in social media.

Our Muslim community must also act and act decisively - give the clear message and assurance that we denounce violence. A Turkish Muslim scholar recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal that terrorists are committing grave sins in the name of Islam, and the scholars studying the primary sources of the Quran and the teachings of Islam have dispelled any claims terrorists make of religious justifications of their cause. Muslims must therefore reject any forms of violence in the name of Islam. The outgoing Ambassador of Indonesia to Singapore, Bapak Andri Hadi, informed me recently that the family members and fellow villagers of the terrorists killed in the recent Jakarta attacks refused to allow the bodies to be buried in their village, totally rejecting and disassociating themselves with the dead terrorists.

Indeed, each time a terror attack takes place, our Muslim community and religious leaders have repeatedly denounced the radical ideology articulated by terrorists and condemn the acts of these terrorist groups including ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the JI (Jemaah Islamiyah). For example, following the arrest and repatriation of the 27 radicalised Bangladeshis, Dr Mohamed Fatris Bakaram, the Mufti of Singapore, publically denounced extremism and extremist acts that threaten the security, peace and harmony of Singapore and the world. Mufti Dr Fatris said, and I quote, "They (the extremist groups) contradict the fundamental Islamic teaching of protecting the sanctity of human life and preserving peace and harmony at all times. The safety and peace of Singapore is of paramount interest to the Singapore Muslim community. We have a commendable tradition of living as inclusive and progressive Muslims within the context of Singapore's multi-ethnic and multi-religious landscape."

Every terrorist act carried out in the name of Islam will significantly affect all Muslims, potentially alienating them from their fellow citizens and deepening the misunderstanding about Islam as a peaceful religion.

We are fortunate that our painstaking effort for the past 50 years in building trust and maintaining social and religious harmony has brought us peace and stability. However, this effort is even more critical now. The ideological war confronting us is fought in the minds of our people, made even more challenging with modern communication tools like social media. We need to increase our religious understanding and also build up our social and psychological resilience to reduce our vulnerability towards those who exploit the Internet and social media with false teachings. Our Muslim community needs leadership and guidance from our community and religious leaders and scholars to equip them with a moral and religious compass to help navigate the complex web of information in the borderless cyber world.

This will equip our Muslim community with a deeper understanding of Islamic teachings and discern it from the misrepresentations of Islam and the multitude of alternative extremist views that are readily available on the Internet. It also benefits the larger non-Muslim communities who will have greater awareness of the true Islamic values and teachings given our multicultural context, and be better able to understand and engage our Muslim community. For example, some of you may be aware of calls for Muslims to abstain from wishing Merry Christmas to Christians via SMS and Whatsapp messages that have gone viral. For those who didn't know better might be taken in, and believe that it is indeed un-Islamic to do so. Many of us are heartened that, as reported in today's Berita Harian, senior and respected scholars like Habib Syed Hassan Al-Attas the Imam of Ba'alwie Mosque in Singapore and other religious and community leaders have chosen to speak up and address this issue directly. We now know that the proposed ban on Christmas greetings or other similar greetings has no Islamic basis. Habib Hassan said, and I quote, "The purpose of greetings is to make the recipient happy and feeling of delightfulness. In Islam, it is strongly encouraged to make friends, family members and people happy regardless of race or religion. It is not wrong in Islam when a person greets and gives well wishes to a friend or acquaintance, who is not of the same faith, as the intention is to make the person happy."

Ustaz Hasbi Hassan, the President of Pergas (Association of Religious Teachers), advises that the Muslim community must be discerning in adapting to their circumstances and context and in this case, for a multiracial society like Singapore. According to him, a Muslim greeting "Gong Xi Fa Cai" or "Merry Christmas" to a friend is not against Islamic teachings or traditions.  

This occurrence of expressing a festive greeting, if taken alone may seem insignificant, but if it were to occur every other day and if the Muslim community does not have the religious ballast to fight the ideological challenge, one can only imagine the religious fault lines it could create in our society.

We cannot underestimate how actions by the Muslims could cause non-Muslims to react. It is the natural process of human interaction. Similarly, actions and counter-actions of non-Muslims will draw reactions from Muslims. As more attacks occur around our region, it is not unexpected for some non-Muslims to wonder if indeed our Muslims are becoming more religious and whether this means they have increasing propensity for terrorism. Non-Muslims need to know and they must be assured that religiosity per se is not the problem. It is the misrepresentation and misinterpretation of religious beliefs and teachings that is the source of terrorist thinking. At the same time, we also need our non-Muslim leaders to speak up on how non-Muslims should and should not treat Muslims. This is critical. Non-Muslims look up to their leaders in their various communities for guidance on what to do in such sensitive situations, be it religious or non-religious communities. Ultimately, it is about interacting and engaging constructively with the Muslim community as fellow Singaporeans, so that everyone in Singapore can continue to enjoy the social harmony and stability we have built together all these years.

This action-reaction effect applies to both positive and negative actions. We need to focus on generating positive chain reactions to preserve social harmony and build social resilience so that we remain a strong society. For this to happen, we must commit ourselves to share mutual respect, and wider ideological and social spaces to facilitate positive interaction and deepen understanding amongst one another. We must guard against external influences that constrict our common spaces. As a society, we only stand to lose if this happens.

The common social spaces that we share are the cornerstone of our multiracial society. Religious and community leaders, including returning religious scholars, exposed to and potentially influenced by different societal structures, must be assisted to consciously reorientate their worldview to be consistent with our societal values and make-up - for our Muslim community is one that supports the tenet that Islam embraces and respects diversity - cultural, social, religious and political diversity. Islam teaches that God identifies learning from one another as the primary goal of diversity and that respecting each human being as a creation of God, is respecting God. Thus it is critical that the moral and religious compass presented to our community reflects our understanding and appreciation of this diversity.

In short, we must continue building social and community resilience against the spread of extremism. Extremists will continue to exploit the misunderstanding of Islam and seek to divide us along racial and religious lines. It is critical that, whether we are Muslims or non-Muslims, we all recognise that we have a major role to play in strengthening our social and psychological defences against radicalism. Our social cohesion depends on all of us having a proper understanding and trust amongst the different races and religions. Without social cohesion and social resilience against the threat of radicalism, all it takes is one hit for terrorism to sow deep mistrust and create irreparable fault lines in our society.

Madam Speaker, if I may speak in Malay:

Masyarakat Islam Singapura harus bertindak sama dan bertindak tegas - beri keyakinan yang kita juga menguntuk keganasan, seperti pendapat seroang cendikiawan agama Turki yang menulis di akhbar The Asian Wall Street Journal pada 27 Ogos tahun lalu: Beliau berpenapat bahawa para terroris sedang melakukan dosa besar terhadap Islam. Dan menurut beliau para cediakiwan dan pengkaji bahan-bahan agama seperti Al Quran dan Hadis Nabi Muhammad SAW semuanya dapat menepis semua dakwaan para terroris yang perjuangan mereka itu diiktiraf agama. Justeru itu, masyarakat Islam harus menolak keras sebarang bentuk keganasan yang menggunakan nama Islam. Mantan Duta Besar Indonesia di Singapura Bapak Hadi Andri berkongsi dengan saya bahawa keluarga dan orang sekampung para terroris yang maut dalam serangbalas polis di Jakarta baru-baru ini telah melarang mayat-mayat mereka dikebumikan di kampong mereka. Pokoknya, mereka tidak mahu ada sebarang kaitan dengan terroris yang terkorban.

Sesungguhnya, walaupun setiap kali masyarakat Islam Singapura mendapat perhatian apabila berlaku serangan pengganasan, para pemimpin agama kita telah saban kali mengulangi penolakan keras kita terhadap fahaman pelampau yang dilakukan secara kejam oleh ISIS, AlQaedah ataupun JI. Contohnya, selepas penangkapan dan penghantaran semula 27 orang pekerja Bangladesh yang telah dipengaruhi fahaman extremis, Mufti kita Dr Fatris Bakaram, secara rasmi telah menolak fahaman dan perbuatan pelampau yang menggugat keselamatan, kedaiaman dan keharmonian Singapura khasnya dan dunia amnya. Mufti berkata bahawa "Mereka jaitu kumpulan pelampau bercanggah dengan ajaran asas Islam untuk melindungi kesucian nyawa manusia dan senantiasa mengekalkan kedamaian dan keharmonian. Bagi masyarakat Islam Singapura, di puncak kepentingan kami ialah Keselamatan dan keamanan Singapura. Kita mempunyai budaya hebat dan membanggakan di mana kita hidup secara Muslim inklusif dan progresif dalam konteks Singapura yang landskapnya diwarnai dengan berbilang kaum dan berbagai agama."

Pastinya setiap perbuatan terroris yang dilakukan atas nama Islam akan menjejas teruk semua orang Islam, malah ada kemungkinan kumpulan ini akan diasingkan atau dipinggirkan dari rakan senegaranya yang lain lantas mengaburkan lagi salahfaham tentang Islam sebagai satu agama yang cintakan kedamaian.

Kita amat beruntung kerana usaha jerit  perih selama 50 tahun membina sifat saling mempercayai dan mengekalkan keeharmonian social dan agama telah menghasilkan kedamaian dan kestabilan. Bagaimanapun, keadaan semakin genting. Kita sekarang berdepan dengan perang ideology yang dilawan dalam minda rakyat kita, dirumitkan lagi dengan alat komunikasi canggih seperti media social. Kita perlu mengukuhkan daya ketahanan hubungan keagamaan dan minda agar kita tidak mudah terdedah kepada pengaruh internet dan medis social. Masyarakat Islam kita perlu kepimpinan dan bimbingan daripada para pemimpin agama dan asatizah kita untuk membekalkan mereka dengan kompas moral dan agama dalam mereka mengemudi sesawang informasi atau web of information di alam maya yang tak kenal sempadan.

Ini bukan saja berguna untuk masyarakat Islam yang akan dilengkapkan dengan pemahaman mendalam tentang Islam dan ajaran yang benar serta bagaimana untuk mengenal ajaran extremis daripada pandangan-pandangan yang berbagai-bagai seperti yang kita lihat di internet. Ini juga akan memberi faedah kepada masyarakat bukan Islam umumnya yang akan beroleh kesedaran yang lebih mendalam tentang apakah ajaran Islam sebenarnya dan bertabirkan konteks masyarakat kita yang berbilang kaum, merea akan lebih faham dan arif untuk berhubungan dengan masyarakat Islam. Contohnya, mungkin ada antara kita yang masih ingat pada laungan yang menyuruh masyarakat Islam supaya megecualikan diri daripada mengucapkan "Merry Christmas" kepada penganut Kristian menerusi pesanan SMS dan Whatsapp. Pesanan ini menjadi viral atau menular. Bagi mereka yang kurang pasti, mungkin jadi percaya yang kononnya memang ini akan bercanggah dengan Islam. Bagaimanapun, di Singapura, mujurlah kita mempunyai pimpinan agama yang mapan dan disegani ramai seperti Habib Syed Hasan Al Attas, Imam dari Masjid Ba'alwi dan pemimpin-pemimpin agama dan masyarakat yang lain yang telah menyuarakan pandangan mereka, seperti yang tercetak di dada Berita Harian hari ini. Kini masyarakat kita tahu bahawa pandangan ini tidak tepat. Menurut Habib Hasan, secara tunkil, "Ucap selamat atau sapaan tujuan utamanya ialah untuk menggembirakan dan menyenangkan orang yang diucapkan. Menggembirakan sahabat, keluarga dan kenalan, tidak kira agama dan bangsa amat digalakkan dalam Islam."

Ustaz Hasbi Hassan, Presiden Pergas (Persatuan Ulama dan Guru-Guru Agama Islam Singapura) bersetuju dan menekankan bahawa masyarakat Islam harus bijak menyesuaikan diri pada konteks dan keadaan. Menurut beliau "walaupaun terdapat perbezaan pendapat mengenai isu ini, mengucapkan "Gong Xi Fa Cai" atau “Merry Christmas" tidak bercanggah dengan pokok ajaran Islam dan tidak mensyirikkan Tuhan." Beliau terus menegaskan bahawa masyarakat Islam harus bijak menyesuaikan diri pada konteks dan keadaan.

Isu beri ucapan ini mungkin nampak remeh sekali dilihat secara sendirian. Tapi jika isu ini sering berlaku hari demi hari, dan jika masyarakat Islam tiada kekentalan untuk menepis cabaran ideology seperti ini, bayangkanlah bagaimana ia boleh membawa kepada retak kecil yang akhirnya boleh membelahkan masyarakat kita.

Kita tidak boleh ambil mudah akan kesan tindakan masyarakat Islam terhadap tidak balas masyakarat bukan Islam. Ini adalah proses semulajadi antara manusia. Sama juga, tindakan atau tidakan balas daripada masyarkaat bukan Islam juga akan mengundang reaksi daripada masyakarat Islam. Sedang lebih banyak serangan berlaku di sekitaran rantau kita, adalah tidak mustahil bagi masyarakat bukan Islam untuk terfikir adakah mungkin betul masyarakat Islam Singapura kini semakin warak dan sama ada ini bermakna mereka mempunyai kecenderungan untuk condong kearah terrorisma? Masyarakat Bukan Islam harus tahu dan harus diyakinkan bahawa waraknya sesuatu kaum itu bukanlah masalah utama. Masalahnya ialah salah tafsiran dan salah gambaran mengenai ajaran agama dan fahaman agama-itulah punca timbulnya fahaman terrorisma. Pada masa yang sama, kita juga perlukan pemimpin bukan Islam untuk menyuarakan bagaimana cara terbaik untuk masyarakat bukan Islam meneruskan hubungan baik dengan masyarakat Islam hari ini.

Kesan aksi-reaksi terdapat kepada kedua-dua tindakan positif mahupun negative. Fokus kita haruslah untuk menjana reaksi positif yang bertali arus (chain positif reaction) demi untuk mengekalkan keharmonian sosial dan mengukuhkan benteng sosial agar kita terus kental sebagai sebuah masyarakat yang utuh. Untuk menjadikan ini satu kenyataan kita harus komited untuk berkongsi ruang-ruang sosial demi meneruskan interaksi positif dan mendalami rasa saling memahami antara satu sama lain. Kita harus cega menepis pengaruh luar yang mencerutkan ruang-bersama kita dengan kaum lain. Jika tidak, sebagai satu masyarakat, kita akan kerugian.

Ruang sosial bersama yang kita kongsi adalah tunggak masyarakat berbilang kaum kita. Para pemimpin agama dan masyarakat, termasuklah para cendikiawan agama yang baru kembali ke tanahair, yang kemungkinan besar teah terdedah dan mungkin terpengaruh dengan struktur social yang berbeza harus dibantu untuk meorientasikan kembali pandangan mereka agar sejajar dengan nilai-nilai dan struktur social negara kita - untuk masyarakat Islam kita. Iaitu yang menyokong fahaman yang Islam mendakap dan menghormati kepelbagaian - kepelbagaian budaya, social, keagamaan dan politik. Islam menganjurkan bahawa belajar dari satu sama lain adalah tujuan utama kepelbagaian, dan menghormati setiap manusia sebagai ciptaan Tuhan, adalah menghormati Tuhan. Jadi amatlah penting kompas moral dan agama yang kita persembahkan kepada masyarakat kita mencerminkan penghargaan yang amat mendalam pada ciri kepelbagaian ini.

Ringkasnya, kita harus terus membina daya tahan sosial dan kemasyarakatan demi menentang menyebaran ekstrimisma. Kumpulan ekstrimis akan terus cuba mengeksploitasi salah fahaman tentang Islam dan cuba memisahkan kita mengikut jaluran kaum dan agama. Maka sangatlah penting untuk kita, sama ada beragama Islam ataupun bukan, kita semua sedar akan tanggunjawab besar dan peranan besar yang kita mainkan dalam mengukuhkan pertahanan sosial dan psikologi atau minda kita menentang radikalisma. Perpaduan sosial kita bergantung kepada setiap orang dari kita untuk mempunyai pemahaman yang betul dan sikap saling mempercayai antara kaum dan agama yang berbeza-beza. Tanpa perpaduan dan daya ketahanan sosial menentang ancaman radikalisma, apa yang mereka perlu hanya satu, satu saja serangan terrorisma untuk menyemai perasaan tidak percaya antara kita - ini mungkin akan mewujudkan keretakan yang membelahkan perpaduan kita.

Madam Speaker, to conclude, our security challenges are beyond traditional warfare. We can overcome the ideological war and threats of terrorism by demonstrating social and psychological resilience and solidarity within the local Muslim community and with the rest of the non-Muslim community in Singapore. It will not only allow us to prevent an attack, but also prepare us to deal with the aftermath of such attacks. It is in the unfortunate event that an attack occurs, that we must stand together as a united community to deal with the aftermath. We should draw inspiration from brave societies, like Australia, when Australians showed solidarity by standing by their Muslim community in the wake of the Sydney hostage crisis, with many offering to ride with members of the Islamic faith to work on public transport. Our commitment to fortifying our social and psychological resilience will make us much stronger and more resilient and bolstered by a renewed sense of conviction as we unite in the face of terrorism and violent extremism. A strong sense of national identity and commitment to the values of our society will be the irreplaceable pillars for the years to come. We will, and must, continue to adapt to rise up to the threats of today and tomorrow. We must do all we can to prevent a terrorist attack here in Singapore. But when an attack happens, we must not succumb to our suspicions and fears. We must fight back as a united community, respond effectively and recover well. For now, we must continue to strengthen ourselves against untruths, fear and mistrust.

On that note, Madam Speaker, I move to support the motion. Thank you.