Channel NewsAsia - Plan on engaging community in the event of a crisis to be unveiled next year
19 October 2006
Detailed plans to engage the community in the event of a crisis or terror attack will be rolled out next year. These will include getting organisations like the grassroots, clan associations, schools and ethnic groups to act under the Community Engagement Programme, started in February this year.
Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng gave an update on what is being done after he broke fast with Muslims at the Harmony Centre at An-Nahdhah Mosque in Bishan on Thursday evening.
By next year, the public will know what the five community groups will do in the event of crisis. The plan is to have them work to hold the people together.
Mr Wong stressed the importance of building on new efforts to foster religious and racial harmony. He said: "We have been saying that we want a multiracial, multi-religious society, which live in harmony and we want to practice it as well and it is not just words. In many countries, they also want to have a harmonious society but we don't see them having concrete actions to foster that kind of community spirit. But in our context it is a very important thing for us, we're very small, very compact society, we live right next to each other, all the more it's important for us to understand each other." The Harmony Centre also has plans to organise activities like study tours and inter-faith training for community and youth leaders.
Dr Albakri Ahmad, Director, Community Engagement Programme, MUIS, said: "We're are looking at various programmes including study visits to places like Turkey and Morocco and this is done in collaboration with Hartford Seminary. Quite apart from that we're also working with other religious groups so that Malay-Muslims community can learn from other communities by visiting them, and by engaging in discussions and dialogues."
Mr Wong also commended Muslims for inviting non-Muslims to take part in their festivities, and giving them an insight into Islam and he encouraged other groups to do the same.
