Mdm Ho Geok Choo

To ask 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.

Assoc Prof Ho Peng Kee:

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.

2 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.

3 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 put in place a national CEP response framework.

4 I will 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 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 organizations. 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 responding to tensions with religious or racial dimensions.

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

6 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 that members would either know them or know about them or indeed have participated in some of these 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 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.

7 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.

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