89383297 the Malay Underclass

The Malay UnderclassAn explorAtion of A uniquely SingAporeAn SociAl iSSue

FirsT pUblished in 2012 A Final Year Project under the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. Photography by Mavis Ang. Designed by Adeline Chong and Mavis Ang. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the authors.

The Malay UnderclassAn explorAtion of A uniquely SingAporeAn SociAl iSSue

a FeaTUre wriTing projecT by Maryam Binte Mohamed Mokhtar Noor Ashikin Binte Abdul Rahman Ang I-Wen Mavis Amellia Binte Abdul Razak

FirsT word A RAciAl clAss

holding sTrong: Mdm Jumaningsai Ikan, 42 (second row left), is a single parent of four who gets by solely on $400 a month. Her children (clockwise from top) Muhammad Iqbal, 16, Nur Amirah, 15, Nur Adilah, 13 and Nur Amirahs twin sister, Nur Adilah follow a strict daily home self-study regiment as they are unable to afford tuition.

FirsT wordFor over four decades, the leaders of Singapore have slow-danced around the muchfamiliar tune of putting its indigenous race in the spotlight for not catching up with its Indian and Chinese counterparts in education, economic progress and social mobility. Today, the bottom quarter of Malays in Singapore continues to be plagued by the same problems it has faced since the 1970s: drugs, social immobility, low educational attainment and single-mother families. What has changed, and more importantly, what hasnt? This feature assesses the reasons behind why, even after Singapores economic prosperity since its independence, the Malays remain over-represented in the low-income group.

special Thanks We would like to thank, first and foremost, all the families who have opened their doors and hearts to us, entertaining our prying questions without expecting anything in return. To all the academics, critics, social workers, politicians, and teachers: thank you for opening our minds with your insights. We also offer our sincere gratitude to our families and friends who have shared kind words and many a late night snack with us throughout this journey. Last but certainly not least, we would like to say a huge thank you to our supervisor Dr Cherian George for constantly reminding us to consider the big picture.

4 The Malay Underclass

conTenTs

sTill living in The shadowsThe Malay problem today.

a racial classSeparating social class and the Malay race.

The golden TickeTLeft behind in a meritocratic society.

chasing diFFerenT dreaMsJudged for settling for less.

looking ForwardPumping in more resources.

6 10 16 22 30

sTill living in The shadows

sTill living in The shadowsFour decades on, why are a significant number of Malays still playing catch-up? In the aftermath of last years elections, the state has pledged to ensure inclusive growth, and nowhere will this promise be more severely tested than among the Malay underclass.

ToUgh TiMes: When Mr Muhammad Saufi Idross (extreme right), 39, was in prison for eight months on charges of cheating, his wife Mdm Noor Chahaya Amir (extreme left), 44, left her four sons including Aidil (second from right), 10, and Afiq, 6, at home daily so she could head out to work as a packer, earning $40 a day.

I

t all sounds a little familiar. Mdm Nor Chahaya Amir, 44, lives with her husband and four sons in a 1-room flat at Chai Chee. Her husband works two daily-rated jobs in delivery and construction. Their third son, Afiq, is six years old and does not know how to read. Aidil, 10, is failing Malay and maths. The family survives on about $40 a day. When Afiq fell from the bed last year leaving a gaping gash on his forehead, his mother rushed him to Changi General Hospital, offering only a sorry when handed the bill for his treatment. The hospital still mails reminders to Mdm Chahaya asking her to pay up. But, with no savings and already owing $1,900 in water and electricity bills, her family is as accustomed to such reminders as wealthier

households are to junk mail offering lines of credit. The Malay problem. That is how families like hers have been described over the past four decades. The term was probably first used in 1971, at a seminar on Malay Participation in National Development organized by Majilis Pusat, an umbrella organisation representing Malay cultural organisations. It referred to the over-representation of Malays in drugrelated cases, low educational attainment and dysfunctional families. Two self-help organisations, 37 family service centres, three Malay-Muslim ministers and countless other seminars and meetings later, the problem remains. In absolute terms, there has been progress, of course. Compared with 1971, a poor

Malay family today is more likely to own a television set, or have the children attending school, for example. But, in a society that today considers itself First World, that is not enough. Singapores median household income stood at $7,040 as of last year, an 11 per cent rise from $6,340 in 2010. Lower income Malay households, earning a combined monthly income of less than $2,500, make up about 32 per cent of the 120,000-odd Malay families. This is higher than the Chinese and Indian communities, where the figure stands at 27.5 and 22.5 per cent respectively. At the bottom of the bottom, the numbers are much more striking. While Malays form 13 per cent of the resident population, they made up 48 per cent of



drug abusers arrested here last year. While the average monthly household income of Malay-Muslims is a respectable $4,575, in reality the median income of the community stands at $3,844. About 17 per cent of the Malay-Muslim population is economically inactive and almost a fifth of Malay-Muslim households live on less than $1,500 monthly. About nine per cent of the community reside in 1- or 2room flats, though experts interviewed say homelessness amongst Malays here is an increasingly worrying trend, one not explained in national statistics. Divorce rates amongst Malays with low educational qualifications remain significantly higher than those with tertiary education. The 2010 population census showed that 78 per cent of Malay divorcees had only secondary school education or less. This compares with 67 per cent and 69 per cent of Chinese and Indian divorcees respectively. The widening gap between the rich and poor in Singapore is now a major political concern. It was one of the key issues in last years landmark General Election and Inclusive growth is now the guiding principle for Government policy. What this entails, said Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the announcement of this years Budget, is building a society where at its heart, people retain a deep sense of responsibility for their families and improve themselves and do better. He also stressed that helping low-income groups is not just about Government redistributing resources to help the poor, but about developing a multi-faceted and long-term approach so that lowincome families will be able to achieve their aspirations in an evolving and often unpredictable economic environment. We have to do everything we can to keep up social mobility in each generation, and prevent a permanent underclass from forming in our society, he added. But perhaps this permanent underclass has long formed, and inclusive growth will be nothing more than a slogan if the Malay problem is not addressed. The distressing truth, however, is that there is no simple solution to the Malay problem. Policy makers and social workers point to various programmes that, on paper, should provide families such as Mdm Chahayas a way out of poverty. Yet, the cycle of underachievement persists. In the past, people could say that this was because Government policies had not had enough time to work. Now, however, the new generation of the Malay underclass are themselves products of the Peoples Action

Partys (PAP) policies. Mdm Chahaya and her husband Mr Muhammed Saufi, for example, were born after Singapore became independent in 1965. Observers worry that this problem could strike at the heart of Singapores social compact, undermining faith in the muchcelebrated system of meritocracy, which is supposed to give people equal chances to ascend the socio-economic ladder regardless of their varied starting points. But some fear the system has instead created a hardened underclass because of inevitably unequal starting points, and who blame this inability to ascend the mobility ladder on themselves. Local playwright and political observer Alfian Saat says meritocracy here is so glorified, people dont see their poverty as something which is systematic. They dont blame the institution, they blame themselves. a deliberaTe MarginalisaTion? A fierce critic of Government policies towards Malays, Ms Lily Zubaidah Rahim argues that the Malays faced years of marginalisation at the hands of Government policies that built on the disadvantages they already had in the colonial days, where races began to be segregated according to the occupations designated to them by the

The question of eugenics and the play on the cultural deficit theory continues today to attract its fair share of dissenters and those who believe there is some truth to the argument. Some, like sociology professor Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), argue that labels given to stereotype these Malays the term lepak, or laidback, for instance are in fact social class problems given a racial mask. Why people call (them) lepak is because (they) are in the shopping malls, etc. When you go to their flats, there are many people at home, living as extended families, he says. And this is why some end up loitering in public areas. He adds: If a Chinese is sitting in his room alone, idling, its not lepak, but a Malay kid doing the same in the public sphere is (deemed as) lepak. I find that there can be a better explanation to a lot of the labels that have been thrown around. The cultural deficit theories are unfounded, agrees Minister for MalayMuslim Affairs Dr Yaacob Ibrahim. Cultures arent strong or weak, theyre just different, he says in a 90-minute interview at his Hill Street office in February. Its a question of adaptation, of the minoritys culture into that of the significantly different majoritys.

Why people call (them) lepak is because (they) are in the shopping malls, etc. When you go to their flats, there are many people at home, living as extended families. And this is why some end up loitering in public areas. dr kaMalUdeen MohaMed nasir, proFessor

British. From early on, where the Chinese became involved in business and trade and the Indians in the fields of law and administration, Malays remained confined to farming and fishing, trades that would eventually whittle out. In particular, Ms Lily, currently a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia, contends that the PAP Government pushed forth these policies harbouring the belief in the cultural deficit theory, which argues that some cultures remain disadvantaged economically and educationally because of their negative values and attitudes. Malays have also, since the early days of colonisation, been associated with the traits of being complacent, laidback and without high motivations or ambitions with regards to socio-economic pursuits.

The Malays were accustomed to a naturally less competitive cultural environment, given the bountiful environment of the Malay peninsular. But the Chinese, in stark contrast, have endured revolution, upheaval and change for thousands of years. The Chinese could adapt because they were immigrants, they needed to survive. The Malays (they) throw a fishing line in, (they) get fish, (they) plant something, it grows, he explains. But cultures can also change and we have also evolved as a nation through shared spaces. The question of whether the Malays are where they are today because of a longstanding culture that has birthed a particularly Malay mindset is an oft-asked one. But with the rising middle-income

The Malay Underclass 7

The Malay coMMUniTy in nUMbersA RAciAl clAss

3.3% Others

13.4% Malays

9.2% Indians

71Drop in divorce numbers from 2008-2010

Distribution of occupation in the Malay community

-------------------

74.1% Chinese

Ethnic composition of the Singaporean population

8.9 yearsIn 2010, almost

) % ) 2.7 n( ) .2% tio (2 .6% nica rs (2 he u on Ot mm ct i ) co t ru & ns .4% on (3 Co ) ati es ) .7% rm ervic % (6 fo In ls 0.8 nt (1 ra cia de an tau t ra Fin res ail & ) ret % t el ) & ) 5.7 Ho % (1 % ale es 3.6 les 5.8 (2 (1 vic ho es W ge ser vic ra ess ) ser st o sin al .9% Bu t& on 15 or ers g( sp dp an rin an tu Tr ac ial uf oc an ,s it y un M

mm Co

-------------------

median duration of marriage for Muslim couples

-------------------

of households in Singapore earn below $1500

8.3% 3 in 10------------------Malays live in rented houses

18.3%of Malay households earn below $1500

Muslim marriages under AMLA lasted less than five years, twice the number recorded under the Womens Charter.

1 in 10Percentage of Malay students admitted into secondary school

PSLE failing rate for Malays

-------------------

Percentage of economically inactive Malay families

1 in 10 85.6% 3 54.4%------------------Housing Distribution among Malays private

-------------------

-------------------

------------------Average Malay household size

1- or 2-room

landed others 4-room

of Malay households have 3 or more children

53.6%-------------------

-------------------

5-room

of the cohort in local universities are taken up by Malays

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Sources: Singapore Dept of Statistics: Population Census 2010 Singapore Dept of Statistics: General Household Survey 2005 Singapore Dept of Statistics: Statistics on Marriages and Divorces Reference Year 2010 Ministry of Education: Education Statistics Digest 2011


Illustration by Amellia Binte Abdul Razak

4.2

Number of children Malay females with no or primary school qualification most commonly have.

3-room

5.1%

-------------------


bulge in the Malay community, what is now intriguing is why the low-income still have not altered these mindsets, unlike their middle-class peers, in pursuit of Singapores first-world definition of success. scaling new heighTs? In response to this Malay problem, Yayasan Mendaki (Council on Education of Muslim Children) was established in 1982 to improve the poor socio-economic status of the general Malay population. With education declared by the Government as the means through which social mobility could be achieved, Mendaki set out with this at the core of its programmes and dedicated itself to the empowerment of the disadvantaged through excellence in education. But three decades on, even with significant improvements in the academic achievements of the Malay-Muslim community, there is a lack of study focusing on the educational progress of the lower income sub-group. Professor Lily argues that Mendakis schemes are tailored for the benefit of the middle-class Malays, most of whom gain easy access to its bursaries and scholarships by performing better in school examinations. In its defense, the Mendaki Tuition Scheme (MTS) is considered Mendakis flagship programme. Aimed at allowing lower income students access to afterschool tuition, it saw an unprecedented 7,400 students starting classes at 51 locations around the country this year, up from 5,000 students who joined MTS in 2011. The scheme charges families between $120 to $195 a year for tuition in primary and secondary school subjects. Earlier this year, Mendaki announced an entire revamp of the scheme, hoping to introduce higher wages for teachers, small student-teacher ratios and a more structured syllabus. All this would amount to a bump up of the budget allocated for MTS this year, from $4.5 million to $6 million. Yet these efforts to provide after-school tuition programmes for weaker performers have been met with criticisms charged mostly at its quality and effectiveness. Where tutors at Mendaki were paid $25 an hour to teach, the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) and the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), self-help groups for the Indian and Chinese communities respectively, were paid $40 an hour. Yet Mdm Ramnah Jantan stopped her 15-year-old grandson from attending MTS

after the lack of progress in his studies. Says the 52-year-old, who stays with her grandson in a rental flat at Kallang: Instead of his studies getting better, it got worse. He told me he wasnt doing anything during the classes, and so Id rather he spend the time more usefully. The effectiveness of its schemes aside, Mendaki also opens up the bigger discussion of the need for such Government-backed organisations to be formed along racial lines. After all, 30 years after Mendaki was formed, the same problems remain. (The) challenges (are) the same, but we have made progress, says CEO of Mendaki Mdm Moliah Hashim, but if you consider whether the glass is half empty or half full, you will zero in on how the Malays are still fourth (in comparison with other races). She adds that students under the MTS have been shown to perform better than those not under the scheme. From 1982 to 2010, the Malay community has improved by 19 per cent in national PSLE results, significantly above the 14 per cent seen across the national average. But whether this improvement correlates to a significant elevation of the socio-economic position of low-income Malays has yet to be proven. Its a work-in-progress, Mdm Moliah says, adding that the complexities making up the environment of these families cannot be solved simply through education. Unless they have food on the table, and the family is intact, (and they) dont have to worry about divorce and all that, the children will also not be able to concentrate in school, she adds. This observation raises the larger issue of whether the problems of the low-income Malays have been for too long inaccurately classified as a racial problem, when it could in fact be a class-based one. Ethnicity aside, a new and insusceptible barrier to catching up has crept upon the community in the form of slowing social mobility. Singapores intergenerational mobility has abated in recent years and social backgrounds are becoming increasingly influential in giving young children a head start get in the education battlefield. In a Straits Times report last year, former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew acknowledged that admission to primary schools was based not on the

merit of students, but rather on the social background of parents. Premier schools like Raffles Institution see more than half the fathers of students are university graduates. This compares to only 15 per cent of graduate fathers in a neighbourhood school like Chai Chee Secondary. NUS sociologist Ms Irene Ng, in a forum reply to this article, noted that Singapores inter-generational mobility ranks in the same level as America, which is already lower compared to other developed nations. This puts further roadblocks on the already rocky road to breaking the poverty cycle for children like Mdm Chahayas sons Aidil and Afiq. With social immobility now affected by a skewed system of meritocracy, it remains to be seen how realistic a chance Aidil and Afiq have not even in achieving high levels of success in accordance to the first-world standards here, but just in getting themselves a decent chance of a comfortable future. whaTs FaiTh goT To do wiTh iT? A mans faith is like walking on a narrow path with thorns at the side. The clothes are the iman (faith), the thorns are the sins. He will struggle his way over (to the other side)... I myself am half-torn, 24-year-old Muhammad Feroz Salleh tells us over coffee. Ferozs father is a drug addict, and he lives with his mother and two siblings in a 3-room HDB flat at Bedok. His father brings home $1,500 a month, and the family continues to get by in part due their belief in Islam, says Feroz. Like him, 99 per cent of the Malays in Singapore declare Islam as their practicing religion. With rising Islamic religiosity becoming a globalised phenomenon especially amongst the ranks of the middleclass, the role Islam plays in the lives of the lower income community remains largely unexplored. Stuck in an underclass and running on very little, Islam has taken on a less generalised adoption by the low-income Malays, as gleaned from interactions with families interviewed. Where in certain families, an over-indulgence in fatalism keeps them from pushing for success, in others, the concept of jihad, or to strive, nudges them along through challenging days.

This feature is an insight into the low-income Malay community. It takes into account their stories and examines the structural causes for the creation of this underclass.


a racial class

a racial classDark brown skin. Round eyes. Long lashes. Looks aside, what defines a race? For decades, problems associated with low-income Malays have been largely declared as specific to the race, but sociologists and social workers say this explanation conceals this real issue of class inequality in Singapore.

M

ost have experienced family dysfunction, with many hailing from single-parent homes. Cases of drug abuse and poverty are also noticeably over-represented, and the traits of laziness and being lepak, the Malay word for relaxed have commonly been ascribed to this particular community. All these characteristics have been classified under the umbrella of the Malay problem. Since the term was first coined four decades ago, a dire picture has been painted of the community, and it is widely accepted that these social dysfunctions are particular to the Malay race. Mdm Jumaningsai Ikan, or Cik Jun, as she is known, was not born into poverty. A homemaker, Cik Jun and her children were forced into the lower rungs of society three years ago after her husbands infidelity left her with a divorce that rendered her homeless and with no means of financial support. Today the 43-year-old, who holds custody of her four children aged between 13 and 16, survives on help from her extended family. Her only stable source of income is the $200 she receives monthly

this has been done systematically over the decades can be easily studied, but why, is not as easy to pin down. Some critics like Ms Lily argue that the constant spotlight by the Government on the lack of progress of the Malays has been to keep the community marginalised for its political agenda. But others say the reasons behind why the issues have been framed in a racial context have to do with pushing potential loopholes in the structural system away from Government hands. In fact, Singapores brand-name meritocratic system and its reasoning that opportunities afforded to individuals regardless of race or background are equal, has shifted the responsibility of performing well, and hence also potential failures, entirely on the individual. When unequal opportunities do occur, the explanation used is that individuals are not working hard enough therefore they are not moving (up) the social ladder and not because class differentiation prevents some groups (such as) those that come from low socio-economic backgrounds, from getting access to resources, says Dr Suriani Suratman, a senior lecturer at the

The preference for wives to stay at home and look after their children as opposed to going out to find means to support the household income, says one social worker, is such an example. Says Mohd Irshad Bin Mohd Yossuff of Tampines North East CDC: 50 per cent of Malay families encounter the problem of the wife wanting to seek income through employment, but the husband instead preferring that she stays at home. His colleague, Ms Nazirah Anwar, who handles social assistance at the CDC says that for such families the cultural values have been so deeply ingrained that its already in the mindset of the Malay community that you have to follow or obey your husband. We try to educate them on the benefits of the wife going to work, but they seem quite resistant to it. I dont think that mindsets can be changed easily. We have schemes and everything but its difficult to change the mindsets of these families, especially that of the husbands, she adds. The classifying of such traits as particular to the Malays have only fuelled the negative traits ascribed to the Malays here, helped in part by similar portrayals of them by the Government itself. creaTing a sTereoType At an opening speech for a Mendaki congress in 1982, for example, then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said that the importance of performance in examinations has become part of the culture of Chinese... the Indians too are keenly aware of the importance of studies and examinations as the road to success. Such remarks, says Dr Suriani of NUS, imply that the Malay community has still not arrived at this realisation. Similar portrayals of the Malays were documented by her in a 2004 study, revealing a subtle stereotype built of an incompetent community in constant need of reminders for it to progress. The local media, she argues, has been portraying the Malays as lagging behind other ethnic groups since the 1960s even though the community had made small but notable progress continually throughout

The Malays have done well and can be proud that they do not have to catch up with the other races anymore. dr inTan azUra MokhTar, MeMber oF parliaMenT

from babysitting her nephew on weekdays. Her family of five is cramped into a tiny but speckless 1-room flat at Holland Drive. Cik Jun has gone through a divorce, is now a single-parent and lives in poverty. She is also Malay. Could an identical story be told with a Chinese or Indian mother in her place, or are Cik Juns problems unique to those with whom she shares a common ethnicity? For decades, tight associations between ethnicity and social ills in Singapore have been drawn through the constant pitting of the Malays against their Chinese and Indian counterparts in academic progress and economic standing in the media. How

Department of Malay Studies at National University of Singaopore (NUS). She adds that this approach allows the Government to take minimal action to assist those from such groups... (as they) are perceived as not working hard enough. Still, the insinuation that Malays themselves are the root cause of their immobilisation at the lower rungs continues to hold firm with certain individuals we spoke to. Age-old Malay cultural traditions, mistakenly identified as Islamic due to the close associations between the religion and the ethnicity, have been singled out by social workers as contributing to the poor socioeconomic position of low-income Malays.


a racial class A RAciAl clAss

the years. This was done in two ways through a constant identification of new areas in which their progress was not up to scratch, and by pitting the communitys progress continually against that of the Indians and the Chinese. The spotlight, whilst constantly changing, has never faltered on the Malay community and pitting it continually against that of the better-performing Indians and Malays. Employment and housing, for example, were focused on in the 1960s and 1970s; this shifted to education in the 1980s and to the performance of the Malays in specific subjects in the 90s. Today, the positive effects of these comparisons, meant to stimulate the community into hastening their progress, is arguable. After all, as Nanyang Technological University (NTU) sociology professor Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir argues, even as the Malay community propels itself forward, to catch up remains an elusive and questionable goal as other ethnic communities continue to move forward too, leaving the Malays as a constant example of a community stuck on the fringes. If Singapore society keeps harping on the Malay problem, then I feel that we are going about analysing this from a faulty premise. Because, given time, the other communities are also going to move forward and we are perpetually trying to play catch-up. So following this line of thinking, more often than not, we are going to be the whipping boys to teach the rest of the communities how not to behave, Prof Kamaludeen says. Until recently, the constant spotlight on the communitys underachievement in socio-economic indicators have obscured the significant progress they made, and also hindered attempts to re-analyse why the Malay problem continues to persist. So far, the only attempts to re-look issues facing the low-income Malay community as one belonging to social class, as opposed to ethnicity has been limited to the field of academia. Professor Kamaludeen surmises that any effort taken so far in explaining the Malay problem falls on either of two clearly demarcated sides. The first puts the Malay community itself at blame, while the second lists out structural policies by the Government that have put the lower end of the community at a significant disadvantage since it became the ruling party. I feel that people who try to analyse the Malay community in Singapore are taking either of these two options. They

blame it totally on the ethnic group, or it is blamed totally on the Government. There is no point of convergence or conflation of views, he says. To him, the Malay problem is easily defined as one of class, because if you look at it across the lower-working class, we are likely to find that the same problems exist. So it is a problem of the working class. geTTing To The crUx oF iT all Amidst these varying views, the position of the Malay community has changed drastically, making significant headway from the hardened stereotypes that were once used to generalise it. Today, Malay university graduates make up five per cent of all graduates, a significant increase from just two per cent more than a decade ago. The overall levels of educational attainment have also improved, according to the 2010 population census, with a drop in Malays having only below secondary and secondary education, and a rise in those with tertiary educational qualifications. These improvements reflect an elevation of the socio-economic status of the Malays, and the community now enjoys an expanding middle class. As of 2005, Malay households with no employed individuals stands at eight per cent, a decent figure in comparison to 10 and nine per cent for Chinese and Indian families respectively. Overall Muslim divorces have dropped 6.4 per cent over the last five years from about 1,750 to 1,640. And with similarly dropping rates in minor marriages previously a defining point of the Malay problem it looks like things are looking up, at least on the numbers front. Says MP Intan Azura Mokhtar, herself a successful product of the countrys meritocratic system, having risen through humble beginnings to eventually acquire multiple degrees and a PhD: The Malays have done well and can be proud that they do not have to catch up with the other races anymore. For those still struggling to catch up, help, both national and ethnic-based, is readily at hand. With AMP and Mendaki as the communitys self-help groups, more than 10 Malay-Muslim Organisations (MMOs) and at least 37 family service centres to tap on, the Government seems eager to point out that mobility is not out of the reach of the those stuck in the lower rungs of the economic scale. The MMOs and self-help groups, supported by the Government, serve as an avenue for the underclass to seek aid in cultural environments they are more

New Focus oN the lowiNcomeBudget 2012 reveals a list of measures to keep the needy afloat in Singapores rising living standards.

1. Pre-school subsidies made available to more households as the income cap is raised from $1,800 to $3,500. 2. Twice as many students will receive the MOE Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) after the income limits are increased from $1,500 to $2,500. 3. Before- and afterschool services subsidised for households earning $3,500 and below. 4. A new GST Voucher scheme to help the bottom 40%. It includes cash, Medisave top-ups, and utility rebates. 5. An additional $15,000 per year for School Advisory Committees in government schoolsSource: The Straits Times


A RAciAl clAss a racial class

looking ahead: Mdm Chahaya only hopes that her children will study hard and respect their parents.

playing big broTher: As the eldest son, Muhammad Ali (right), 17, takes it upon himself to look after his other siblings and keep tabs on 10-yearold Aidils (left) schoolwork.


a racial class

Fresh sTarT: Just out of prison, Mr Muhammad Saufi (in black), 39, wants only the best for his children and hopes that soon enough, he can afford to provide Aidil (right), 10, Airil (middle), 4, and Afiq (left), 6, with a working computer for school use.


a racial class

comfortable with. Ms Rohaya Abdul Rashid, 29, a social worker with the Young Women Muslim Association (PPIS), says many of her Malay clients face cultural and language barriers when working with social workers of differing ethnic groups. Sometimes other races might not understand the nature of their problems, so they request for us, she says. But not all social observers are convinced that the issues facing the Malay community have been nipped in the bud through these platforms. In fact, though there has been much talk about self-help groups providing race-specific solutions, a bulk of the problems faced by the Malay underclass has to do with socio-economic conditions of their class. Ms NurSyazwani Abdul Mutalif is a manager of social work at WAHAH Transitional Shelter for Displaced Families that offers a temporary roof over the

unemployment, social dysfunction, crime and teen delinquency. A random selection of families from the 1-room flats at Boon Lay or Chai Chee here would easily fit this bill. One social worker we met is quick to stress that the challenges in seeking employment, for example, affect individuals with low educational qualifications across the board. They always say family first, they will give cash to say that (they) are giving you a boost to help yourself. But very often, the family cant help themselves, the social worker reveals. Monetary hand-outs by the Government, which are part of the many helping hands approach to social welfare, provide only surface intervention, he adds. The term many helping hands refers to the Governments approach to social welfare that was introduced in 1995.

problem is being defined as something belonging to a race. Racialising and racism are stereotyping as well as a discriminatory acts, she explains. The same thing is happening here, where theres a tendency to say that it is the Malay problem when it is actually a social problem, she says. Understanding the reasons for todays associations between social class and Malay ethnicity, as well as the over-representation of Malays in the lower rungs, require some retrospection into the historical elements that created them. we go way back It is an open secret. For almost 20 years between 1960 and 1980, Malay males were almost completely excluded from the compulsory National Service (NS) over doubts of their loyalty in times of battle, especially if potential warfare was to erupt with Singapores neighbours. Surrounded by a Muslimmajority region, there were uncertainties over whether Malay soldiers would be able to place their loyalty to Singapore above and beyond any other interests. This deprivation of Malays from compulsory NS had cumulative effects on the socioeconomic opportunities afforded to the community as individuals who were not called up faced unemployment. Employers were afraid that these men might be called up for service at any time. The deprivation paved a significant trench in the creation of an underclass mired in drugs, poverty and low educational attainment. Significant historical occurrences like this have not been highlighted by the media here not even in the Malay newspapers, says local playwright and political observer Alfian Saat. There has never been a taking stock, or a very honest addressing of say, the army issue... There was this whole issue of jobless youths during that period. So you already have this historical handicap, he says. The Malay media, says Mr Alfian, doesnt seem to understand that we had different starting points historically... (so) in the present moment, there might be certain limits to how far we can advance. National Service aside, exceptionally bright Chinese students who came in amongst the top ten per cent in the PSLE were also given access to study at Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools. This would leave Malay students at a distinct disadvantage in terms of quality education. Aside from these tangible roadblocks, the complexities of the ethnic-class stereotype also took form following a controversial theory subtly put forth to reason out

Theres a tendency to say that it is the Malay problem when it is actually a social problem dr sUriani sUraTMan, senior lecTUrer, nUs

heads of families rendered homeless. The shelter currently operates in the central and eastern parts of Singapore, where around 38 families are housed in 15 units consisting of 3- and 4-room flats at any one time. About 60 families remain on the shelters waitlist. About 80 per cent of the families at WAHAH are Malay, most with breadwinners who have low educational qualifications. Nowadays even with a degree its hard for you to find a job. What more for someone who only has Olevels? says Ms Syazwani. Poverty and homelessness, she says, are not unique to just the Malays but happens across all (races). Most of them (who are) in the state of homelessness (are there) because their parents used to be homeless. Its a vicious cycle, she says. Despite the over-representation of Malay numbers in the low-income group, the vicious cycle that Ms Syazwani speaks of are in fact traits of poverty common in all lower income groups across countries worldwide, say social workers and sociologists here. A 2004 study done by the University of California, Berkeley, for example, noted that low-income American neighbourhoods could be generally defined by the high numbers of single-parent families,

The approach stresses self-reliance as instrumental in helping to improve living conditions of those caught in poverty. The fundamental ingredients consist of building up independence through self-reliance, alongside support from the individuals family, self-help groups, volunteer organisations and the Government. But whether these measures empower families or keep them afloat temporarily remains to be seen. They always say family first, they will give cash to say that (they) are giving you a boost to help yourself. But very often, the family cant help themselves, he revealed. Even with this collective agreement amongst academics and social workers that the issues facing the Malay underclass are clearly not specific to them, deeply ingrained stereotypes continue to generalise the community. Dr Suriani tells us in a sit-down interview that minority studies done overseas correspond to the finding here that the lines between ethnicity and class have for long been blurred. In fact, minority communities in America, like the Black and Latin-American groups who are lower off and who come in trying to start off as somebody and who doesnt have those resources end up having the social issues they face racialised. When you say racialise, a social


a racial class

communitys socio-economic stagnation the make-up of the Malays themselves. The theory argued that the problems lay with the Malay culture and character, which put it at a disadvantage in comparison to other races. Ms Lily documented many examples of the Governments use of eugenics in reasoning the position of the Malays in her critical 1998 text The Singapore Dilemma: The Political and Educational Marginality of the Malay Community. Ms Lily documented many examples of the Governments use of eugenics in reasoning the position of the Malays in her critical 1998 text The Singapore Dilemma: The Political and Educational Marginality of the Malay Community. Similar to comments made at the 1982 Mendaki congress, she pointed out that in 1987, Singapores first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said in a Straits Times article that the problems of the Malay community lay with the mindsets of the individuals. He maintained that if they try hard enough, then the education gap between them and the Chinese, or them and the Indians, would close... Progress or achievement depends on ability and effort. By insinuating that Singapores meritocratic system provided a structure that allowed individuals from all backgrounds and races to progress with the right attitude and some willpower, the systems flaws were disguised as racial problems that the community needed to deal with on its own a point Mr Alfian agrees with. What the state has been successful in doing is to quell any sense of class consciousness by overtly focusing on race. You dont have what is known as class solidarity and meritocracy comes with a picture to obscure that, says Mr Alfian. Meritocracy tells you, if you work hard enough, you will succeed, and if you dont succeed, that means youre not working hard enough, he added. Cik Jun is trying hard. In spite of her ongoing challenges, she is determined her children will be able to break out of the rough conditions they grew up in. Her children follow a strict daily regiment enforced by Cik Jun. They all come home straight after school together, have dinner, perform prayers and then do their homework. And her efforts are slowly bearing fruit. Her twin daughters Nur Amirah and Nur Atikah, 15, have been in the top ten per cent of their cohort for the past three years, and were awarded the $400 MOE bursary for each year, helping to lighten the financial burden facing the the family.

here To help: North East CDC offers many employment and training services to low-income families, but social workers there say that Malay husbands often restrict their wives from working, preferring that they remain stay-home mothers.

Education will help you in future. Not just help you, (it will) help your sibling(s), help your Mama also... With diploma, you get better job... With a better pay, you can do whatever you want. You can change your living, she tells her son Muhammad Iqbal, 16, who will be sitting for his N Level exams. But even as they try their hardest, the realities of the high hurdles they will have to overcome loom overhead. Unable to afford tuition classes, and having to depend solely on self-study and the guidance of teachers in school, Cik Juns youngest child, Nur Adilah, 13, scored mediocre grades in last years PSLE, with two Grade 3s, a C for English, albeit a commendable A for Malay Language. Placed against a classmate with the economic resources to attend enrichment classes and tuition, one wonders how far Cik Juns hard work can pull her children through the skewed field of meritocracy. whaTs nexT? The Singapore Census often categorises statistics according to race instead of income level, hindering efforts at comparing social patterns across different social classes. But grouping achievements according to race is the norm, and is done by many other countries, says NUS sociology professor Vincent Chua. But there are some side effects to this method. This is known as statistical discrimination. It is a term that (sociologist) Paula England uses... She says that if you make allocations based on categories, you tend to insert a halo effect on the good groups, and a non-halo effect

on the bad groups, he says. With the inherently tight linkages between ethnicity and class looking set to continue even as the middle-class Malays increasingly navigate their way up the social ladder, perhaps the onus lies on the society and the structures to finally accept the historically different starting points and cultural sensitivities that make up the fabric of our society. That way, Malay families in the lowincome group with stories similar to that of Cik Juns have a realistic chance of breaking out of the class cycle they have come to be a part of for too long. A mindset shift in understanding the Malay problem as a structural one as opposed to an ethnic one could pave the way for solutions to penetrate beyond short-term financial aid, adopting an approach that reaches out to the underclass without first requiring they help themselves. Aidil, 10, is 44-year-old Mdm Nor Chahaya Amirs third son and is now in Primary 5, unaware of the complexities his social class and ethnicity will bring. Although he has been failing mathematics and Malay, he is still filled with an optimism that is at once uplifting as it is crushing, if he does not manage to break out of the class confines he remains enclosed in. As his older brother Ali lectures him for his poor grades, he listens readily and then turns to him and asks, But Abang, I can still make it to EM1, like you right? If I pass next year I can still make it right? His brother grunts in reply, neither a yes nor no.


The golden TickeT

The golden TickeTIt has long been ingrained in society that a combination of effort and ability paves the way for success. With Malays over-represented in the lower income strata in Singapore and low academic achievement continuing to be part of the Malay problem, how true does meritocracy hold for the Malay underclass?16 The Malay Underclass

The golden TickeT

acadeMic woes: Nur Amirah, Nur Atiqah, and Nur Adilah (left to right) have to learn independently as their mother cannot afford tuition for them.


The golden TickeT

W

e are making our society more just. Nobody is privileged because of his parents status or wealth. Our children all go to the same schools. They all do national service. They get into universities on merit. They get jobs and promotions on merit. And we shall give everyone a stake in our growing economy, said then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1970 while addressing a young Singapore during the National Day broadcast. After five years of independence, it seems like Singaporeans are in good hands, under a system that has allowed equal opportunities for everyone and that rewards those who work hard. And today, this message continues to be drummed into

about 25 students to a teacher, EtonHouse caps their kindergarten teacher-pupil ratio at 1:15. In Singapore, unfortunately, good quality education comes with the dollar sign and we know the Malay community is nowhere there, says Mdm Hameet Khanee JH, senior manager of the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), one of two Malay self-help groups here. But a head start, regardless of its quality, is better than none at all, she adds. Mdm Hameet states plainly that AMP does not have the resources to replicate the structures of high-end pre-schools, but are trying their best to create awareness of how important it is to get two to three years of education before Primary 1.

Even with certificates, it cant bring you far. Its important to work well and work your way up instead. Ms nUr azizahabdUl Malik, 21, sales assisTanT

the minds of Singaporeans. But the system is not as clear-cut for poor Malays, for they have many other barriers to overcome. Enrolment into quality preschools are out of the question due to its steep prices, the lack of academic guidance at home hinders the childs learning speed, and some of these parents do not feel the need to push their children towards academic excellence. A childs entry into Singapore-style meritocracy begins with compulsory education at the primary school level. But for the childs first six years, the type of pre-school education and nurturing depends very much on his or her parents socio-economic status. The financial disadvantage of parents who fall into societys bottom 30 per cent makes it very hard to provide their children with high quality pre-school education their counterparts in the middle and upper classes are able to pay for. There are currently 494 kindergarten branches spread out across the island with monthly Kindergarten 1 fees ranging from $55 at St. Vincent De Paul Kindergarten to $1,750 at EtonHouse International Research Preschool. The largest kindergarten operator, PAP Community Foundation (PCF), has 240 branches and charges between $85 to $320 per month. Although the question of how much more effective the curriculums at expensive pre-schools are compared to the affordable ones remains debatable, there is one obvious difference while PCF kindergartens have

An ex-PCF teacher, who declined to be named, says that attendance is a big problem with low-income children. A lot of these students have many younger siblings, and because their parents are unable to cope with sending them to school, they will choose to let their children skip school instead. And as many of these students have a poor grasp of English, they are unable to understand instructions in school even when they do turn up. Their progress is also significantly slower because their parents are unable to revise with them their homework or read to them curriculumstipulated storybooks. Because educational handicaps begin from as early as pre-school, many have questioned how true meritocracy is within the academic system. saMe sTrUcTUre, diFFerenT paThs There are, of course, inspiring stories of low-income students who worked twice as hard and attained academic success despite financial and parental problems at home. We met about 10 of these students during a cheque distributing session by the Harun Ghani Education Fund (HGEF). The charity hands out monetary rewards to needy Muslim students who have excelled in their studies despite having one or both parents as drug offenders or former addicts. On the surface, Nur Shazreen Mohd Taufik is a regular undergraduate with a bright future ahead of her. The 24-year-old is a final-year Physics student at Nanyang

Technological University (NTU), and is just a few months shy of graduating. She is also passionate about fan-fiction and enjoys writing and illustrating short stories. But there is a darker side to her life. Shazreens father is a drug addict, and has been in and out of the Drug Rehabilitation Centre for most of her life. He was also violent towards her mother and older brother. He used to really bully my brother a lot. It damaged him psychologically. My mother was very dependent on him emotionally as well. Shed be crying and stuff like that in front of him. Im lucky because Im the second child of the family, says Shazreen. She tells us that there was a time when her father flung a plate towards the wall because her brother held it with soapy hands, and he was enraged after tasting soap in his food. Very often, his temper would also be fuelled by alcohol and the lack of drugs. Over the years, Shazreen and her two siblings have overcome dark times with their mother, who has ingrained in them the importance of education. Shazreen recalls: She was very harsh on us for our education, which was really helpful. My mother got really upset if we didnt do well in school. So I would always try my best to please her so she could praise me. Her mother also paid close attention to her school work, and used to quiz her on humanities and science subjects to prepare for tests and exams. Due to the academic and emotional support Shazreen got at home, she was able to focus on working hard, and that has propelled her, despite her background, to the top 25 per cent of her cohort to enter one of Singapores top three universities. For students like Shazreen, education has given them a ticket out of being classified as a problematic Malay, and the combination of effort and guidance has indeed cemented the promise of a good future. Similarly, Cik Juns own insistence that her children follow a regimented daily plan, regardless of the lack of tuition or enrichment classes has allowed her twin daughters, Nur Amirah and Nur Atiqah, 15, to emerge tops in their year -end examinations. This is proof that the path to success, though more difficult for the lowincome, is not entirely impossible. According to Ms Haslinda Putri Harun, Honorary Secretary of HGEF, education is the only way the lives of these families can improve. The rewards are in hopes that both parents and their children realise how crucial education is in social mobility. Meritocracy does exist. But there is


The golden TickeT

no denying that family backgrounds do affect the emotional well being of any child. My HGEF children, especially the university kids, should be our societys Meritocracy Ambassadors. They have proven that despite their poor, difficult and disadvantaged backgrounds, they can still stand tall among their peers; albeit more streetwise and resilient, she says. But throughout our visits to the homes of Malay families living in 1- and 2-room HDB flats across the island, we hardly found any ambassadors of meritocracy. Instead, many school-going children we have met are borderline students. MOE statistics show that Malays as a whole have had the lowest PSLE passing rate amongst all ethnic groups from the year 2000 to 2009 although it is not known just how many of those who failed came from the less privileged backgrounds. Although the reasons behind the academic struggles of low-income students are far from clear cut, a lack of home support seems to play a large role in why children face a rocky path up the meritocratic ladder. When we ask about her childrens performance in school, healthcare facilitator Sarinah Rashid, 39, says: Not so good. But can pass. Its all the influence lah. Mdm Sarinah disapproves of her sons friends, and thinks that they are swaying her son in a negative direction. Her son hardly comes home after school, and chooses to hang out until late. But unlike Shazreens mother, Mdm Sarinah does not believe in pushing her children towards any target. As our conversation leads into whether she has set any goals for them, the single mother sheepishly laughs and says: Let them set by themselves. Its very difficult. Because the goals that you set is based on what you want. So I think that its only fair that they set it themselves. Give them that freedom to choose lah, what they want to be when they grow up. It is said that the flippant attitude of low-income Malay parents with regards to their childs education is a challenge. Mdm Moliah tells us that Mendaki sees a need to instill in parents the importance of investing in education, and says there is a difference between going to the beach on Sunday morning, and spending that two hours to go on a motivational camp. Everyone wants the latest high-tech thing, everybody wants the nicest curtains. But if it means lesser of that in order for your children to go for tuition, to get books to read, what can that do? she asks. Over at another household, a 34-yearold mother of two has this to say about

her daughters dismal primary school grades: Dia slow pick up sikit, meaning that she is slow on the uptake. Because Mdm Maslinda Abdullah could not be around her children a lot while she was still working full-time a few years back, her daughter Anis would only go to school when she felt like it. As a result, Anis failed Primary 1 and 2. And today, the 10-yearold still has difficulties reading and writing in English. For Mdm Maslinda, school expenditures add to her financial woes. Even though her husband earns $1,600 a month,

her children were previously unable to receive the MOE Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) because the income cap for households with two children used to be $1,500 a month. But in February this year, it was revealed as part of Budget 2012 that the income ceiling would be upped to $2,500. Mdm Maslindas children are now eligible for the scheme, and once approved, will be able to have their school fees waived, receive free school textbooks and uniforms, and have 75 per cent of their examination fees subsidised. Besides national support, Mendaki is

acadeMic relieF: After a decade of struggling with his studies, Mohamad Feroz Salleh, 24, was relieved to have enrolled in ITE as it allocates more weightage to hands-on work something he says is an innate talent of his. He is now in his final year at polytechnic studying facilities management.


The golden TickeT

aiMing high: Nur Atiqah (left), 15, and Nur Amirah (right), 15, have come out top 10 in Kent Ridge Secondary Schools Normal (Academic) stream for three years in a row, and have received bursaries for their academic achievements. Both of them and their younger sister, Nur Adilah (centre), 13, are aiming to enter a university in the future.


The golden TickeT

another go-to organisation for low-income Malays with regards to education. Its main focus is improving the educational attainment of disadvantaged MalayMuslim students, chiefly through the Mendaki Tuition Scheme (MTS) which provides affordable English, mathematics, and science tuition for primary and secondary school pupils. Last year, MTS took in 6,915 students, and plans to take in about 1,000 more students annually for the next three years. going beyond The sTandard The most self-help groups can do is to work around the education structure, helping low-income students do the best they can within the limits of the system. But the reality is that the education landscape on caters to the mainstream, and try as they might, some students simply cannot align themselves to it. There were metals (that we worked with). This stuff is dirty, but its easy! Its in my blood. So I fly (breezed) through my ITE, says Mohamad Feroz Salleh, who speaks with pride of having achieved straight As for his first two semesters in ITE College East. Given his academic performance, Feroz clinched the Certificate of Merit, and secured a spot in Ngee Ann Polytechnics Hotel & Leisure Facilities Management diploma course. Rote learning was never his cup of tea, and although other students would undergo relentless pressure to strive for top marks throughout their school years, Feroz never felt lousy about himself even after he did not make the cut for the Express stream. Normal Tech so what? To me Express is so hard. You have to study all day. I dont like to study. So Im OK with Normal Technical. I dont compare, dont benchmark, Feroz asserts. But during ITE, I do want to be the top because I actually like to do this kind of practical stuff. He is a practical kind of guy he enjoys hands-on learning, but struggles when it comes to rote learning. Unfortunately for him, the underlying system of education in Singapore still favours those who are inclined towards theory-based learning, making him think twice about pursuing a degree. Feroz has made it thus far because of his ability to outshine his peers in workshop assignments. Unlike during his time in ITE, Feroz is only doing average in Polytechnic because there is a much lesser emphasis on hands-on work. People from A-level, people from O-level, they are much better

geared to this kind of thing. I wont say its unfair. But they have slight advantage over me because they have mathematics background. They can understand all these math terms, he noted. Feroz realises that he is not cut out for the theory-based tertiary education in Singapore, and has decided to pursue a career in facilities management after graduating from Polytechnic rather than enrol in a local university. To prevent talents like Feroz from going unnoticed, NUS lecturer Suriani Suratman says that the mainstream education in Singapore needs to account for varying abilities of students. The system, the pedagogy, is very streamlined. There are kids who learn differently. We dont have a variety of ways for children to learn, for adults to succeed. If you want to talk about empowering, you should take into account the diversity of abilities, even in acquiring academic qualifications, she asserts. But in recent years, more specialised schools are springing up in Singapores education landscape, including the Singapore Sports School, School of the Arts (SOTA) and School of Science and Technology (SST). But these are all Independent Schools that charge additional school fees of up to $300, limiting the enrolment to those who can afford it or are under scholarships. enTering The workForce Beyond the homework, tests, streaming, studying and pressure, it all boils down to securing a job. In Singapore, formal qualifications greatly determine the type of occupation and level of wages someone will get, putting yet another barrier for social mobility amongst the poor. I would be glad if there are more organisations that can open up in taking in people with lower qualification. Probably you can tie them up with a mentor, work in an office, and then from there you upgrade their skills, says Ms Syazwani, manager of social work at WAHAH Transitional Shelter. She tells us that her clients, 80 per cent of whom are Malays, have low education and often end up as cleaners and security guards. If the lower income group continues to be limited only to low-end jobs because of their education level, they can never break out of the poverty cycle, she says. But in Minister for Finance Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnams Budget speech, he noted that the Government would work towards increasing the pay of these low-

wage occupations. Yet even these low-paying jobs cannot be guaranteed. A social worker, who declined to be named, notes that many of his clients are having difficulties getting low-end jobs because they are often taken up by foreign workers. For the successful few who manage to graduate with a diploma or degree in spite of their backgrounds, how far they can go might still be limited because of their networks, says NUS lecturer Dr Vincent Chua. He said: Connections is a dirty word in the context of meritocracy, stating that if a system is truly meritocratic, gender, ethnicity, age, or networks should not affect how well someone does. The best man for the job thats like the Governments tag line, he adds. Dr Chua specialises in social networks research, and believes that when it comes to job opportunities, it is not just what you know, but also who you know. His research revealed that networks matter significantly, especially when it comes to securing jobs in the private and small business sector. Unfortunately, adding valuable contacts to an individuals networks are more easily done by those of a dominant ethnic group because of the high social status they already have, says Dr Chua. He offers that one solution to this challenge for low-income Malays is to get the wealthier to mix with the needy, but admits that this is easier said than done as it would be a huge challenge to get the rich and poor to socialise. Money is hardly the only difference between the rich and poor. Being born into poverty or affluence determines how well a child will be prepared to navigate the education landscape, which would ultimately determine occupational success, and whether he or she is set to lead a comfortable life. While a handful have risen out of the Malay problem through meritocratic terms, the reality is that many are still stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty and the persistent social ills that come with it. And because the root of their problems stems not only from their ethnicity but also national policies and structures, both the Malay community and Government have a part to play, keeping in mind that the latter holds the only key to to make structural reforms. Mdm Moliah of Mendaki says, If there was a teenage pregnancy case, it doesnt matter if it was a Malay or Indian or Chinese. It is one teenage who is pregnant habitually, and thats a problem for Singapore.


chasing diFFerenT dreaMs

a helping hand: Mr Mohd Irshad Mohd Yossuff (left) and Ms Nazirah Anwar (right) work for North East CDC and say they have difficulties convincing some clients to accept and build on any help offered.



chasing diFFerenT dreaMsAlthough some say there is a grain of truth in the stereotype that Malays lack ambition, this is not the sole reason why the Malay community continues to lag behind in Singapores race for economic growth.



I

t is a widely held notion in Singapore that wealth will bring about more happiness. The dream of jumping from one rung of the social ladder to the next drives most Singaporeans to compete for places in better schools and for high-paying jobs. With these, the thinking goes, they can get their own car, private housing and holidays overseas. The good life. But for some Singaporeans on the lowest rung, these typical aspirations do not matter, and they are content with the little that they have. We met Mr Mohammad Rashid Yus one languid Sunday afternoon while he was seated along the narrow common corridor outside his 1-room HDB flat, enjoying a can of beer while flipping through the newspaper. Shoes of all sizes fill a rack by the door and litter the doorstep. Sounds of children playing and a mothers nagging drifts out through the half-open door of his home. The 44-year-old hawker lives in the 35 square-metre flat with his wife and four children aged between two to 15. It has been home for the past seven years. Mr Rashid says that it is a lovely neighbourhood as his elderly neighbours enjoy looking after his children. Over the years, he has developed the habit of sleeping along the common corridor whenever it gets too hot indoors at night. Shiok (enjoyable), the wind. Then morning the bird chirping, sleeping down here, nobody will disturb you. Mr Rashids situation may seem less than ideal, but he is content. He is what many would consider a typical case of the Malay underclass a sole breadwinner of a large family holding a low-paying job. Currently, 27.6 per cent of all working Malays are in assembly plants and cleaning-related jobs. One in 10 working persons in the community still brings home less than $1,500 a month the highest proportion amongst all racial groups. Yet some of these lowly-paid adults are happier than more successful Malays think they should be. Mr Mohd Anuar Yusop, executive director of the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), is one of those who despairs at how some young Malays are content to stay as a McDonalds deliveryman while youths of other races are striving for jobs with better prospects. I dont believe in the Bhutan way of measuring happiness, says Mr Anuar. I still feel that in Singapore, you need to have ambition. You need to have an objective every day. From as far back as the 1960s, a worryingly large number of Malays occupied low-skilled jobs. In 1964, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, then the Prime Minister,

spilling over: Mr Mohammad Rashid Yus, 44, and his family of five find it difficult to contain all their belongings within the confines of their one-room apartment at Holland Drive.

identified it as a national problem in his speech given at a forum aimed at discussing the problems facing the Malay community. Mr Lee concluded that education was the solution to the Malay problems, and that the Government would take on the duty of solving the communitys problems. Since then, two Malay-Muslim self-help organisations and a slew of programmes have been mobilised by Malay leaders to give the underclass an extra boost. The nations first self-help group focusing on education, Yayasan Mendaki, was set up in 1982 to tackle educational aspects of the Malay problem after the 1980 national census revealed some nerve-wracking insights into the academic standards of Malay students. In an attempt to improve the communitys average examination results, Mendaki pioneered mass tuition programmes to provide subsidised weekend classes for English, mathematics, and science. Malay-Muslim organisations like AMP, MUIS, Pertapis, 4PM, and PPIS also have various welfare, education, training, and counselling services that the needy could tap into. The number of avenues of help are

overwhelming. Each welfare organisation runs many programmes, schemes, and projects consecutively, and are constantly coming up with new ones. But without much comprehensive research done on the social service sector, the question of how effective these programmes are remains largely unanswered. Still, problems persist. Only two out of 10 working Malays are senior officials and managers, and Malays students have the lowest PSLE passing rate at 91.2 per cent compared to 98.8 per cent of Chinese and 95 per cent of Indians. The stickiness of these issues have also led many to equate the Malays lack of interest to pursue social mobility with the communitys inability to make major progress. willpower: The way Up The general sentiment among Malay social workers interviewed is that if someone from the lower income group really wants to put an end to his or her poverty, it can be done. They claim that there are more than enough avenues of help. On top of the handful of MalayMuslim organisations, those in need can


also turn to national resources offered through Family Service Centres (FSC) and Community Development Councils (CDC). Social workers feel frustrated at the number of households who, for one reason or another, fail to optimise assistance that is being offered. For example, North East CDC takes pride in its employment and training services, which include jobmatching, career coaching, and training workshops. But Mohd Irshad Mohd Yossuff, manager of the CDCs social services, notes that the organisation cannot force people to accept help. We try to help them by giving some incentives, so hopefully they will be encouraged to improve their lives. But if even with that incentive theyre not going to do anything about it, then we cant help them. It takes two hands to clap, he says. The traits of low-income families seeking help have also changed in the last few years, according to Mdm Hameet Khanee JH, senior manager of AMP. She revealed that five years ago, her clients were in their 40s and 50s. Now, most families she takes in are women in their 20s and 30s who have married young and are facing problematic marriages. The older generation, they tend to be a bit more docile. If you tell them to do something, they are likely to do, because there is fear that if I dont do I dont get this assistance. But for the younger ones, it becomes a case where we have to persuade them to come in and do this when it is actually for their own good. They dont care, she says. But in wanting to offer help, there is the danger of social workers imposing their ideas of success on clients. It is a clash of two different world views, says Dr Suriani Suratman, a senior lecturer at the Department of Malay Studies in National University of Singapore (NUS). Because both parties come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, their beliefs on what should be the good life seldom align, she adds. Still, there are inspiring stories of families that pull through with sheer determination along the help of social services. Ms Syazwani Ab. Mutalif recalls one such case she encountered at the WAHAH Transitional Shelter. A single mother of three had lost her house to her in-laws when her husband died. When she was first admitted into a shelter flat, she was extremely demoralised and depressed but pulled herself together after some counselling sessions. She attained a certificate for operating home businesses, worked her way out of the shelter, and is now renting a flat a tworoom flat in the same block as the previous

siNgapores welFare support...

A RAciAl clAss

There is no shortage of help from the Government as well as the social service sector. But many question its effectiveness. Our interviewees give their two cents worth on the current welfare system.

One thing really lacking in the social work scene in Singapore is proper research. We dont have any data to show how efficient programmes have or have not been. Ms rohaya abdUl rashid,social worker

The Government should look into rental flats, get to know more about the families here. Not just base rent on income... its not fair. Ms sarinah rashid, healThcare FaciliTaTor

Handing cash payouts to the poor doesnt solve the structural problem of what poverty is. Families do benefit from this and theyre thankful, but the question is whether it pulls them out from that level of poverty. dr sUriani sUraTMan, senior lecTUrer Singapore is very results-driven. When we have a very high case load, we are forced to close cases that we think can go on their own. But most of the time, its not okay yet. The problems are coming in faster than the help they are giving. a social workerwho declined To be naMed

If we ask for financial assistance, basic salary must less than $1,500. My husband is a technician at Resorts World Sentosa. He earns $1,600. They only see our basic pay but they dont see our problems. Maslinda abdUllah, hoUsewiFe Mendaki has recently raised the pay of its tutors from $25 per hour to $40 per hour so that we can attract better talents. We are also planning to reduce the student teacher ratio in order to have better quality control over the Mendaki Tution Scheme. dryaacob ibrahiM, MinisTer-in-charge oF MUsliM aFFairs

The reality is when you talk about academic intervention, we are only intervening for some 10 per cent of each cohort. MdMMoliah hashiM, Mendaki ceo



shelter, which is located in the East. Recently, her daughter enrolled into Institute of Technical Education (ITE) despite previously dropping out of secondary school, and her son successfully sat for his O-levels and is now in a polytechnic. On top of her $800 fixed pay each month from her job as a nursing home staff, her two eldest children supplement

the household income by working at fast food restaurants. Together, this pays the rent. The single mother also handles the finances well despite her struggles in order to remain debt-free. This is considered a signifcant improvement for a single mother, to be able to pull through, says Ms Syazwani. But there are too few of such success stories. Ms Syazwani says that some

families do not realise the severity of their poverty even after losing their homes. She reveals that there have been instances where clients were so satisfieded with their new shelter flat that they stopped seeking work or carried on job-hopping for no good reason. To combat such tendencies, members of the community that have succeeded are held up as role models. The local media plays up these rags-to-riches stories, hoping to show that Singapores social safety nets and meritocracy allow adequate opportunities for all races and classes. Successful Malay students are also recognised through various incentives like the Goh Chok Tong Youth Promise Award, AMP Education Bursary, and MUIS Scholarship Awards. One award targets lower-income families who are affected by a common problem that plagues the community drug abuse. In the past couple of years, Malays had the highest number of new abusers, and made up 48 per cent of the total abusers arrested last year. The Harun Ghani Education Fund (HGEF) is named after the late politician, and serves as a continuation of his efforts in helping to reform drug abusers. It does so by handing out monetary awards to children of drug offenders who have made it to tertiary education. Your life is your own choice, Noor Zuhairah Lokman tells us as she waits for the cheque at the HGEF award ceremony. The soft-spoken 17-year-old believes that making the right group of friends is the most crucial step towards doing well in school. She said that because her friends do well in school, she is spurred to study even harder because she does not like losing. Self-motivation landed her a place in Singapore Polytechnic, and she attributes that drive to a lack of guidance at home if nobody is different, whos going to change the family? a MaTTer oF choice But not everyone picks education as a ticket out of poverty. When Ms Hazrini Awang was 21, she decided to get married as she and her boyfriend both wanted children. Things were financially manageable, but got a little more difficult with the arrival of a baby girl. When we met Ms Hazrini early this year, she was pregnant with another pair of babies fraternal twins and was due in a month. Stepping out of her 2- room flat in Tampines to speak to us because she was having a big family get together, she tells us that they had only planned to have one more child, and were taken aback at the news that she was expecting twins. I

a place called hoMe: The narrow corridor is also playground for Mdm Chahayas three younger boys, where they often spend time with other children living on the same floor.



dont know whether to laugh or cry, she says, and gives a tired smile. Realising that things will inevitably get tougher, the 23-year-old homemaker intends to apply for help at ComCare soon. With three young children to support, her husbands $1,300 paycheck will hardly be sufficient. The households monthly expenses includes a $200 maintenance for her husbands son from a previous marriage, $150 for the familys two-room rental flat, $80 for utilities, and $125 for her eldest daughter to attend Star Tots Playgroup leaving the family of five with less than $800 for the rest of their needs. Early marriages, like Ms Hazrinis, are common among the Malay community. The median ages of brides and grooms are lowest among Malays, and the registration of minor marriages, the union of youths under 21-years-old, account for 1.6 per cent of marriages under the Administration of Muslim Law (AMLA), compared to 0.6 per cent under the Womens Charter. AMPs research in the late 1990s revealed that families that began with early marriages tended to break down quickly as well. The findings led them to set up a young couples programme, which offers marriage guidance for young Muslim couples. It gained the recognition of Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) in 2005, and was developed into INSPIRASI. Under the programme, couples intending to marry while at least one partner is under the age of 21 attend a 3-hour premarital counselling session. It would be ideal if the couples realise that marriage is not suited for them after that. But if they choose to stick with their initial plans, a nine-week marriage guidance course, including workshops and support sessions, will follow. And efforts like these contribute to the declining AMLA minor marriages, which have been steadily dropping since 2005. Early marriages, lack of family planning, divorce, and remarriage along with time in homes and prisons are also commonplace among juvenile delinquents, says Ms Nadia Bamasri, Head of the Malay Youth Literary Association (4PM) counselling unit. She laments seeing the same clients throughout her career as a social worker. Its a choice they make in life. Unfortunately most of them choose this kind of life. Its more thrilling, its more fun, its more hip, she says. For them, further studies or work skills courses would be out of the question once they start going down that road. Ms Nadia says that they then have to worry about living day to day, and their main priorities

revolve around taking care of their children rather than education or upgrading. She says: Bread and butter (issues) are more important. So thats the difficult part about helping these people. In addition, other social workers say Malay families often prefer the mother to remain a stay-home mum, whereas Chinese mothers would opt to enroll their children in childcare and work to increase the familys household income. As this choice seems to be culturally more acceptable for Malays, it poses a great deal of difficulty for social workers to convince mothers to get jobs. Because many of these problems boil down to a lack of family planning, Minister of Muslim Affairs Dr Yaacob Ibrahim feels that educating young women is a crucial step in nipping the Malay problem in the bud. Programmes like INSPIRASI delay marriages and therefore prevent future problems. We need to empower the women; tell them that there is a future for them that is brighter than marrying a guy who is not serious about building a stable family with them. And we have strong Malay women role models like Halimah Yaacob and Intan Azura to inspire them. More Than jUsT The Mind Due to the complex problems of the Malay underclass, blaming it on their unwillingness to pull themselves out of poverty might be the easy way out. Despite the prevalent stereotype, there is a lack of studies done to compare the attitudes and beliefs of different ethnic groups in Singapore to prove that Malays indeed have a more laidback outlook towards life.

addressing the Malay problem. From the Governments standpoint, Malays are responsible for their marginalisation, and the blame cannot be put on the state for not providing structural solutions. This explains PAPs constant reminders to the community to study and work harder, have a more competitive spirit, and help themselves. Even segments of the Malay community adopt this view. The local Malay newspaper Berita Harian also sees the situation as a problem of being Malay, alleges Mr Alfian Saat. The resident playwright at Wild Rice adds that articles about keluarga pincang, a term they use to identify prominent Malay issues like single parents, high divorce rates, the lower-income, people under Government assistance, and abusive families, often point to mental revolution as the solution. There seems to be no change in the way the Government and the national media are looking at this predicament. Observers worry that if policy makers continue to address problems associated with the Malay underclass as a problem of cultural attitudes, there is little hope of addressing more important factors at work. Although there are instances where lower income Malays have displayed certain traits that have played a part in contributing to their current socio-economic status, some say it is unfair to point fingers only at them. Playwright Alfian Saat concludes that the Malay issues cannot be so easily blamed on attitudes, and surmises that the communitys problems started decades ago. The high instances of drug abuse, for instance, began when Malay youths were not enlisted in the army and were then left

We need to empower the women; tell them that there is a future for them that is brighter than marrying a guy who is not serious about building a stable family with them. And we have strong Malay women role models like Halimah Yaacob and Intan Azura to inspire them. dr yaacob ibrahiM, MinisTer oFMUsliM aFFairs

This lack of evidence has led critics to equate the unflattering discourse about Malay attitudes with what is termed as the cultural deficit theory the belief that certain communities embody a set of negative traits that cause them to suffer low achievements. In The Singapore Dilemma, Prof Lily argues that Singapores ruling party subscribes to the cultural deficit thesis when

jobless, but these facts are often overlooked in the local media. In the press, its more of We are weak-willed thats why we take drugs. But wait, these people have no hope. These people are looking for jobs and they get constantly turned away. There was a sense of loss and despair. And this is why it is unfair to simply blame them for making the choices they did then.


what has Faith got to do with it?A total of 99 per cent of Malays here declare Islam as their practicing religion. With Islam and ethnicity so tightly interwoven, how much of the religion lends itself as a pillar of support to the lower income, or to what extent has it impeded them from socio-economic progress?

M

dm Hassanah Jumaats old cat has never taken ill. It has never been to a vet, never been bogged down by ailments. As it sits on the cement floor next to the door of her 2-room flat at Boon Lay where we are having our interview, Mdm Hassanah watches it while she tells us how she has no savings at all to bring anyone in her family, the cat included, to get medical help. We pray and ask from God so we rarely fall sick. Even if we get sick, even if my cat gets sick, I will pray to God, she says. And the prayers seem to have worked Mdm Hassanah tells us that just like her cat, her husband and two teenage children have hardly needed a visit to a doctor, much less a hospital. The five mandatory daily prayers have been an integral part of her life in ensuring the good health of her family. For some families like Mdm Hassanahs, Islam plays a central part in the acceptance of the rough conditions that have been thrown their way. She tells us that everything, from the drug addiction problems her husband has been fighting for years, to the affliction that ails her left leg ren-

to more commonly as the Malay-Muslim community, with an almost synonymous relation between ethnicity and the religion of Islam. This was brought on by a multitude of factors, most significantly the rising religiosity of Muslims from the 1970s to 1990s in neighbouring Indonesia and Malaysia. With Islam and the Malay community so closely intertwined, questions abound on how much of a help or hindrance the religion has played in the lives of lower income Malays. Today, the Malay-Muslim community is the only one with a minister in charge of dual affairs ethnic and religious in addition to a statutory board in the form of MUIS, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, to see that the many and varied interests of Singapores Muslim community are looked after. Perhaps it is the commonly perceived stereotype of Malays embodying this fatalistic belief of takdir that has led many to attribute the communitys lack of progress to a tendency to settle for less instead of striving for more, especially among the lower income group. But in reality, the religious zeal displayed

In Islam there is a saying by Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, which says poverty leads to disbelief. So when you are in severe poverty, religion is the last thing you have in mind because you need to survive. MsFarah aljUnied, depUTy direcTor, cUrricUlUM and yoUTh developMen aT MUis

dering her unable to work, has been predetermined. And instead of wallowing in their predicaments, they accept it as takdir the belief in predestination or divine decree, which is a central tenet of Islam, the religion 99 per cent of Malays in Singapore subscribe to. The way the Malay community is addressed in the media has altered slightly in the past decade they are now referred

by Mdm Hassanah was not visible in many of the families visited over the course of three months spent at 11 blocks of 1- and 2-room rental flats in the eastern, western and central parts of Singapore. In many of these homes, the presence of Islam in the lives of its inhabitants seem varied and sporadic as opposed to the increased fervour observed amongst the Malay middle class here.

The reasoning behind this observation, says MUISs Farah Aljunied, lies in the fact that low-income families live day to day, and are hard-pressed focusing their energies on living hand to mouth. In Islam there is a saying by Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, which says poverty leads to disbelief. So when you are in severe poverty, religion is the last thing you have in mind because you need to survive. Your existence comes first before such higher-order spiritual needs, says Ms Farah, the deputy director of youth and curriculum, who has been working with MUIS for 15 years. Ms Farahs observation echoes strongly during our home visits. In Mdm Nor Chahaya Amirs house, for instance, a wall clock with the names Allah the Arabic word for God and Muhammad, the last messenger of Islam, is the only physical semblance of religiosity on display. As Ali, 17, Mdm Chahayas oldest son returns to their Chai Chee home from school, he utters the Arabic phrase Assalammualaikum, or peace be upon you and kisses the hand of his mother. The salutation is Islamic, the physical gesturing, an age-old cultural tradition practiced by the Malays. This combination of the two is the closest thing to being a practicing

89383297 the Malay Underclass

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