US embassy cable - 05SINGAPORE312

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 SINGAPORE 000312 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/B 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/03/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PINR, PREL, PTER, SN, SOCI 
SUBJECT: MUSLIM MPS IN SINGAPORE: PART 1 OF 2 
 
REF: A. 04 SINGAPORE 3001 
     B. 03 SINGAPORE 926 
 
Classified By: Amb. Franklin L. Lavin, Reasons 1.4 (b)(d) 
 
1. (C) Summary: Concerned about preventing racial and 
religious conflict in Singapore, the ruling People's Action 
Party (PAP) actively co-opts talented Muslims, especially 
potential critics.  In addition to holding a modest number of 
senior positions in the government, representatives from 
Singapore's Muslim community have 12 seats in parliament, of 
whom one holds a ministerial portfolio.   These MPs maintain 
close ties with community organizations and the grassroots, 
project a moderate image and condemn extremism, and defend 
unpopular government policies.  Community leaders give them 
mixed reviews and Muslim MPs have been given charge only of 
lower profile ministries.  The PAP has been recruiting more 
highly educated Muslim MPs and has taken several steps to 
raise their position in the cabinet.  Starting in para 8 are 
bios for five of the MPs.  Septel will cover the remaining 
MPs.  End Summary. 
 
Guaranteed Representation 
------------------------- 
 
2. (C) There are 12 Muslim MPs in Singapore's parliament, 
elected in November 2001.  All 12 are from the ruling 
People's Action Party (PAP), which controls 82 out of 84 
seats.  Singapore's electoral system guarantees 
representation in parliament for Malays, Indians and other 
minorities.  (Note: Singapore is approximately 77 percent 
ethnic Chinese, 14 percent Malay, and 7 percent Indian.  End 
Note.)  Singapore's electoral system for parliament is 
divided between nine Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) and 
14 Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) which have 
either five or six members.  Under the electoral law, each 
GRC must have at least one Malay, Indian or other minority 
MP.  The PAP has justified the GRC system as a way to 
guarantee parliamentary representation for minorities, which 
it has done.  However, the electoral system has also made it 
more difficult for opposition parties to win seats (Ref A). 
 
Role of the MPs 
--------------- 
 
3. (C) The Muslim MPs serve a number of functions for the 
ruling party.  First, the MP positions are an important tool 
for the PAP to co-opt bright and talented Muslims, especially 
any potential critics.  This was the case with businessman MP 
Ahmad Magad, who helped found a group that was critical of 
the PAP government and its Muslim MPs, but was later 
recruited by the PAP to run for parliament.  Second, the MPs 
provide important constituent services, meeting with the 
public at weekly "Meet the MP" sessions, as do all MPs.  In 
addition, these MPs also work with community organizations 
and grassroots leaders to uplift Singapore's Malay/Muslim 
minority, which lags behind the other races in education 
level and income.  Four junior Muslim MPs are responsible for 
coordinating efforts in the four key areas identified by 
community leaders: youth, education, employment, and family 
development.  Third, the MPs project a moderate image for 
Singapore's Muslim community.  Following the 9/11 attacks and 
the detentions of Jemaah Islamiyah suspects in Singapore, 
Muslim MPs have been expected to take a clear stand against 
terrorism and lead the community in condemning Islamic 
extremism.  Fourth, the Muslim MPs actively defend government 
policies that are unpopular in parts of the community, such 
as the 2002 ban on girls wearing the Islamic headscarf 
(tudung) in public schools.  Finally, these MPs help the PAP 
project its desired image of Singapore as a multi-racial, 
multi-religious meritocracy, even though real political power 
is wielded by a small inner-circle of mostly ethnic Chinese. 
 
4. (C) Community leaders give the MPs mixed reviews.  While 
they are seen as hard-working and talented, the MPs are also 
considered agents of the government.  The former president of 
the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) Maarof bin 
Haji Salleh told emboffs that the MPs were constrained from 
aggressively promoting the interests of the Malay/Muslim 
community.  This was due to electoral reasons -- they could 
not afford to antagonize the majority of ethnic Chinese 
voters in their districts -- as well as the PAP's firm line 
against any use of religion for political purposes. 
 
Low Profile Ministries 
---------------------- 
 
5. (C) For the last fifteen years, every cabinet has had one 
Muslim Minister (or Acting Minister), either as Minister of 
Environment or Minister of Community Development, Youth, and 
Sports (MCDYS - the major source of government funding for 
community and ethnic groups).  This minister has also doubled 
as Minister-in-Charge of Muslim affairs.  Community members 
have noted the absence of Muslim MPs in more senior and 
sensitive ministries, Rashidah Abdul Rasip -- CEO of MENDAKI, 
the leading Malay/Muslim education self-help group linked to 
the government -- told emboffs.  Aren't these MPs good enough 
for higher profile portfolios in the cabinet, she asked.  In 
the last cabinet reshuffle in August 2004, the PAP made some 
modest moves to raise the profile of its Muslim MPs in the 
cabinet.  For example, the Ministry of Environment was 
reorganized and renamed to include water resources, which has 
strategic importance for Singapore and is a sensitive issue 
in its relations with neighboring Malaysia.  Also, while 
there is still only one Minister, there are now two Muslim 
Ministers of State, one each at MFA and in the Prime 
Minister's Office.  There has also been speculation that the 
current Speaker of Parliament, Abdullah Tarmugi, could be 
selected the next president later this year. 
 
The Modern MP 
------------- 
 
6. (C) Muslim MPs are expected to serve as role models for 
the community.  In recruiting new Muslim MPs, the PAP has 
increasingly sought candidates who are professionals like 
lawyers, doctors, and engineers with advanced degrees.  In 
the past, Muslim MPs were not seen as well-qualified as their 
Chinese counterparts and were chosen for their grassroots 
ties, according to Rashidah. 
 
============== 
MP Biographies 
============== 
 
7. (U) These biographies are designed to be stand-alone 
documents, so acronyms and organizations are described in 
each biography. 
 
Abdullah Tarmugi - Speaker of Parliament 
---------------------------------------- 
 
8. (U) Adbudllah Tarmugi has been an MP since 1984 and 
Speaker of Parliament since 2002.  He has held a variety of 
cabinet posts, including Minister for Environment and for 
Community Development and Sports.  He was also 
Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs from 1993-2002.  He may 
be in line for the largely ceremonial position of president. 
 
9. (C) Abdullah has had an uneasy relationship with the Malay 
community in Singapore.  A private person, he has publicly 
expressed his discomfort with the additional scrutiny and 
higher expectations to which Malay/Muslim MPs are subjected. 
While he has stated that being a Malay helped him relate to 
the community's concerns, he has said that he must serve all 
his constituents and look at issues from a national 
perspective.  Some Muslims have criticized him for not being 
religious enough and for the very "modern" style of his 
ethnic Chinese wife.  He has firmly supported the government 
line in controversial issues, such as the 2002 decision to 
ban Muslim girls from wearing the tudung (Islamic headscarf) 
in national schools.  As Chairman of MENDAKI (the leading 
Malay/Muslim education self-help group linked to the 
government) from 1994-2003, he urged Malay/Muslim groups 
(both religious and secular) to cooperate and focus on social 
problems confronting the community, such as divorce, drug 
abuse, and poorer educational performance. 
 
10. (U) He was born on August 25, 1944, to a working class 
Javanese father who emigrated to Singapore as a teenager and 
an ethnic Chinese mother raised by a Malay father.  He 
graduated from the prestigious Raffles Institution and earned 
a B.S. in Sociology at the University of Singapore on a 
government scholarship and a postgraduate diploma in Urban 
Studies from the University of London using a Commonwealth 
Scholarship.  He spent ten years at the Ministry of National 
Development as a civil servant and later worked for the 
Straits Times as a writer and associate news editor.  His 
ethnic Chinese wife is a retired school principal and 
converted from Catholicism to Islam when they married.  They 
have two children. 
 
Yaacob Ibrahim - Minister of Environment and Water Resources 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
11. (U) Yaacob Ibrahim has been Minister of Environment and 
Water Resources since 2004, following two years as Minister 
of Community Development and Sports.  In 2002, he was 
appointed Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs.  He was first 
elected to parliament in 1997 and was quickly promoted to the 
sub-cabinet position of Parliamentary Secretary at the 
Ministry of Communications in 1998.  In December 2004, he was 
selected Vice Chairman of the People's Action Party's 
policy-making Central Executive Committee. 
 
12. (C) Since his college days, Yaacob has been very involved 
in Singapore's Muslim organizations.  He was a youth member 
of the Muslim Missionary Society (Jamiyah) and is a long-time 
volunteer at MENDAKI (the leading Malay/Muslim education 
self-help group linked to the government).  He was also 
actively involved with the Islamic Religious Council of 
Singapore (MUIS), serving on its council from 1992-1996.  As 
Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs, he has encouraged 
community organizations to specialize and avoid duplication 
of services.  He has also been given a role in Singapore's 
outreach effort to the Middle East.  In 2004, he led two 
business delegations to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and 
Egypt.  While in Egypt, he met with Singaporeans studying at 
Al-Azhar University, as part of the government's efforts to 
ensure that its citizens studying in the Middle East keep 
Islamic teachings in a Singapore context.  Several contacts 
have asserted that, since his hajj in February 2004, Yaacob 
has become less of an integrationist.  These contacts said he 
has come to believe that there were two distinct spheres in 
Singaporean society: public and private.  While he envisioned 
that Singaporeans of all races would continue to interact in 
the public sphere in areas of common interest, they could 
choose to limit their private interactions to people of the 
same race and religion. 
 
13. (U) Dr. Yaacob was born in Singapore on October 3, 1955, 
the fourth of nine children of a minor civil servant.  All of 
his siblings have excelled as professionals.  His eldest 
brother was the first Malay chosen as a Presidential scholar 
and a younger sister is political editor for the Straits 
Times.  He graduated from the University of Singapore with a 
Civil Engineering degree in 1980.  He obtained a scholarship 
to do his Ph.D. at Stanford University.  He graduated in 1989 
and worked subsequently as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Cornell 
University.  His wife is an American citizen who grew up in 
Puerto Rico.  Yaacob told emboff that he has a more 
open-minded interpretation of the Koran and said his wife 
converted to Islam to satisfy the conservative standards of 
Singapore.  They have two children, both American citizens, 
and they travel to the U.S. frequently to visit his wife's 
family. 
 
Zainul Abidin Rasheed - Minister of State, MFA 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
14. (U) In 2004, Zainul Abidin Rasheed was promoted to 
Minister of State at MFA; he was previously Senior 
Parliamentary Secretary from 1998-2001.  He was first elected 
to parliament in 1997.  He was active in Malay/Muslim 
organizations before being recruited by the People's Action 
Party (PAP) to run for political office.  From 1990-1993, he 
was CEO of MENDAKI (the leading Malay/Muslim education 
self-help group linked to the government) and was also 
President of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore 
(MUIS) from 1991-1996.  He is currently Deputy Chairman of 
the Malay Heritage Foundation.  He has urged local Muslims to 
avoid extremism and conservatism and to think of themselves 
first as Singaporeans.  He does not want concern for Muslims 
in other countries to cause disunity at home.  Friendly and 
open, Zainul was the highest ranking GOS official at the 2004 
Iftar hosted by the Ambassador. 
 
15. (U) Zainul was born on March 17, 1948.  He attended 
Raffles Institution and earned a B.A. in Economics and Malay 
Studies from the University of Singapore in 1971.  After 
graduation, he became a Research Editor/Manager of the Asia 
Research Bulletin and also served as an editor of the Malay 
language newspaper, Berita Harian, as well as at the Straits 
Times.  He is married and has four children. 
 
Ahmad Mohamed Magad 
------------------- 
 
16. (U) Ahmad Mohamed Magad was first elected to parliament 
in 1997 and chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee 
(GPC) for Finance and Trade and Industry.  He is one of the 
few businessmen in parliament.  Since 1988, he has been 
Managing Director of II-VI Singapore Ltd., a subsidiary of a 
U.S. multinational corporation that manufactures infrared 
optics.  He travels frequently to the U.S. for business and 
is very accessible to emboffs.  He is a member of the Action 
Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), a private-public sector 
movement to build an entrepreneurial culture in Singapore. 
 
17. (C) Before being recruited by the People's Action Party 
(PAP) for parliament, Magad was co-founder and later chairman 
of the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP).  The group 
was formed in 1991 to provide an alternative voice to MENDAKI 
(the leading Malay/Muslim education self-help group linked to 
the government) and to the PAP's Muslim MPs who were seen by 
some local Muslims as ineffectual and unrepresentative. 
Magad stepped down from AMP in 1995 and joined the PAP 
shortly thereafter.  As an MP, Magad supported then Prime 
Minister Goh Chok Tong when he rebuked AMP for attempting to 
establish an alternative Muslim leadership distinct from the 
MPs and government-linked organizations.  Former Islamic 
Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) President Maarof bin 
Haji Salleh told emboff that Magad's recruitment by the PAP 
was an indicator of its desire to weaken independent 
organizations. 
 
18. (U) Born on December 22, 1952, Magad is married and has 
three children.  He won a Public Service Commission 
scholarship to study precision engineering-optics in West 
Germany and finished his degree in 1974.  He earned an MBA 
from Brunel University in the UK in 1990 and his Ph.D. in 
2003. 
 
Hawazi Daipi 
------------ 
 
19. (U) Hawazi Daipi was been an MP since 1996.  In 2004, he 
became Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of 
Education as well as for the Ministry of Manpower.  He had 
previously served as Parliamentary Secretary at both 
ministries. 
 
20. (U) A former teacher, Hawazi has stated that education is 
the key to uplifting Malay/Muslims.  He has chaired a number 
of government committees seeking to improve Malay language 
instruction and to encourage racial mixing in schools.  He 
has advocated devolving more authority to individual schools 
to develop initiatives rather than having the Ministry of 
Education impose measures.  While at the National Trades 
Union Congress, Hawazi was in charge of its program to help 
retrain the growing number of retrenched workers -- 
frequently Malay/Muslims -- with limited education and few 
marketable skills.  Hawazi also spent fourteen years as a 
reporter and editor for the Malay language newspaper Berita 
Harian.  He had a variety of overseas assignments, including 
Cyprus, southern Philippines, and southern Thailand.  He has 
said that these experiences taught him that social cohesion 
in a multi-ethnic society is vital but fragile and must be 
carefully nurtured. 
 
21. (U) Hawazi was born on February 13, 1954.  He comes from 
a humble background -- his father was a boat pilot and his 
mother was a maid and he grew up in what he called an "urban 
slum," with many families crowded together.  He earned a B.A. 
in economics and geography from the University of Singapore 
in 1977 and earned a Diploma in Education in 1979 from the 
Institute of Education.  He is married and has two children. 
LAVIN