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| SGI Around the World |
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[Courtesy, October 2003 SGI Quarterly] |
| Singapore |
| Serving the Community in Singapore |
By Sandra Sin, SSA Vice General Director
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At a recent lecture titled, "Crossing the Divide: Dialogue Among Civilizations," a question was put from the audience as to the ultimate effectiveness of exchanges between civilizations carried out at governmental level. True dialogue that bridges civilizations is, the questioner asserted, an exchange that links individual hearts at the level of the people.
The occasion was the Third Daisaku Ikeda Annual Lecture sponsored by the Singapore Soka Association, held to commemorate the organization's 36th anniversary. In the audience were diplomats from foreign embassies in Singapore; scholars and academics; people in the business and corporate world; figures representing the local religious community; and students representing different colleges.
For the speaker, Singapore Ambassador-at-Large Prof. Tommy Koh, this was a perfect opportunity to reflect, for the sake of the visitor who had posed the question, on Singapore's own experience of weaving together the tapestry of its multiethnic and multireligious identities.
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| The Road to Nationhood |
Singapore has come a long way from being an unknown island of fishing villages inhabited by indigenous Malays to the present city-state populated by 4.2 million people with an interracial mix of 76.5 percent Chinese, 13.8 percent Malays, 8.1 percent Indians and 1.6 percent people of other ethnic groups, according to the latest census report.
Singapore gained independence from the then Malaya on August 8, 1965. Being only a small island with no natural resources except its human capital, the country's first elected government embarked on the challenging task of social construction, with jobs, housing and education being top priority. It was under these circumstances that Nichiren Buddhism first took root in the newly born nation.
The early practitioners were mainly Chinese. Most Chinese families subscribed to some form of traditional Chinese religious practice that was a combination of Buddhist, Taoist and ancestral worship beliefs. With memories still fresh of the atrocities that Japanese soldiers had inflicted on their parents and grandparents during World War II, the local Chinese community for the most part found this "Japanese Buddhism," as they perceived it, unacceptable. The few pioneer members who began to practice Nichiren Buddhism nevertheless, by their own living examples, testified to the validity of their newly found faith, thereby winning the understanding and support of their immediate family members.
The community of believers continued to grow during the mid-60s and early 70s. In 1972, the Singapore Soka Association (SSA) was legally registered as a Buddhist organization with the aim of promoting the understanding and practice of Nichiren Buddhism in Singapore society. Singapore was then in the throes of modernization; a nation in the making that had to grapple with issues of social integration and community bonding while maintaining its pluralistic social fabric.
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| Building People, Building a Nation |
One important national event that is a visual statement of Singapore's achievement of social harmony and progress is the country's National Day Parade that marks the August 8 anniversary of independence.
In 1981, Singapore SGI members gave their debut performance in this event. Subsequently, almost every year, the SGI members have continued to impress the public with their creative display routines of calisthenics and dance performances. National Day 2003 marked their 18th appearance.
SSA's contributions were noted by the country's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong when he officiated at the opening of SSA's Headquarters Culture Centre in January 1993. The prime minister commented that SSA's participation in community and charity work "reflects the values promoted by your association: respect for the dignity of the individual, perseverance in self-development, understanding and compassion in helping others overcome their suffering. In promoting these values and in putting these values into practice, you are helping to foster a compassionate and cohesive society."
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| A total of 1,000 SSA youth members participated in Singapore's 38th National Day celebration (August 2003) |
Singapore has not been spared the ill effects of urbanization and modernization. With society and people becoming highly competitive and materialistic in their pursuits, the challenge has become one of promoting and advancing the spirit of volunteerism and community service.
SGI members in Singapore actively contribute to their local communities and to society through a wide range of community services, cultural and educational events. For example, SSA offers a Day Education and Activity Programme for senior citizens, aimed at enabling participants to stay healthy and active, as well as a befriending service for women in crisis.
SSA's youth work is also gaining considerable recognition and support from national youth bodies and voluntary youth agencies. In December 2001, a Youth Peace Carnival initiated by SSA's youth division brought together 10,000 young people from various community and religious organizations. It was the largest youth gathering ever achieved through a civic organization's effort, where young people from different social, ethnic and religious backgrounds assembled to promote peace.
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| Interfaith Collaboration |
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| The SSA/Mercy Relief youth delegation in Cambodia (December 2002) |
September 11 has changed Singapore as it has the world. The terrorists hijacked the religion of Islam for their cause. Interfaith learning and sharing has never been of such great importance and urgency in multi ethnic and multireligious Singapore. SSA deepened its bonds of trust and goodwill with the Malay-Muslim community by collaborating with Perdaus, a Malay-Muslim voluntary welfare organization, to undertake an overseas humanitarian project in Cambodia.
In December 2002, 21 youths from SSA and Perdaus's humanitarian arm, Mercy Relief, participated in a Youth Expedition Project supported by the Singapore International Foundation. They undertook refurbishment work and educational activities at a children's orphanage in Takeo Province, Cambodia. The two-and-a-half-week project proved immensely enriching. Extending themselves beyond their comfort zones, the youths reached out to touch the lives of the disadvantaged children, and were moved in return. They realized that beneath the social and cultural differences of the beneficiaries and their working partners lay, after all, the common thread of humanity.
Under the banner of peace and service to community, belief in the inherent dignity of life as taught in Nichiren Buddhist philosophy brought young people together across religions, across cultures and across civilizations. Peace-building can indeed start at the level of the people.
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| Challenges Ahead |
The resilience of people is tested in the toughest times. And Singapore is presently undergoing one of the toughest periods in her 38 years of nationhood, with economic slowdown, threats of terrorism and the unseen enemy of SARS. During the recent SARS outbreak, SGI-Singapore campaigned to educate its members on social responsibility to safeguard against the disease.
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| An environmental exhibition held at Singapore's World Trade Centre Expo Gateway (August 1997) |
Under the capable leadership of its government, the Lion City has stood tall in the face of this challenge.
Recently, led by the country's prime minister, the people of Singapore demonstrated their resolve to stand united in the face of adversity and completed the largest ever "Fabric of the Nation," a quilt that combines 15,000 pieces of patchwork contributed by Singaporeans from all walks of life. Fittingly, members of SSA's women's division gave the finishing touches to the quilt when it was finally completed--a proud symbol of the united hopes and spirit of the people of Singapore.
Website URL: http://www.ssabuddhist.org/
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