Chee Soon Juan on tudung issue, “20 years late, but better late than never”

Singapore — After Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in his National Day Rally speech that Muslim nurses who wish to wear the tudung to work would be allowed to do so from Nov on, Chee Soon Juan called it an “enlightened decision” coming “20 years late but… better late than never.”

In a Facebook post on Thursday (Sept 2), Dr Chee, the secretary-general of Singapore Democratic Party, explained why he called the decision twenty years late.

In 2002, the longtime opposition figure had addressed the issue at the Speaker’s Corner, urging authorities “to embrace the right for Muslim women to wear the headscarf as part of their uniform.”

For this, he was prosecuted and made to pay a fine of $3,000.

According to Dr Chee, PM Lee had said that wearing garments such as the tudung would “disrupt the image of unity in the public sector.”

But he added unity is an internal value based partly on how citizens feel the state treats them.

“But when you have the powerful demanding million-dollar salaries while rejecting minimum wage, when the state can willy-nilly decide on who should be president based on skin colour, when immigration is based on nationality, equality and unity becomes just words that the government uses to manipulate the population for its own gain,” wrote the SDP head.

Dr Chee repeated that unity “cannot be demanded from on-high” or “decreed by self-centred politicians,” but “can only be fostered by leaders who walk the talk and inspire people to look beyond appearance.”

He added an excerpt of his speech from 2002, wherein he explained why he, as a Chinese Christian, spoke on an issue affecting Muslim females, adding that his Malay and Muslim friends are afraid to speak out on this issue.

When they do speak up, “they are branded as racists and they attract the unwanted attention from the Government. And so many of them choose to keep quiet. But the problem doesn’t go away…”

“I appeal to the higher spirit of kindness and generosity in all of us and not pander to our base instincts of selfishness and ethnocentrism. Let us advocate tolerance, let us embrace diversity, let us celebrate humanity. Let us be colour blind when it comes to standing up for our rights. Let us reach across the racial divide when it comes to caring for each other and speaking up for one another.

For only then can we truly call ourselves sons and daughters of this island,” Dr Chee said in 2002. /TISG

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