Speech by President Halimah Yacob at IRO Remembrance Gathering for New Zealand Terror Attacks

Her Excellency Jo Tyndall, New Zealand High Commissioner to Singapore

Mr Ben Benjamin, President, Inter-Religious Organisation

Ambassadors

Religious Leaders

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

We are gathered here today to commemorate and pray for the Christchurch victims and their families arising from a terrorist attack on two mosques last month. I am grateful to the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), supported by all our faith communities, for organising this event.

15 March 2019 was indeed a sad day, not only for New Zealanders but for all peace loving people everywhere. We watched with horror as events unfolded and were deeply shocked and saddened by the loss of so many innocent lives and the many others who were injured. On behalf of the people of Singapore, I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the victims. Hopefully, time and the support of loved ones can help to heal their pain and overcome their challenges.

When terror attacks occur at places of worship, the impact is most devastating, as these are religious sanctities where we are supposed to be safe and enjoy the greatest peace. Striking at places of worship is meant to inflict the worst horror and fear among people that there is nowhere that they can be safe. The mosques at Christchurch is but one of many heinous attacks by terrorists on places of worship. In October 2018, at least 11 congregants were killed during Sabbath services in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, USA. Other countries are not spared, as 311 congregants were killed by militants at Al-Rawda mosque in Egypt, during their Friday prayers in November 2017. Extremists and terrorists have only one aim and that is to spread fear, hatred and discord among people.

We must do our utmost to thwart the aim of these extremists and terrorists. We have to show them that their acts of terror will not divide us but will instead unite us and make us stronger. This is the message that has resonated very strongly from the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre. We see the strength of New Zealanders who stood shoulder to shoulder, regardless of race, religion or other affiliations, to show support, care and compassion to those who were affected and to assure the wider community that they were not daunted and will not be set back by this tragedy.  One week after the incident, the Muslim call to prayer was sounded out over Christchurch and around New Zealand. Many non-Muslims joined the Muslims in the Friday afternoon prayers. The people of New Zealand have truly shown their mettle that they are resilient and will not be torn apart by terrorism.

It is also during moments like these that we see what true leadership means. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was exemplary. She strongly condemned the hatred and xenophobia, extensively engaged the community and swiftly moved to study measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents. And this act of leadership is emulated throughout the NZ society, where groups moved quickly to assure Muslims of their safety when they are performing their prayers or performing their daily chores. The Muslim community too were exemplary in their measured, sensible and forgiving responses. When interviewed by the media, Mr Farid Ahmad, whose wife was killed in the shooting, had this to say to the shooter: “I have no grudge against you. I never hated you. I will never hate you”. Magnanimous words but very reflective and apt as hatred has never solved problems and true healing cannot take place in an atmosphere of hate. There are many lessons that we can learn from the Christchurch tragedy and the most important one being how we should respond as a society after the event.

The Singapore parliament recently debated at length on the need to curb hate speech. The debate is a timely one, particularly as we all know that Christchurch will not be the last terrorist act and we cannot assume that it will not happen here. But curbing hate speech is only one part of tackling the issue as there’s more that we can do. We also need to realise that extremists and terrorists of whatever hue or colour share the same beliefs. They feel a sense of supremacy over others and see other cultures and way of life as a threat to their existence which they want to eliminate. This usually stems from ignorance, which is fuelled by a relentless stream of disinformation and falsehoods fed to them largely through online platforms. Understanding the basis for these feelings of hatred can help us to develop more effective strategies to combat bigotry and xenophobia and to counter hate.

One strategy that we have developed in Singapore is the IRO. It plays a key role in strengthening mutual understanding and respect among the different religions. We realised early in our independence that having different races and religions living together can be a great source of strength if we are able to harness the diversity positively. Over its 70 years of establishment, the IRO has been working hard to foster friendship among religious leaders and followers, and gatherings such as today’s are testimony of its efforts. In Singapore, it is common for the different religious groups to run programmes and services that benefit all the communities. Help to the poor and needy, bursaries for underprivileged children and free food such as those provided by Buddhist and Sikh temples, are accessible to all regardless of race or religion.

However, building a strong and cohesive society is a continuing effort, and requires commitment from every one of us. The Government and communities have partnered closely to expand opportunities for Singaporeans to discuss and interact across boundaries of race, religion, belief and background. These opportunities strengthen our intercommunity relations and trust, and protect ourselves against forces which might otherwise tear our society apart.

In June, we will be hosting the inaugural International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS). The conference will discuss themes on building social cohesion and interfaith harmony. I hope that the ideas and experiences shared at the conference will further inspire more ground-up efforts to promote and protect social harmony, and I seek the strong support of our community partners to do more on this front.

Let me conclude by asking everyone to stand united against all forms of bigotry, xenophobia and racism. Let us extend our hands of friendship to others by looking beyond our differences and focussing only on our common values and our humanity. We cannot solve all the world’s problems but we can start with ourselves, as only we can decide what kind of a future that we want to leave to our children and grandchildren – one filled with hate and conflict or one filled with warmth, compassion and love for mankind.

Finally, I thank IRO for inviting me to be part of this very meaningful event. And, I thank everyone here for your presence and for showing your support to our New Zealand friends.

Thank you.