Launch of Mawar Community Services Hub for Ex-Offenders – Opening Remarks by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Chairman of Mawar Community Services, Capt Shaukath Ali

Chairman of Masjid Khalid, Dr Ariffin Kawaja

My Parliamentary colleagues,

Ladies & Gentlemen,

1. Good afternoon to all of you.

2. You know, Mawar Community Services, previously Muslim Community Services, has been working with prisons for more than 40 years. You heard from 1978.

3. When the people are in prison, they work with them, they try and rehabilitate them, help them get some skills so that when they come out, they can get a job. Over the years, prison’s approach on rehabilitation has changed dramatically, and today there are many support systems.

4. But still, the spirit and energy that an NGO and organisation, ground up, with people like you helping, will be different from what prisons itself can do.

5. Prisons provides the framework, organisations like MCS come in and provide the secret sauce, and the results have been good because if you take the 2011 cohort, I think the recidivism rate – that means the people who reoffend – is probably around 36, 37 percent. You fast forward to 2021, 10 years later, the recidivism rate has come down to 20 odd percent, nearly 10 percent less.

6. Each one who doesn’t go back to prison – he, his family, children, don’t suffer. It’s a tremendous impact. The work you’re doing actually has a big impact on individual lives. You’re saving lives, and it’s not just in prison - MCS volunteers work with the ex-prisoners outside, try and keep them off drugs, off doing criminal things, getting back to work and looking after their family, because the family is the one that suffers most.

7. So both inside prison and outside of prison, very big role, MCS and many other partners. You have been a very important partner for prisons. And as a result, today we can safely say, if you take any developed country, the recidivism rate is between to 40 to 60 percent. Four to six out of every 10 persons who is in prisons goes back to prison. In Singapore, with your help and the help of many other NGOs, and the approach the prisons and the Government take, it’s now down to out of every 10 – two and a half persons go back to prison. Big change, and we will try to bring it down some more.

8. And this hub, I was told students will come and look at the prison conditions. Hopefully that has an impact. It also helps as sort of a halfway house kind of approach, where ex-prisoners come here, learn skills, learn resilience. You see their trips - they go overseas, on climbing expeditions, on trekking, and they build self confidence and a spirit of comradeship, which is all to be very welcomed.

9. Finally, this place, and more important than the place – the spirit, the idea, is a tribute to the late Haji Allaudin. I was telling my colleague MOS Faishal, people like that, once in a generation, not easy to find, very difficult to replace. Big heart.

10. Those of us who know him know he is deeply religious. At the same time, he understands Singapore’s multi-religious, multi-racial context. The mosque is always open for everyone, regardless of race or religion, and his heart is open to everyone. He serves all communities and reaches across religions and races to connect and link up and serve people. Likewise, to help them, mosque goers and Muslim communities, he also reaches out and gets help from different religious groups, and they are all willing to help. It’s very beneficial on both sides.

11. And it’s his vision that the programme has been successful. His vision is the reason why all of you are here, and we remember him. We thank him and his family for all the work that has been done. You can say thousands of people have benefitted. I think the mosque is making a major contribution – $25,000 for the MCS. We thank the mosque and in remembrance of him, let’s carry on the good work. We are very happy in Home Affairs and prisons to partner with you. Thank you very much.