Grassroots Mover

Summary

Geylang Serai has much to celebrate, but it also has a troubled history. In April 1964, during Indonesia's Confrontation with Malaysia and Singapore, a bomb exploded in the area, killing two men. Worse was to occur later that year, when communal riots between Malays and Chinese broke out on 21 July 1964, Prophet Muhammad's birthday.

Today, those incidents are a memory, having receded from the realm of probability. Mr Ann Ah Thong is confident that communal harmony will be preserved in Geylang Serai should a terrorist incident occur in Singapore. The reason is that the area, along with the rest of the country, has changed much from the 1960s. That decade was marked by political turbulence caused in no small part by irresponsible politicians using the race card to jockey for power. But now, it has been years since the Government and the people have put in sincere efforts to build up racial harmony.

“People cherish what they have”, Mr Ann says in a matter-of-fact way. “They are not easily influenced and will calculate the consequences of their actions”, he adds by way of referring to any attempt to incite violence in Singapore today. He does not doubt that some trouble-makers will rise to the occasion, so to say, after a terrorist incident. These people are likely to be extremists, gangsters and even some with religious affiliations. “But we can minimize the problem and calm the ground”, he adds.

Mr Ann's confidence comes from his own grassroots work. For example, he and his colleagues organized a seminar with about fifty youth from religious organizations who form the Young IRCC in Geylang Serai. This was just one part of outreach activities that include keeping in touch regularly with the more than a hundred clan associations in Geylang Serai, apart from mosque and church leaders. Good bonding is the key to creating networks of trust that will play a critical role in an emergency, Mr Ann believes.