03 Aug 2006
By Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Minister for Health
Mr Abdullah Tarmugi,
Speaker of Parliament
Mr Zainul Abidin
Rasheed,
Senior Minister of State, Foreign Affairs
Mr Ridzwan Dzaffir,
Singapore Ambassador at large
Mr Alan Chan,
CEO, SPH
Ladies and Gentleman
Good evening
This is the 8th year
when we gather to honour the Berita Harian Achiever of the Year. I
commend the Berita Harian and the Singapore Press Holdings for the
effort in recognising outstanding individuals in our community and
highlighting their achievements.
The award serves two
purposes. First, it celebrates the contributions of successful
Singaporeans. Second, it inspires other Singaporeans to follow the
fine example of the award winners. As Whitney Houston sang in "The
greatest love of all" - "Everybody's searching for a hero, People
need someone to look up to".
Although in its 8th
year, Mr Guntor Sadali told me that there is no shortage of
nominees. Past winners have come from varied backgrounds - from
the academic field to the labour movement, including those in
social activism, medical science, music and the arts. Nominations
also extend to significant achievements in culture and in sports.
Perhaps, some day, there may even be a nominee who can be a role
model to all of us on how to live to the ripe old age of 90,
without falling sick at all. Such a nominee will be particularly
welcomed by the Ministry of Health!
Recently, Malay
organizations hosted a dinner to honour the Malay MPs who retired
from politics and to welcome the new Malay MPs. At the dinner,
community leaders took turns to express their appreciation for the
contributions of the former MPs and to also congratulate the 12
Malay MPs who were elected. The significance of that event is the
strong and continued support the Malay organisations have
signalled to the political leaders which will ultimately ensure
the success of the various social programs, bringing benefits to
the entire community.
The people sector's
readiness to work with the political leaders is an important
reason why our community has stayed together and made progress.
This unique political culture of ours has forged a strong united
community since our independence. We should actively preserve it
and not take it for granted.
Just as important as
the bond between leaders and their community is the unity among
the leaders themselves. In this regard, our Malay leaders are
exemplary in being able to work together for a common cause. This
does not mean they do not have differing opinions or air opposing
views. They do but they do it behind closed doors, and when they
have to do it in the open, they would discuss and debate in a
civil manner - in the spirit of "budi bicara orang Melayu", rooted
in the tradition of gotong-royong. There is much wisdom in this
operating style.
It is with this same
spirit of working together that the Malay community has
successfully addressed various social challenges, which are also
faced by the other ethnic communities as we confront
globalization.
For instance, your
efforts in helping our students improve on their academic results
have been exemplary for the other ethnic communities. The results
are there for all to see.
In community
development, the media plays an important part, in raising
awareness, educating the masses and encouraging the community to
press on ahead. As an example, this year Berita Harian set up
Kelab Obor to inject greater interest in the Malay language among
secondary students. It hopes students will be able to learn and
love the language through activities which are fun and
sustainable.
Just last month,
Berita Harian worked with Mendaki to launch a community outreach
project to promote the concept of "learning families". The initial
effort will reach out to 2,000 disadvantaged Malay families who
will receive free copies of Berita Harian to inculcate the habit
of reading newspapers among their children. Berita Harian and
Mendaki hope that in turn, these children will improve on their
school results.
Let me also take this
opportunity to thank the Berita Harian for highlighting the
problem of Subutex abuses. For several months, it regularly
featured human stories of drug addicts and their families as a
result of Subutex abuse, or more correctly its chemical ingredient
- buprenorphine, and the untold miseries it brought to both the
addicts and their families. Family lives have been disrupted and
in some cases destroyed.
The introduction of
Subutex is a classic example of good intention that has led to
unintended detrimental outcome. In 2000, the decision was made for
it to be introduced in Singapore to help the heroin addicts. It
was a well meaning decision with the interests of the heroin
addicts at heart. But the good intention has unfortunately yielded
opposite and unexpected results. While some heroin addicts
appeared to have benefited from Subutex, many others seem to have
merely shifted their addiction from heroin to Subutex. In
addition, many more who have never tried drugs before have become
new addicts. Within 4 years of introduction, we now have at least
3800 Subutex users, 45% of them Malay, 43% Chinese and 10% Indian.
What is worse, a
"needle injection culture" which is common among drug addicts in
many other countries but never part of our drug addiction scene,
has now emerged in Singapore. This is particularly worrying
because needle injection significantly raises the risks of
spreading infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C among
our people. Discarded needles can also fall into the hands of the
unwary such as children at playgrounds exposing them to
unnecessary risks. Moreover, intravenous injections of Subutex,
especially when combined with other drugs, can be deadly.
The problem continues
to grow, despite various restrictive measures put in by the
Government last year. The status quo is not an acceptable option.
Let us tackle this problem fundamentally and nip it before it
becomes unmanageable.
We have two
priorities. First, prevent new abusers to this drug. Second, help
the current abusers wean off this drug. Together with the Ministry
of Home Affairs, we are finalizing a robust set of measures. We
are proposing to classify buprenorphine as a Controlled Drug under
the Misuse of Drugs Act, making the illegal import, distribution,
possession and consumption of buprenorphine an offence. And we
will go all out to help the abusers wean off the drug and to lead
a drug-free life. A rehabilitation programme is being set up. It
would be supervised by a panel of psychiatrists. We will announce
the implementation details next week.
It is not easy but it
is possible for opiate users to be drug free. They will require
the active support of their family, their friends and the
community at large. These are fellow Singaporeans; let's help them
re-integrate into society and lead a drug-free life.
We will need the
continuing support of Berita Harian and not just Berita Harian,
but all the local media to help us in this drive. I am confident
that our community will be able to overcome this problem, just as
we have in dealing with other challenges.
On this note, I
congratulate the Berita Harian Achiever of the Year and thank you
for this opportunity to join in the celebration.
