Former Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi on the sensitive topic of ‘Singapore’s Model of Inter-racial and Inter-religious Harmony – New Challenges Within and Without’

Date: Monday, 1 August 2016
Time: 7 pm dinner; 8 pm chat
Venue: The Pyramid Club, 2 Goodwood Hill, Singapore 258897
Cost: $30 for Members; $38 for Guests. Tickets are non-refundable.
RSVP: Peatix only; walk-ins will not be entertained.

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We are continuing our very successful Fireside Chat series. Many thanks to those who attended the last AGM and Chat with Dr Johan Saravanamuttu.

We are pleased to announce that Abdullah Tarmugi will be our next Fireside Chatter. In a political career spanning almost 30 years, Mr Tarmugi served in various political offices, including:
· Speaker of Parliament (2002 to 2011),
· Minister for Community Development and Sports (1994 to 2000), and
· Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs (1996 to 2002).

Since 2012, Mr Tarmugi has served as a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights. He is also part of the 9-member Constitutional Commission formed in February 2016 for the Review of the Elected Presidency.

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Due to space constraints, and in order to facilitate frank and candid discussions, the Committee is imposing a limit on the number of participants to 30 persons (Members and Guests).

Members signing up early will pay a token $30, with at most one guest per member at $38. This is non-refundable and will have to be paid even if there is non-attendance for any reason, since no-shows at the last minute still incur catering costs and deprive other Members of a highly-coveted space at these Fireside Chats.

Oxbridge donors, please include (Oxbr) after your name on the donor page so that we can track the donations collected from our illustrious alumni. Thank you!

The Society held its election AGM on 14 July 2016 at 2 Goodwood Hill. Immediate Past President Mr Michael Hwang reported that since the last non election AGM on 9 September 2015, the Society has had four Fireside chats with Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Editor in chief of Inconvenient Questions), Prof Kevin Tan (Professor of Constitutional Law, NUS), Mr Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara (Temasek holdings) and Prof Low Teck Seng (CEO, National Research Foundation).

There was also a Freshers Going Up event, a private docent-led tour of the newly opened National Gallery and the much anticipated Oxbridge Annual Dinner at Eden Hall (coinciding with Chinese New Year) which was over-subscribed at 120 diners.

Amendments were passed to the Society’s Constitution to allow for candidates to stand in absentia for office provided a letter of consent was produced by someone present at the AGM. Amendments were also made to the process for nomination of officers of the Society to be submitted no later than two weeks before the meeting and nominations shall not be allowed at the AGM itself. It was clarified that an office bearer shall hold office for two years and elections for the Committee shall be held at every alternate AGM. The post of Immediate Past President was created who would automatically be part of the Committee without the need for election.

The following were elected to the Committee at the AGM:

Year 2016 – 2018

The AGM was followed by a Fireside chat with Dr Johan Saravanamuttu on the topic entitled “New Politics in a Divided Nation – Quo Vadis Malaysia?”
Dr. Saravanamuttu was formerly professor of political science at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang where he served as Dean of the School of Social Sciences (1994-1996). He was Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, from 2007-2014 and, in 1997, was the Visiting Chair in ASEAN and International Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Malaysia’s Foreign Policy, the First 50 Years: Alignment, Neutralism, Islamism (ISEAS, 2010). Other publications include: The New Economic Policy in Malaysia: Affirmative Action, Ethnic Inequalities and Social Justice (co-edited with Terence Gomez, NUS Press 2013);March 8: Eclipsing May 13 (with Ooi Kee Beng and Lee Hock Guan, ISEAS, 2008); New Politics in Malaysia (co-edited with Francis Loh, ISEAS, 2003). His latest co-edited book is Coalitions in Collision: Malaysia’s 13 th General Election (SIRD & ISEAS, 2015) and has authored another book, Power Sharing in a Divided Nation: Mediated Communalism and New Politics over Six Decades of Elections in Malaysia (ISEAS- Yusof Ishak Institute, in press, 2016).