Beritan Harian Achiever of the Year Award

03 Aug 2006

By Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Minister for Health

Venue: Ritz Carlton Millenia

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.