Pathetic condition of Baha\'i Faith in Singapore

By John Singapore

The Baha’i Faith was established in Singapore by the noble family of Fozdars when they settled here in 1950. Shirin Fozdar was well known throughout Singapore and Asia for her work in the cause of emancipation of women. Through the efforts of Dr and Mrs Fozdar, by 1952 there were enough Baha\'is in Singapore to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly. The community grew steadily and in short span there were over 2000 Baha’is and five Local Spiritual Assemblies. The first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Singapore was incorporated 28 July 1952. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Singapore was established in 1972. 

In less than 4 decades the situation of Baha’is have completed changed for the worst. There are no active Baha’is, no functioning LSA - leave alone NSA, thanks to the Secretary Mrs. Lilith Nambiar. And the results are clear for everyone to see as there are hardly any new \"souls\" coming in and only 2-3 people declared their allegiance to Baha\'u\'llah in last 12 months.

Every day I wake up in the morning and ask myself is there something I can do for the faith today? I have been a devoted believer for my entire life and I make sure that I say my obligatory prayers daily and pray and seek help from Baha\'u\'llah. 

I always think what are the innovative methods to attract the people to our faith? what are the methods by which we can get the people to know and embrace the faith? However the NSA and local LSAs are going blind folded ahead and asking believers to focus only on the core activities and to forget about the Holy writings the words of God.

I feel we should have more of fire sides and have youth gathering so as to still in them the Love of Baha\'u\'llah. We should immediately stop the Ruhi curriculum which is absolutely tasteless and boring. 

To give a few incidences of the state of Affair in Singapore: 

Baha’i university students were motivated to attend the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity seminars held in Malaysia annually. But unfortunately only 2 youth from Singapore have attended the program so far. 

The Youth Conference in Port Dickson, one of the many called for by the Universal House of Justice, was a big failure with mismanagement from the Counsellor Dr. Lee Lee Loh Ludher. Although NSA took all the efforts to increase the participation of Youths but failed miserably. 

The Summer School Task-force was absolutely defunct because nobody wanted to work on it. The credit should go to Lee Ludher, Ms. Sona and Mrs. Khamsi. 

The once vibrant community is slowly losing its sheen and glory and we are hardly few people left. How far we can carry on with this decline to be seen otherwise we will also join the great league of our forefathers whose communities are now reduced to a few souls and may get extinct soon!

All these things pain and trouble me a lot and I hope my interfaith activities and suggestions are accepted and only then the Baha’i community will be rejuvenated.

To arrest the decline of the Baha’i Faith and elsewhere, the following drawbacks should be eliminated. This will be all the more helpful and results will flow soon, otherwise we may just sink like the TITANIC.

• The UHJ should accept that the Ruhi curriculum has failed miserably and they should revert to Holy Scriptures only.

• The UHJ should come out clean in the Election process at the world centre and at the National level. The Ruhi brigade should be expelled immediately like Mr. Arbab.

• The UHJ should keep forward the exact number of Baha’is in every country they should not make use of fake sites made by themselves and say the Christians have done it.

• The UHJ should stop the pop culture developing in every Baha’i community. They should teach the Baha’is high moral values and respect for elderly Baha’is.

• The UHJ should explain the cause of declining Baha’is in every country. A part of which they have accepted in Ridvan Message.

• The UHJ should explain the concept of Guardianship sincerely to the Baha’is, just not say do not read the materials of the Covenant Breakers. They should know that the Orthodox Baha’i group headed by Nosratullah Bahremand and the BUPC and Fredrick Glaysher\'s Reform Baha’i Faith and above all the Free Baha’i movements are making inroads in Baha’i ideological system

• The UHJ should stop giving wrong informations to the Baha’is like: “To those who pause and reflect on the unfoldment of Divine Plan, it becomes impossible to ignore how the power posses by the word of God is ascendant in the hearts of every women and men, children and youth, in country after country, in cluster after cluster.” (Ridvan Message - 2013) This is absolutely untrue not just for Singapore but for every country.

• And last but not the least, The UHJ should stop using abusive and threatening language against Baha’is who sacrificed everything on the threshold of the Blessed Beauty. The UHJ should also know that there are some families which will not take their abusive languages lightly. For every action there is a reaction.

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