Speech by Ms Indranee Rajah, Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance, at the Community Mediation Centre’s Mediators’ Appointment Ceremony and Appreciation Dinner 2017, 3 Nov 2017

03 NOV 2017

3 Nov 2017 Posted in Speeches

Introduction

Good evening everyone. I am delighted to join you once again at our appointment ceremony and appreciation dinner. We really want to have this every year to appreciate and recognise the contribution of our volunteer mediators.

Appreciating and recognising contributions of volunteer mediators
As a volunteer mediator, you are the bridge between two parties who are in conflict within the community. It sounds simple in theory, but in practice as you know, this requires a delicate balance. You have to remain impartial and objective while getting both sides to come to an agreement and the real challenge is when two sides have had long-standing misperceptions of each other and then simply refuse to be the first to ‘soften their stance’.
In March this year, during a Meet-the-People Session in my constituency, an elderly constituent in her 60s approached me regarding a long-standing disagreement she had with her neighbours. I decided to refer her case to the Community Mediation Centre (CMC) because I thought that both sides would benefit from the face to face communication during mediation. I shall refer to them as Madam T and Mr G, to protect their privacy.
Madam T and her children live along the same corridor as her neighbour Mr G and his family. Madam T’s frustration with Mr G and his family arose from the objects that they often placed outside and the activities that they would carry out along the corridor. All of you must be familiar with this kind of issue. Now, Madam T was certain they were doing this intentionally to upset her.
I understand that during the mediation, Mr G shared that the dispute started when Madam T’s unit was splashed with paint by unknown persons. In another incident, Mr G’s shoes were mistakenly left on Madam T’s bicycle by Town Council workers who were cleaning the corridor. These two incidents aggravated the misunderstanding between the two neighbours. Mr G also claimed Madam T’s family would scold him and his family whenever they walked past her unit. And it didn’t help of course that he would retaliate in kind. Such behaviour dragged on for a long time and left both families emotionally drained.
I learnt that our two volunteer mediators controlled the process tactfully, and they allowed the emotionally distressed Madam T to air her frustrations. You know what it’s like, they need to get it off their chest. Through the joint and caucus sessions, the two mediators ensured that despite the heated moments, the discussion remained constructive. And eventually, both parties agreed to look past their differences and came to a settlement.
So this case of Madam T and Mr G is just one of over 8,000 cases that have been handled by the CMC since its inception in 1998. Today, 19 years on, more than 70% of the cases that came through CMC are resolved.
This is only possible because of dedicated volunteer mediators like yourselves. Because of your desire to help these parties, you are prepared to take the time out of your professional and personal schedules to mediate the cases and attend continuous training to remain relevant in your skills. I am glad to see that some of you have brought along a family member to join us in the celebrations this evening. It is because of the strong support from your family and employers that you are able to invest your time volunteering at the CMC. So I would like to affirm the good work put in by all of you and your continued commitment. So thank you all and please do keep it up.

Developing the skills of its mediators
We often hear about the importance of lifelong learning and the upgrading of one’s skills to remain relevant. We also want to apply this principle to CMC’s volunteer mediators.
The CMC has a suite of training programmes for you. For instance, when the Harmony in Diversity Gallery (HDG) was established, CMC saw an opportunity to leverage on HDG’s walking tours. An interesting feature of the tour was the history behind the proximity and the locations of the houses of worship along Telok Ayer Street and South Bridge Road, which exemplifies the harmonious co-existence of different religions in early Singapore. This helps the mediators to be more sensitive to parties who are involved in disputes arising from different religious practices. So for those of you who have attended the tour, I hope you have developed a greater appreciation for CMC’s role in the eco-system of community building. For the rest, I urge you to join the tours when CMC organises them again next year.
The CMC also holds quarterly sharing sessions for our volunteer mediators, anchored by present and former Advisory Committee members. At such sessions, the mediators share and they learn best practices from each other. Some of the topics discussed during the sharing have been translated into initiatives to further improve the professional development of the volunteer mediators.
One of these initiatives is the CMC Mentorship programme. Under this programme, we pair newly appointed mediators with selected senior mediators. The senior mediators play the role of ‘mentors and coaches’ and guide the new mediators during the first six months of their tenure. For instance, the new mediators are given the opportunity to shadow their “mentors’ during their mediation sessions.
As mediation practitioners, you would have noticed that the mediation landscape in Singapore has been evolving rapidly, and the standard of mediation has developed over the years. The CMC is a primary driver for this growth, and will continue to review its training programmes and professional development framework to ensure that the skills and the knowledge of its mediators remain relevant to resolve the disputes we see today.

Strengthening Partnerships
Over the years, the CMC has worked with partners such as the Singapore Kindness Movement, the Singapore Police Force, Housing & Development Board (HDB), Town Councils, People’s Association as well as the State Courts and other grassroots organisations, to promote mediation as the preferred way to resolve relational disputes in the community.
Recently, the CMC collaborated with the Town Councils and HDB to publish on their websites information about the CMC and how residents can use mediation to resolve disputes between neighbours.
Other agencies like the People’s Association have stepped up to distribute CMC’s booklets to over 100 of their Community Clubs and Centres.
We are heartened by such partnerships as they help to raise awareness on mediation. This has resulted in suitable cases being channelled to the CMC in a timely manner before the dispute gets worse and before the relationship deteriorates further.
So thank you for your support. I look forward to having these partnerships grow from strength to strength in years to come.

Conclusion
And you may not realise it but we are actually an example to other countries. Whenever I go abroad and I meet with the law industries in other countries, they always ask how we deal with these things. And they find our example extremely useful. So keep up the good work because you are really our standard bearers. And you are doing national work that has gained attention overseas.
And before I conclude, let me congratulate the six new mediators who are appointed to the panel. It is heartening to see that we continue to have interested members of the public who come forward to volunteer their services as community mediators. I am equally encouraged by the 17 mediators who continue to remain with us and are re-appointed for another three-year term – a demonstration of their commitment and passion. And for the 21 mediators who will be receiving the Appreciation awards – keep up the good work!
Thank you very much, and have an enjoyable evening.

Last updated on 04 Nov 2017