LIVE AND LET LIVE; INTER-FAITH HARMONY AND CO-EXISTENCE With My Guest DR. ROBERT CHAN YING LOCK In Singapore
Smitten By Faith Issue # 000036 9th April 2022
My guest today is a very old friend from college days more than 50 years ago - DR. ROBERT CHAN YING LOCK. I first met Ying Lock way back in 1970 when we were at the same residential college at the National University of Singapore, a firm friendship which has endured through time and many international borders. Ying Lock was studying accounting and I was at the Law Faculty. For an accountant, he has a wicked sense of humour and at University, he used to have me rolling up in stitches. Although as mentioned, Ying Lock is an accountant by training, he says that he is “a bohemian by choice of living.” Indeed, Robert Chan Ying Lock has maintained and balanced his passionate life philosophies consistently throughout his professional career. He works hard; he plays hard and believes hard - certainly a very interesting life!
Left : Ying Lock, the docent - a day at the Museum in Singapore
Middle : Ying Lock surrenders to the sun- among the glorious sunflowers in Khao Yai, Thailand
Right : Looking serious - Ying Lock the accountant
With degrees in Accounting and an MBA, Ying Lock’s professional career trajectory has spanned the international world of corporate finance and venture capital. Staid and predictable perhaps ? But no. Because Ying Lock loves books - he has also been very involved in the world of printing and publishing. An avid and enthusiastic traveller - he travels the world any spare moment he has - it was natural for Ying Lock to later study for a Doctorate in Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. As for reading, his passion is reading about history and he enjoys understanding and appreciating different cultures and societies wherever he travels to, which is almost everywhere in the world ! He is currently a senior director of investments with Garden Impact Investments (GII), an impact fund that invests in social enterprises in Southeast Asia. This allows Ying Lock to balance his professional expertise with his compassion for humanity. Ying Lock also continues with his various teaching jobs as this enables him to impart not just his knowledge but also his balanced views of the universe. Ying Lock teaches accounting classes at the Nanyang Technological University and tourism management at the James Cook University Singapore. In his leisure time, history and art buff Ying Lock volunteers as a docent at the Asian Civilisations Museum, the National Museum of Singapore, the National Heritage Board’s preservation of sites and monuments, and the Malay Heritage Centre. The accountant and the bohemian - an unusual brew !
Today, Chan Ying Lock shares with ‘Smitten By Faith’ his sensible and passionate thoughts on harmony and existence ; how to live and let live. Just as it is for Ying Lock, inter-faith dialogue is a subject which is close to my heart. As a Catholic, I look to the Vatican Council II’s ‘Nostra Aetate’ ( ‘In our Time’), the ground-breaking Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions in 1965. Although this Papal encyclical addressed in particular Jewish-Christian relations, its impact has since expanded way beyond that and today inter-faith dialogue means the communication, dialogue and cooperation between all different faiths and all religious groups . The Catholic Church's stand on religious freedom is made clear in ‘Nostra Aetate’ - that all humanity has a right to religious freedom - leading one's life on the fundamental ethical principle - that other people should be treated fairly and with respect; that one acts only for the good of others; because one too would like to be treated in the same way.
“In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. . . .”
Gospel of Matthew (7:12)
And, finally before I pass the page to Chan Ying Lock, I would like to mention the importance and value of our youth - our young people who point the way forward. When young people and children understand religious freedom, tolerance and human values which exist in all faiths; when they love their neighbour; when they respect each other; then surely hate, intolerance and wars will not survive.
Above : The poster for World Youth Day 2023 . Postponed for 2 years during the long pandemic, the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon will be more than amazing ! Makes me wish I was young again !
And, now let’s hear from DR. ROBERT CHAN YING LOCK as he writes about interfaith dialogue and how we can inspire and guide others to live and let live – in harmony and peace.
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LIVE AND LET LIVE; INTER-FAITH HARMONY AND CO-EXISTENCE
By Dr. Robert Chan Ying Lock, April 9th 2022 Singapore
When Joan asked me to write something for ‘Smitten by Faith’, my first reaction was “…but I’m not religious”. To which Joan immediately said, “it doesn’t have to do with religion, write about something close to your heart”. That caused me to pause and ponder for a moment and I spontaneously thought of ‘inter-faith’, as that is what concerns me most.
I grew up in the historical town of Malacca in Malaysia, now officially called by its original name Melaka, just like Rangoon is now Yangon. My family lived in a classical Chinese style terrace house with the front of the house facing the main road and the back door of the house opening into a back lane. My father being a civil servant with the British colonial government, I grew up speaking English, or more correctly ‘Menglish’ which is English spoken with Malayan grammar and some Malay words. Though English educated, my father was a staunch Chinese traditionalist.
There were 4 altars in our house, a simple one dedicated to the sky deity was hung against the front pillar of the house; a large table altar sat inside the main hall with a huge picture on the wall above it of the red-faced raised-eyebrows Chinese warrior deity ‘guan gong’ seated with his feet astride in an imposing guarding position flanked by his two assistant warriors; a small table top altar in the kitchen and another wall altar at the back of the house similar to the one in front of the house. Our religion was Daoism or Taoism. However, I actually had no understanding of what the Daoist religion was all about except that there were a plethora of deities and superstitious beliefs ruled our lives. I liked some of the Daoist values, practiced the rituals diligently and celebrated the festivals dutifully, year in year out. Dare I say that Daoism was my first religion? Let’s just say I was born into it. Looking back now, I would say I was a nominal Daoist with Confucian values.
Above : Some very colourful Daoist altars with a plethora of deities
The community I grew up in Malacca was very multi-racial. My childhood friends were Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians. To me they were real friends, not racial or religious friends. Friends whose company I thoroughly enjoyed. I can still recall the happy times we spent together, playing and having fun with no cares in the world. Not that we did not have our differences and quarrels. We did, but never because of race or religion. And quickly forgotten and forgiven. You can say we were living in an age of innocence. We recognised and accepted each other’s social boundaries without any question. Eusoff’s family did not eat pork. Lachimi’s family did not eat beef. Gillian’s family always ate fish on Fridays. My family ate anything and everything.
My uncles and aunts had married Christian spouses and as I entered my teenage years, I began to be exposed to and influenced by my Christian cousins. Soon I was attending church and praying to the Christian God. I gradually abandoned the Daoist deities. Much later, when my father came to the realisation that I was unlikely to continue with the Daoism tradition, he dismantled all the 4 altars in our house. Today, I look back at that with sadness, not because of the loss of a religion, but because of the loss of an identity, my Chinese identity.
Soon after graduating from university, I was baptised in a Presbyterian church. I had become an active Christian youth leader. However, one day I was asked by one of the youths to explain to him parts of the Bible that did not make scientific sense. This was the start of my enquiry into the Christian religion from an academic perspective. One thing led to another and I soon found myself enquiring into all the other major religions of the world as well e.g. Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. I began studying the tenets of the various religions from a scientific and logical perspective. I read up on the numerous inter-religious wars that were fought throughout human history. I became a historian, analysing the circumstances that led to the wars. At the end of it all I found all the killings in the name of religion sad and, to me, so unnecessary. All those lives lost, families thrown into misery, societies disrupted and homes destroyed. In the name of religion. Why? I found it difficult to comprehend why humans would kill fellow humans in the name of their respective gods who I regarded as all “good” gods. They were all humans except for the fact that they each worshipped a different god. Why not? I thought. Can’t we all live side by side harmoniously as human beings without harming one another? Just because we have different gods?
Slowly but surely, I found myself thinking more and more about a world where people of different faiths live together harmoniously. And I don’t think I was the only person thinking that. Living in Singapore helped since the Singapore government consciously and intentionally works towards ensuring such a society for its populace. There exists in Singapore a non-governmental organisation called the Inter-Religious Organisation, Singapore ( www.iro.sg ) founded by leaders of diverse faiths to work together for religious harmony in Singapore, to enhance the understanding between religious groups by developing friendships based on mutual trust and respect. The members come from the Hindu, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Daoist, Jain, Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Baha’i religions. They constantly learn from each other, get to know one another better, thus fostering and enhancing inter-religious harmony in Singapore. I see them as multiple faiths joining hands to promote faith in humanity. There are similar organisations in other countries.
Above : Inter-faith harmony and dialogue
Photo courtesy of IRO ( Inter-Religious Orgnaization) Singapore
Inter-religious schisms will erupt now and again. But I believe each of us can play a role in preventing the frequency of such schisms. I feel it’s not enough to just acknowledge the importance of inter-faith harmony. We should take action in our daily lives, however small that action may be, to make it work, like when we interact daily with people of faiths different from ours. We should respect every person we meet as fellow members of our complex and unique human race and strive to live with each other in peace and harmony. For a better world.
Post-Script : As Joan mentioned in her kind introduction, I now work with an impact fund called Garden Impact Investments (GII ) (www.gardenimpact.com) . Our focus is to alleviate poverty through business means. It was founded by a group of Christian business leaders but its beneficiaries are the disadvantaged in our community, regardless of race or religion. I proudly say that GII is faith-based but not faith-biased.
Above : Icons of faiths.
Editor’s Note : Can you spot all the different faiths represented by the icons ? True interfaith harmony !
Above : The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Chan Ying Lock says, “ I chose this artwork to conclude my article because it’s the most popular secular symbol in the world. God first created man, so the human form symbolises humanity; and the perfect circle is a reminder of what humankind can be again - after having lost paradise.”
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