Plenary, 12 Sep 2007

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Official Report 454KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. I am pleased to welcome our time for reflection leader today, who is Dr Jagtar Singh Nijjar from the Scottish Inter Faith Council.

Good afternoon, Presiding Officer, MSPs and ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dr Jagtar Singh Nijjar, I work in the orthopaedics department of the Glasgow royal infirmary and I would like to reflect on aspects of my vocation and my faith and how they interact with society at the moment.

Recently, it has been reported in the media that there has been a "death of society" and that, in general, we are more interested in the preservation of the self than concern for others. Four words are inscribed on the mace: wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity. How many of us can be said to be wise or, indeed, to act in a fair and just manner? Who among us shows compassion always or has infallible integrity?

These ideals are difficult to live up to but are nevertheless necessary. As a Sikh, I believe in another ideal—sewa, or service to God and his creation—and I want to talk to you about a project that I recently visited. It was based in a place called Kericho in Kenya, in a hilly part of town that is surrounded by tea plantations. Although it is a place of natural beauty, it is also a place of immense poverty.

I was there with a group called Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha. Its head, Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh Ji, has opened a community centre there and asked for volunteers to go and help with final preparations. So, along with my family and some 100 volunteers, I went across. I asked Bhai Sahib Ji what the point of the centre was and he explained that it was to provide business skill and acumen to the local community, for people who could not afford it. He went on to explain that the instillation of spiritually based values through education and dialogue—something that was missing—would be at the heart of the institute. One cannot instil a set of morals in someone by teaching it formally; it must be imparted by a teacher, a mother, family and friends. Having a community initiative deliver that through a faith community would improve not just society in the long term but community cohesion at a local level because of the interfaith aspect.

Service above self was the key theme of the second Scottish Inter Faith Council youth conference. As a member of the council's youth steering committee, I have had the chance to meet some truly enlightened individuals—young people who have put these ideals into practice through hard work. By doing so, they have contributed greatly to a cohesive, harmonious and peaceful society.

I come back to wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity: I wonder whether service, which I thought was missing from the mace, is in fact embodied in the essence of the Scottish Parliament.

Before we turn to the next item of business, I inform members that I have accepted a request from the Government under rule 13.2.2 of standing orders for an urgent ministerial statement to be made today on the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey. That statement will be delivered by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment at 4.45 pm. I have revised the daily business list, and a copy of that revised list has been placed on members' desks.