[SMC Magazine ‘নোঙর’] # Message From a Pioneer of Bangladesh Origin : Zafrul Alam (6)

It is a great honour for me for being invited to write a message for SMC magazine.
It is expected that SMC will be registered this year by the Register of the Society.
It is a significant milestone for mariners of Bangladeshi origin.

When I first started working ashore in Singapore in the former Marine Department of the former Ministry of Communications and Information, Singapore in 1980 as Government Marine Surveyor, there were only two mariners of Bangladeshi origin in Singapore who settled ashore before me. They are Mr Sheikh Shahabuddin of 2nd batch of Juldia Marine Academy and Captain Zahurul Alam of 3rd batch.
After serving 34 years in the Singapore Maritime Administration including 4 years as Singapore’s representative to IMO and First Sectary (Maritime), Singapore High Commission, London, I am glad to see that we have 200 members in our SMC. We all can be proud of this achievement.
Although it is a good number, SMC will need to work harder to increase the size of our community in Singapore.
This is not an easy task. However, if we all work together for a common objective, we can make progress.
We, together, need to find innovative solutions to enhance the skills and expertise of our members, to solve immigration problems faced by our sea-going officers, difficulties in getting PR and citizenship and employment opportunities for our engine and deck cadets etc.
I thank SMC members for their hard work in establishing SMC and in preparing this magazine and hope that SMC will continue its efforts to publish this magazine in future.

To read in PDF [Published at SMC Magazine “নোঙর” May 2014]

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[Zafrul Alam of 6th Batch of JMA currently residing in Singapore with his family and employed by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.]