On Thursday (12 September), Mohammad Nafiz Kamarudin, founder of non-profit organisation Happy People Helping People Foundation, took to his Facebook to slam Yellow Ribbon Project Singapore for asking him to change his runner’s bib as it contains a message that is not in line with the organisation’s cause.
Yellow Ribbon Project Singapore is an organisation that seeks to engage community in giving ex-offenders a second chance at life.
It appears that Mr Nafiz is all set to take part in the Yellow Ribbon Prison Run 2019 – a run conducted to support ex-offenders – which is happening this Sunday (15 September).
As such, in a previous Facebook post dated 31 August, Mr Nafiz revealed that he had collected his bib, and instead of printing his name on it, he had a more meaningful message written on the bib which stated, “2nd Chances” means not killing them”.
“…because how do you give them a “2nd Chance” after you sent them to the gallows? Does not make sense to me,” he wrote.
As requested, Yellow Ribbon fulfilled his requested and printed exactly what he wanted on the bib and gave it to him. However, after two weeks, the organisation changed their mind and gave him a call asking him to change his runner’s bib to another one.
“The reason being, ‘the message on my BIB is not in line with their cause’. Does that sound stupid to you? They’re promoting giving ex-offenders a ‘2nd Change’ but they do not agree that in order for 2nd chances to be given, you have to first not hand them to death,” Mr Nafiz said in his Thursday’s Facebook post.
When he asked the representative who called him if “2nd chances” are only meant for certain ex-offenders, she replied him by saying that she “can’t answer that question”.
Mr Nafiz went on to express that if the organisation told him that he should have his name printed on the bib instead of a message, he said he would “gladly exchange” his bib with a new one.
But their action of telling his that his message is not in line with their own tagline for the run, which is “I Believe In YR 2nd Chances” is not only ironic, but rather moronic, said Mr Nafiz.
“Come on, Yellow Ribbon Project, don’t be hypocritical,” he wrote, and asked why did they even agreed to print his message in the first place.
So the question here is will the organiser stop him from participating, given their objection to the message on his runner’s bib?
TOC has reached out to Yellow Ribbon Project Singapore for their comments on this matter.
