Singapore has laws and policies designed to prevent situations like UK riots: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE – Singapore has laws and policies to prevent situations like the recent riots in Britain from happening here, said Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam on Aug 16.

Speaking at the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) scholarship ceremony at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, he highlighted how disinformation and hate speech were among causes of the riots that followed 

a July 29 stabbing in which three girls were killed.

Police arrested a 17-year-old male, and

false information circulated on social media

that the suspect was an Islamist migrant, which led to violent anti-Muslim protests in Southport the following day and an attempt to attack the town’s mosque.

Mr Shanmugam said public figures and online influencers added fuel to the fire, stoking anti-immigrant and xenophobic sentiments, sparking the worst riots in 13 years.

“We have tried to pre-empt such a situation from arising by having a carefully designed legal framework, and also carefully designed set of policies which give priority to law and order,” said the minister.

He said that while free speech is important in Singapore, there is little tolerance for fake speech, racial or religious hate speech, or speech that incites violence, particularly if it impacts law and order.

Noting that in Singapore, protests are regulated under the Public Order Act, he said that while gatherings of people to express their unhappiness can start off well intentioned and be led by honest, idealistic people, these can often get hijacked by those who want to create violence.

He said police in such circumstances are put in an impossible position and then targeted as the aggressors.

“We don’t put the police in Singapore in such a position. Because we say, you want to protest, you get a permit. Police will make an assessment. If there is the likelihood of a law-and-order issue, there will be no permit given,” he said.

In reply to some who have asked why Singapore does not allow protests about the Palestine cause, he said protests would, in turn, have to be allowed for other causes – for example, the situation in Ukraine, against China relating to the Uighurs, or on domestic issues, including racial issues.

“It can’t be that you’re only allowed to protest on the issues you like, and no one else (can),” he said.

Highlighting laws in Singapore such as the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act and the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act, Mr Shanmugam said: “So it’s not that Singaporeans are naturally different, or started out different.

“But our framework acts as a shield, and beyond that, the few that get through, through the dotted line, we have empowered law enforcement agencies to stop it from getting to a riot, that stop it from getting into anything more serious. So the result is no riots, racial attacks, lawlessness – the kind of stuff that you saw (in Britain).”

At the ceremony, 32 scholarships were awarded.

Five people received the SPF Scholarship, which is one of the most prestigious scholarships awarded by the Public Service Commission, according to MHA.

After their studies, the scholarship holders will undergo training in areas such as police defence tactics and criminal investigation before they are posted to police divisions to assume operational and command appointments.

Eleven were given the MHA Uniformed Scholarship, 10 the MHA Civilian Scholarship and six the Home Team Science and Technology Agency Scholarship.

One of the recipients of the MHA Uniformed Scholarship is Miss Elaina Wang En Xuan, 20, a second-year biological sciences student at Nanyang Technological University.

Her first introduction to the fight against drugs was as a 14-year-old, when she attended a course conducted by the Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association while she was a member of the St John Brigade co-curricular activity.

Miss Wang applied for the scholarship in 2023 to join the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) after learning that a friend, who is just slightly older than her, was placed in a drug rehabilitation centre for abusing cannabis.

Speaking to The Straits Times before the ceremony, she said the friend, whom she got to know through mutual friends a few years ago, was driven and a perfectionist.

She was shocked to learn in the middle of 2023 that the friend had been abusing drugs.

Said Miss Wang: “(Taking cannabis) really affected her relationship with her family because she had frequent mood swings, so they quarrelled a lot. It put a strain on her relationship with her parents.

“I felt really bad because she had gone down this slippery slope of addiction. But luckily for her, she had her family to support her through this arduous recovery journey. Her story was what made me more resolved to join CNB.”

Another MHA Uniformed Scholarship recipient, Miss Melody Tia Kai Xin, 18, has parents with police experience.

Miss Tia, who will join the police force after graduating with a psychology degree from the University of British Columbia in Canada, said her parents would have conversations with her and her two younger brothers about criminal cases in the news, offering their own input on them.

Her mother has been with SPF for 26 years and is currently a ground response force officer at a neighbourhood police centre. Her father spent nine years with the force and had been an investigation officer before he left in 2006.

“Without such stories and ‘case conferences’, I doubt my love for investigations would be so big and eventually lead me to wanting to join the force,” she said.

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we had given the wrong dates for the stabbing incident in Britain and when Miss Tia’s father left SPF. These have since been corrected. We are sorry for the errors.