The Gist: New Bill passed to maintain racial harmony; US tariffs could have indirect impact on S’pore
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The Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill was passed unanimously after five hours of debate.
ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG
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SINGAPORE - Parliament on Feb 4 passed a new law to consolidate and strengthen the Government’s powers to maintain racial harmony in Singapore, following a five-hour debate.
Modelled after the existing Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act, the law empowers the authorities to issue restraining orders against persons involved in making content that prejudices Singapore’s racial harmony.
MPs also asked about Singapore-US ties under the Trump administration and unauthorised changes to residential addresses made through an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) e-service.
Here are the key takeaways from the latest sitting:
Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill passed
The racial harmony law will let the Government set up community remedial programmes, which allow persons who have committed less egregious race-related offences the chance to mend community ties as an alternative to prosecution.
The new law also introduced safeguards against foreign interference by designating over 300 clan and business associations linked to the Chinese, Malay and Indian communities here as “race-based entities”. They will have to disclose foreign donations and comply with restrictions on leadership by foreigners, among other things.
The Constitution will be amended to establish the Presidential Council for Racial and Religious Harmony, to advise the President on matters related to racial and religious harmony.
This is because the new law provides for a presidential safeguard to the restraining orders the Government can issue to stop the distribution of content that may harm Singapore’s racial harmony.
Why it matters:
The new legislation affirms the importance of racial harmony in Singapore, said Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam.
But he made clear that it is not meant to be a panacea for all racial issues. There are policies and platforms which promote social cohesion and racial harmony, and the law sets out a framework as to what people cannot do, he said.
An Institute of Policy Studies report on Feb 4 said more Singapore residents felt that the Government should be more involved in managing issues of race and religion, compared with six years ago.
READ MORE HERE: New law to protect racial harmony passed
US trade tariffs’ potential impact on Singapore
Singapore is a small and open economy and stands to be indirectly impacted by the US’ trade tariffs, even though it is unlikely to be hit by direct tariffs.
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said this in response to Nominated MP Neil Parekh, who had asked about Singapore-US ties under President Donald Trump’s administration, and the impact of US tariffs on some countries.
US tariffs on 10 per cent of Chinese imports came into effect on Feb 4, with China announcing swift retaliatory tariffs on some American goods, and an anti-monopoly investigation into Alphabet Inc’s Google.
With trade constituting more than three times Singapore’s gross domestic product, Dr Balakrishnan noted that Singapore will be impacted indirectly if there is any degradation of economic integration, global supply chains and world trade.
He cautioned that Singapore “needs to be careful and prepared for how turbulent the economic situation can be”.
Why it matters:
This trade war could have a trickle-down effect on Singapore.
The US is currently Singapore’s top trading partner in services, its second-largest trading partner in goods and its largest foreign investor.
But the US has consistently maintained a trade surplus with Singapore, with bilateral trade between both countries tripling since the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement came into force in 2004.
This is why Singapore is not expected to be hit with direct tariffs, Dr Balakrishnan said.
READ MORE HERE: Singapore unlikely to be hit by direct US tariffs but may still be impacted: Vivian
Parts of ICA’s online change of address service to remain suspended
Parts of the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) electronic change of address platform will remain suspended until more safeguards are in place, said Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling.
This comes after ICA disclosed on Jan 11 that the service had been suspended after it discovered 80 unauthorised attempts to change addresses by people using stolen or compromised Singpass accounts.
In an update in Parliament, Ms Sun said this number has increased to 99, and that suspects succeeded in 71 cases.
The Singpass accounts of all 99 people have since been suspended to prevent unauthorised activity. They will be required to reset and secure their accounts again.
Additionally, 13 people have since been arrested. Four men have been charged with offences under the Computer Misuse Act.
Why it matters:
Perpetrators had targeted a feature allowing proxies to change the residential address of another individual.
The feature had first been put in place to help non-digitally savvy people change their addresses without making a trip to ICA.
But scammers circumvented ICA’s safeguards by using Singpass accounts that people had given them access to.
Ms Sun said the authorities had not anticipated these actions when setting up safeguards for the online feature.
The Government will help those who may have been affected if the distribution of government benefits, such as CDC vouchers, were impacted by the change of addresses, she added.
Reasons for lower polytechnic graduate employment in 2024
Results of a survey conducted by Singapore’s five polytechnics show that 54.6 per cent of their fresh graduates in the labour force were in full-time permanent jobs in 2024.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
A dip in hiring demand and job vacancies might have contributed to the drop in the employment rate for polytechnic graduates in 2024, as compared to 2023, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing.
Mr Chan was responding to questions from several MPs about the rise in unemployment rates of fresh polytechnic graduates in the latest Graduate Employment Survey (GES).
He added that cyclical sectoral changes, such as the downturn in the tech sector, could also have contributed.
Graduates in fields such as engineering or information and digital technologies had higher unemployment rates, compared with their counterparts in health sciences or humanities and social sciences.
Why it matters:
The GES, released on Jan 13, showed that the unemployment rate of fresh polytechnic graduates in 2024 was 12.5 per cent, a significant increase from 7.3 per cent in 2023.
The latest results were comparable with the 12.6 per cent unemployment rate in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.
The Education Ministry noted that some graduates rejected full-time permanent job offers for reasons such as a perceived lack of work-life balance, or dissatisfaction with the offered pay.
It will continue to monitor if this trend persists and if it has a longer-term impact on graduates’ employment outcomes, said Mr Chan.
If you have a few more minutes:
Singapore will send a seventh tranche of aid to Gaza
Amid the Gaza ceasefire, Singapore will send its seventh tranche of humanitarian aid
This brings Singapore’s humanitarian aid contributions to Gaza to more than $19 million since the start of the war in October 2023.
Singapore also plans to keep working with Palestinian leaders to help them build capacity, said Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
$150 million to be spent on upgrading drainage
To reduce flash floods, Singapore will spend $150 million on drainage projects to improve its flood resilience,
She was responding to questions from MPs on two monsoon surges in January, which brought about prolonged rain and subsequent flooding episodes.
There are currently 19 ongoing drainage upgrading projects, with six new projects slated to start in 2025. These include works on the Bedok First Subsidiary Drain and roadside drain improvement works in Frankel Estate near Siglap.
