Groups have been capitalising on Singaporeans' anxiety over jobs to fan the flames of xenophobia and racism, and such racist behaviour will become normalised if Singapore is not careful, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam yesterday.

Calling on "responsible" opposition parties to take a stand on the matter, he urged all members of the House to condemn racist behaviour in Singapore.

"The majority of Singaporeans are decent and not racist, but if we continue to fan the flames of racism, we will get to a more uncomfortable position," he said.

"(Singapore) will fail if we allow racism and xenophobia to become prevalent, and it is contrary to everything that has made us successful and proud to be Singaporean."

Responding to Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok) on the steps the Government will take to nip in the bud racism arising from the pandemic, Mr Shanmugam said that an alleged attack on a woman last Friday appears to be racist conduct, based on her account of the incident.

Madam Hindocha Nita Vishnubhai, 55, had been brisk walking towards Choa Chu Kang Stadium at about 8.30am last Friday when she had a run-in with a 30-year-old Chinese man.

He shouted racial slurs at her for lowering her mask below her nose and kicked her in the chest, even though she told him that she was exercising.

Madam Nita had scratches on her arms and hands because of the incident. The private tutor, an Indian Singaporean, made a police report last Friday night.

Police arrested the man yesterday and are investigating the case.

Mr Shanmugam said that while racism has always existed in Singapore, as it has in other countries, such sentiments have been stoked lately, here and across the globe.

In the midst of the pandemic, Asians, particularly the Chinese, are being attacked in the United States, with the coronavirus described as the "Chinese virus" or the "Wuhan virus" - as if viruses have a nationality, he said.

"We condemn that. Equally, we have to condemn such behaviour in Singapore."

Singaporeans have legitimate concerns about foreigners taking over their jobs, fuelled by unfair employment practices that favour hiring foreigners and discriminate against local workers, among other things, Mr Shanmugam said.

"It is a minority who behave like this, but it naturally makes Singaporeans unhappy," he said, adding the Government has taken steps to deal with such bad practices.

But he said parties in Singapore have also deliberately stoked these fears, much like what is seen in the US, by encouraging racism and xenophobia as well as engaging in "dog whistling" - the use of coded or suggestive language that seems innocent to a general audience to communicate something more insidious to a particular group.

"That is dangerous for Singapore. Because first, it'll be expat Indians. Then, it will come to Singaporean Indians... If we go down this route, eventually all Indians can be a target of hate," he said.

He noted that not everyone can distinguish between foreign-born Indians and Singaporean Indians, and that the woman who was allegedly attacked has been a citizen for 25 years.

His remarks came a day after multiple Cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, spoke out against the incident.

Flagging websites that deliberately fan racism, Mr Shanmugam said: "They are anti-Government, and that is perfectly okay. But don't play with race. Comments on these sites have Indians being called 'cockroaches', 'rapists' and so on. We should be ashamed that, in the name of free speech, we allow such comments."

When such comments are called out, people cannot seek to justify them by pointing to government policies, the bad behaviour of a specific racial group or free trade agreements like the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (Ceca), he said, adding that there have been "several canards" about Ceca.

He said: "If anyone here believes that Ceca is a problem, put it up for a motion, debate it openly, and let's hear whether Singaporeans benefit or lose from it."

At this point, he threw down the gauntlet to Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP), saying: "I'm looking at you, Mr Leong. I invite you to put up a motion to debate Ceca. You know that most of what is said about Ceca is false."

In response, Mr Leong told Mr Shanmugam that his party is "very interested to take up the Ceca issue at some point in time".

"However, I must state at the outset that PSP and myself are not being xenophobic. We are just stating the economic effects that some of these free trade agreements have had on our economy... feedback gathered from many suffering Singaporeans," said Mr Leong.

Leader of the Opposition and Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh later said the WP agrees with Mr Shanmugam's statement. Mr Singh said: "There is no place for racism in Singapore - no ifs, no buts."