Shanmugam: People's trust in Govt crucial for strong security agencies

Singapore's security agencies can only be as strong as the government in power, Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam said yesterday, as he spoke on how proper governance must underpin peace and order.

Singaporeans also have to trust that the political, economic and social systems are fair and will benefit them, so that they will support the police force, he told Parliament.

Street protests had flared up around the world last year, erupting into violence in places such as Hong Kong, Santiago in Chile, and Lebanon.

Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC), citing global risk consultancy Maplecroft, said it is estimated that nearly 40 per cent of the world's 195 countries will experience civil unrest this year, while Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio GRC) wanted to know if the Home Team was prepared to prevent such unrest in Singapore.

They were among MPs who asked what lessons Singapore can draw against this backdrop, during the debate on the Home Affairs Ministry's budget.

Mr Shanmugam said one important lesson is that it is critical to get the fundamental politics and policies right. If they are unsound, he added, no amount of policing can turn the situation around.

He said safety and security is not just the responsibility of law enforcers, and the seven months of social unrest that battered Hong Kong were never just about security.

Instead, he added, it is good governance that is key to maintaining the effectiveness of the security forces.

A police force can succeed only if it operates in a well-governed, functioning society, where people trust that the government will do what is best for them, he said.

"You can have the best police force in the world; but you cannot deal with riots unless there are other things that are taken care of as well."

Elaborating, he said government leaders must be attuned to people's needs and be accountable to the public, and they must also develop policies based on sound principles and create a fair and honest system.

Strict laws alone will not be enough, he added.

Referring to Singapore, he said people often misunderstand that it is all about strict punishment, but underlying that is a system that strives to ensure progress for as many as possible.

When the majority benefit from such a system and feel it is fair, they will naturally support the police in dealing with the minority who choose to break the law, he added.

"But if a significant section of your population believes that the system is fundamentally unfair... and that it is set up to benefit a few at the expense of the majority, at the expense of the many, then no amount of strict policing and strict laws, are going to keep people off the streets," he said.

During his speech, Mr Shanmugam also said the police in Hong Kong had been set up for failure - to be the "fall guys" of a system which allows people to protest in droves, then expects the police to step in when violence breaks out.

This approach to maintaining public order is bound to fail because it becomes impossible to keep order when there are hundreds and thousands out in the streets and some among them intent on causing violence, he added.

"The actions of a disaffected few should not be allowed to threaten the right of the majority to live in a stable, peaceful society," said Mr Shanmugam, drawing lesson two.

This is why Singapore takes a zero-tolerance approach to illegal demonstrations and protests under the Public Order Act, he added. Instead, such activities are allowed at Speakers' Corner at Hong Lim Park.

Noting that Singapore has been criticised for this approach, he said there was a balance to be struck between the competing interests of providing adequate space for political expression while protecting the country's hard-earned peace and stability.

Also, he added, even countries that have traditionally upheld freedom of speech have clamped down on protests. He cited Denmark, where the police constructed 36 steel cages to hold protesters during a United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009, and Britain, where police had banned the Extinction Rebellion climate protests last year and arrested 1,800 people after roads were blockaded and train services disrupted.

Said Mr Shanmugam: "The approach we took was the correct one of being strict about where you can protest. Otherwise, the best police force in the world would still not be able to handle it." He added that ultimately, "what you allow, and what you don't allow, must be for each society to decide".

He lamented that demonstrations in Hong Kong have severely damaged the relationship between the people and the police, once considered one of the finest and most-well-respected forces in Asia.

Even as the police tried to uphold public order, they had to deal with the increasingly violent tactics of protesters who set out to attack and provoke them, he added.

He said the one-sided portrayal of the situation in the international media - with the depiction of police as brutal and protesters as champions of democracy - has not helped.

"That the police were being attacked, their lives were frequently in danger, their families were being exposed - all that was ignored," added Mr Shanmugam.

Mr Teo Ser Luck (Pasir RisPunggol GRC), asked about trust in the police in the age of social media, with online posts usually showing half the picture or even purveying fake news.

Acknowledging that maintaining the public's trust is crucial, Mr Shanmugam said the Home Team has been doing well on this count.

In a recent public perception survey, 91 per cent of respondents agreed that the Home Team is fulfilling its mission of keeping Singapore safe and secure, and 90 per cent said they trust Home Team officers to do their duties objectively and with integrity, he noted.

He said this trust is reflected in people's daily lives, with 94 per cent of people in Singapore indicating in a Gallup Global Law and Order Index last year that they feel safe walking alone at night, more than in any other place in the world.

He added that the police had achieved this with a lean force - the ratio of police officers to population here is 0.23 per cent, compared with London at 0.34 per cent and Hong Kong at 0.39 per cent.

That the police have achieved good outcomes without heavy policing is a testament to Singapore's law and order framework and people's support of it, he said, adding that this has allowed taxpayers' funds to be put to use efficiently.

"A whole attitude that is supportive of a law and order framework, shared by a vast majority of the population, has meant that people who want to break the laws are a very small minority," he added.