S'pore must not let fault lines deepen in tough times: Minister

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said Singapore is not immune from divisions happening around the world. ST PHOTO: TIMOTHY DAVID

Like major stress events before it, Covid-19 has caused tremendous economic, social and mental strain to countries around the world and has the potential to tear society apart.

The Government is doing its utmost to ensure fault lines do not deepen, while being realistic about what is doable, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam.

In an interview with The Straits Times yesterday, he said Singapore is not immune from such divisions.

For instance, there were "far more" inter-racial incidents in April - when the country entered circuit breaker mode - than there had been for some years, he added, without elaborating on the events.

"So the social stressors are still there, but when we say 'far more', it's a very, very different quantum when compared with other countries," he added.

That is because Singapore had made a number of decisions that differ from such countries as the United States, be they gun control, race relations or checks on speech, he said.

"Hate speech fuels racism, fuels the deepening of fissures, attacking each other under the guise of free speech - we don't allow that," he added. "When you attack another race, another religion, we put a stop to it; our criminal legal framework says no."

That is why, despite the existence of latent tensions, "ours burst out in the form of online postings, some heated words said by persons of one race to another in a market", the minister pointed out.

Most Singaporeans have seen the protests in the wake of the death in the US of an unarmed black man, Mr George Floyd, while he was being arrested, and are thankful that Singapore has adopted a different system, said Mr Shanmugam.

"Previously, America was the gold standard for democracy: Whatever is allowed in America is how everyone else ought to organise their societies by... People used to say that and Americans used to lecture us."

Singapore's response is "we prosper by ignoring you, because we are a different society", he added. "We give full rights, but we also emphasise responsibilities... There's got to be a balance."

Singapore has also opted for a "clean approach", supported by the population, when it comes to protests, which are allowed at Speakers' Corner in Hong Lim Park, he said.

Places like Hong Kong allow for peaceful protests in the streets, "but then you get a group of saboteurs, usually a small number, who will mix in deliberately to try and use the peaceful protest as a cover to become violent".

What is happening elsewhere is a warning to Singapore on what can happen to a country's unity if one is not careful, said Mr Shanmugam.

There are those who attempted, and will attempt, to bring Hong Kong-style protests into Singapore, and they wanted "to teach our students how to do those protests", he added.

"I don't think many Singaporeans will agree with that."

Lim Yan Liang

Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 24, 2020, with the headline S'pore must not let fault lines deepen in tough times: Minister. Subscribe