S'pore cannot be laissez-faire with race, religion issues: Shanmugam

Harmony here due to nation's near-zero tolerance for hate, offensive speech, he says

- Wong Pei Ting

Issues of race and religion cannot be dealt with by taking a laissezfaire, race-blind approach, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam on July 1.

Singapore intervenes heavily to ensure social cohesion and has "a tough set of laws" to deal with the minority who choose to be nasty towards people with different characteristics, he added in a speech at a forum on non-violent ethnic hostilities jointly organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Institute of Policy Studies.

Mr Shanmugam noted that in a world fraught with racial and religious tensions, the Republic - despite its status as one of the most religiously diverse places in the world - is an outlier not by chance.

The peace and harmony found here have to be attributed to its near-zero tolerance for hate and offensive speech, he said.

Mr Shanmugam spoke of other countries' experiences managing ethnic hostilities, then detailed Singapore's approach and laid out future challenges for the nation.

The majority of people in every society exercise restraint and treat those of other ethnicities and religions with civility, he said. But if the minority who do not are not dealt with under the law, they will eventually set the tone for an increasing number in the population.

While they might not move a majority in society, it is enough to polarise society and create hostility to incite violence, he added.

To stop this from happening, Singapore has, among other laws, the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act, which gives the home affairs minister the power to issue a Restraining Order against religious leaders who engage in inflammatory speech.

On top of the legal framework, the Government heavily intervenes to promote social cohesion and ensure that government policy is not organised around ethnic lines, Mr Shanmugam said.