THE PAP Government has introduced The Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill (RH Bill) and the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill.
These Bills mean that people guilty of less egregious racist offences may be offered the chance to mend ties with the communities offended through remedial programmes. These Bills also protect Singaporeans from foreign agents attempting to stir up racial tensions.
The PAP government also put in checks and balances by vesting powers in the President through a new Presidential Council for Racial and Religious Harmony (PCRRH). For their own reasons, Opposition MPs from the Workers Party voted against these extra checks and balances.
“It’s a curious reversal of rules. Because I’m here arguing for an extra layer of check on the Government. Whereas Miss [Sylvia] Lim is saying, ‘Why are we having this additional layer?’” said Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam, who read the Bill in Parliament this week (4 Feb).
“We have always treated racial harmony as being fundamental in Singapore. And so this [RH] Bill has to be seen in that context. Multi-racialism, underpinned by racial harmony, is a foundational principle for us.”
As Singaporeans, trust and harmony between different races is what we stand for as a people. The Bills continue to safeguard and protect this trust between different races — they are a serious step towards keeping us united as one people.
Making amends for racist action with the Community Remedial Initiative
Source: National Youth Council Singapore, K Shanmugam, Sun Xueling / Facebook
Most notably, the RH Bill introduces restraining orders against content which disrupts racial harmony. It also makes offenders guilty of less egregious racist actions undergo remedial programmes within the communities they have offended.
The rationale behind the remedial programmes, or the Community Remedial Initiative (CRI), is simple: Racial incidents damage ties between different racial groups in Singapore. The CRI lets an offender make amends for racist action, soothing community tensions and repairing ties.
“We provide this as an alternative to a person being charged in court,” said Minister Shanmugam, though noting that egregious cases will not have a CRI opportunity.
Protecting Singapore from foreign influences stoking racial tensions
Source: Sun Xueling / Facebook
Meanwhile, the restraining order against racially problematic content prevents identified persons from further harming Singapore’s race relations. These persons will not be able to spread problematic content, speak to audiences on problematic subjects and have to retract problematic materials away from the general public.
They will also be prohibited from contributing to, or holding office in, specified publications.
“The Government shares the view that there should be levers to quickly remove content that could undermine our racial harmony and prevent such content from being further disseminated,” said Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling, who spoke to clarify the RH Bill.
The RH Bill also introduces safeguards against foreign influences attempting to stir up local racial tensions.
Here, the Minister for Home Affairs can prevent designated entities from accepting questionable donations, forming questionable foreign affiliations and appointing particular individuals to their governing bodies.
“These powers will, amongst others, mitigate the risk of Singapore citizens becoming proxies for a foreign principle to exert influence over the race-based entity,” said MOS Sun.
Concurrently, the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill establishes the Presidential Council for Racial and Religious Harmony (PCRRH). This Council will comprise of at least 10 religious, racial, public service and community leaders in total. It will include representatives from all major religious and racial groups in Singapore.
Continuing a long tradition of fostering multiracialism
Source: Yip Hon Weng, Darryl David, Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, Vikram Nair/ Facebook
Six PAP MPs rose to support the Bills. They also questioned how exactly the Bills would function.
In particular, MP Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang SMC) asked if the RH Bill would stifle the arts, or shut down uncomfortable but necessary conversations about race and identity.
“This includes artistic expressions like parodies, satire or critiques or societal issues that touch on race, where some content may indeed cross the line. How do we draw boundaries between harmful speech and those forms of expression that are vital for a vibrant and open society?” he detailed.
“I think we can look at the MRHA [Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act] for reference. We have had similar powers for over 30 years. These powers have never been used. That gives you an indication of how the government approaches these powers. The important thing is to have the powers, but also to be very, very careful and judicious in how you use them,” responded Minister Shanmugam.
He also pointed out that the RH Bill’s restraining orders must go through multiple layers of checks from the President as well as the Presidential Council for Racial and Religious Harmony.
MPs Darryl David (Ang Mo Kio GRC), Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC) and Vikram Nair (Sembawang GRC) asked for more details about the CRI.
A sample CRI could involve the offender volunteering with the community he or she has attacked, said Minister Shanmugam.
“It can actually lead to better outcomes than charging such a person and imposing a fine or sending him to jail,” he added. “[It] could lead to a better understanding. Better appreciation. Hopefully both sides will go away feeling better about it.”
“Where the actions are serious, like incitement, then CRIs — it’s not the intention to offer CRI in those cases. The intention is to prosecute them,” further said Minister Shanmugam.
Both the Bills continue the decades-long nation-building efforts by the PAP Government.
Our founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew declared on 9 August 1965 that “We are going to have a multiracial nation in Singapore.”
From the 1989 HDB Ethnic Integration Policy, to the 2022 refreshing of Singapore’s Racial and Religious Harmony Circles, among others, the PAP government has always strived to build a Singapore where races trust each other, and live side by side in harmony. Singapore is now at a point where 72.9 per cent of IPS-OnePeople.sg Indicators of Racial and Religious Harmony survey respondents trust over half the people of another race to help during a crisis.
“Let us send a signal to all the nations of the world that 60 years after we gained independence, Singapore will remain a multiracial nation, that we will not be a Malay nation, a Chinese nation or an Indian nation,” said Minister Shanmugam. “And that everybody will have his place here, and that he or she will be respected. And we will all be equal: language, culture, race, religion.”
