Our party has long championed a multi racial, multi religious approach to governing Singapore. Our country has been anchored on this ideal of multi-racialism. Our country flourishes because we are at peace with each other, and because we cherish each other.
This is in the PAP’s DNA.
Even as an opposition party in 1959, we fought against the easy appeal of identity politics. We had a clear vision of the Singapore we wanted to build, one free from the racial and religious strife that plagued other countries.
The words Mr Lee Kuan Yew spoke, in both Mandarin and Malay, during the general elections in 1959, are just as relevant to us today.
“Many politicians are now resorting to such desperate tactics as asking people to vote according to their race and religion. We cannot have that,” he said. “Our island is the home of not only one race and one religion. If religion is to be the issue at the election, no good will come for all of us.”
As a governing party, we have eschewed identity politics and fought hard against attempts to create divisions in our different ethnic communities.
In recent sessions of Parliament, we renewed our commitment to these principles, by asking all political parties to refrain from identity politics that exploit race and religious issues.
We strongly disagree with the characterisation of these actions as “continuous politicking”, as some online publications have done. Defending the principles on which Singapore was built, is not nitpicking.
In the recent GE, various parties came dangerously close to politicising race and religion. These attempts include the controversial self-identified Islamic preacher Noor Deros’ list of demands and endorsements of Workers Party’s Malay Muslim candidates by members of Malaysian political party PAS, based on crude identity politics.
Leader of the Opposition Mr Pritam Singh originally stated on 26 April 2025 that Noor Deros had not been invited to the meeting with WP MPs.
It took two Ministerial Statements, more than seven months after, for LO Pritam Singh to say that Noor Deros did not “gatecrash” the meeting as Mr Singh had previously stated, but that he was invited and that WP MPs knew he had been invited to the meeting.
There are still many questions unanswered about the meeting.
Calling out identity politics can risk loss of goodwill. But it is the right thing to do.
As our secretary general, PM Wong said last week, “Each time we call out bad behaviour, some nay-sayers will accuse the PAP of being overbearing or bullying. So, speaking up carries some political cost. But keeping quiet carries a far greater cost – to our values; to our standards, and to Singapore’s future”.
We see the results of such populist identity politics around the world.
The vast majority of Singaporeans reject identity politics.
But when margins of electoral successes become thinner, unprincipled politicians may take advantage of the situation and engage in identity politics to get support from a segment of voters, even if they may be in the minority, so that they can cross the line and win, regardless of the cost to our nation.
Such engagements are more likely to happen behind closed doors and will be cloaked in subterfuge. That is why Singaporeans must insist on complete transparency and accountability in such matters. It is not enough for political parties to say they are not engaging in identity politics. They must demonstrate this in deed, too.
We, who live in a multi racial, multi religious society, know that issues of identity can become flashpoints, if not handled with care and tact.
They are existential issues for Singaporeans. We will never stop defending these principles.
