Singapore, Apr 26 (PTI) Foreigners urging Singaporeans to vote along religious lines have “crossed the line”, warned Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Saturday, stressing that external actors must not be allowed to exploit divisions within the multi-racial country.
Addressing a press conference, Wong welcomed the “clear consensus” from opposition parties rejecting foreign interference in Singapore’s general elections scheduled for May 3, 2025.
The 52-year-old Prime Minister, seeking a fresh mandate for his ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), urged all political leaders to also firmly reject overseas endorsements. PAP has ruled Singapore since its independence in 1965.
Singapore has had tense moments along the religious lines in the 1960s following the separation from Malaysia but the tensions were managed and developed into a harmonious society that enjoys the city state’s global status as Asian financial hub, an internationally connected trade-focused and export and regional re-export hub for Asia Pacific, serving global multinational corporations in the growing prosperity of the East, diplomatic observers said.
Wong said he was holding the press conference in the middle of the election campaigning in his position as prime minister, as the issue concerned “a matter of national interest”.
His remarks followed the government’s announcement on Friday that its authorities had directed Meta to block access to Facebook posts made by two Malaysian politicians and a former Singaporean, an Internal Security Act detainee with links to the Islamic State and now an Australian citizen.
The posts criticised Singapore’s handling of religious matters and urged voters to cast ballots along religious lines, according to media reports.
Wong noted the foreign actors’ online activities that specifically urged Singaporeans to vote for certain candidates based on race or religion. These posts, he added, were widely shared within the Singaporean community.
“Singaporeans may have different views about issues, but we cannot allow external actors to exploit whatever differences we may have to weaken us or advance their interests,” he said, continuing, “Singapore’s politics must be for Singaporeans alone to decide.” Wong, appointed fourth prime minister of the prosperous Southeast Asian city state in May last year, added that access to the posts had been blocked and warned the government would continue to act firmly against such activities.
Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, it is an offence for foreigners to participate in election activities or to publish online advertising related to polls.
The act defines such advertising as material that can “reasonably” be regarded as intending to promote or prejudice the electoral success of a party or candidate.
Beyond foreign interference, Wong also raised concerns about other social media posts attempting to bring race and religion into politics, including one by a local activist calling for Muslims to vote for candidates who are willing to advance a religious agenda.
“These messages may be by Singaporeans, but we should also reject them. Were it a Christian, a Hindu (of Indian origin) or a Buddhist group (mostly of Chinese origin) making the same demand, our response would be the same,” he said.
Mixing politics with religion, he stressed, is unacceptable in Singapore for three reasons: It fractures the common space shared by all Singaporeans, all communities are worse off when elections become contests of faith, and external powers will exploit fault lines to advance their agenda.
This does not mean that Singapore cannot engage different communities or discuss race and religion, Wong said.
Such engagements are important but “very different from identity politics”, which should be firmly rejected.
He described identity politics as dangerous because it encourages candidates and parliament members to appeal for support based on race or religion, championing the interests of one group over others.
“When one group jostles aggressively to assert its identity, others will organise and start to jostle back, and you can see how these play out in countries everywhere,” the Channel News Asia quoted Wong as saying.
“The minority groups will fail to get what they want because the majority group will push back strongly, and the minorities will find their space constricted. At the same time, the majority group will also live in the most unhappy society, where every issue comes down to race and religion.
“So, no one is happy, no one wins. In the end, we will be more divided than before, and Singaporeans, all of us, will pay the price.” Wong called on all political parties to make their positions clear, not only on foreign interference, but also on two fundamental principles: that identity politics has no place in Singapore and religion should never be mixed with politics.
“At the end of the day, whatever differences, we are all Singaporeans first and foremost,” he said.
Opposition party leaders also spoke out on Saturday against foreign interference in the election.
The Workers’ Party said it had no control over foreigners supporting its candidates and clarified that no promises, commitments or agreements were made to Islamic religious teacher Noor Deros – or anyone else – in exchange for political support.
This came in response to social media posts by Noor, who is a Singaporean Malay Muslim but based in Malaysia.
He claimed that WP was the only party that responded to a list of demands he had made regarding political engagement with the Muslim community.
Wong said that statements from various political leaders indicated a “clear consensus” on rejecting foreign interference.
“The principle of keeping religion and politics separate is well established,” the WP said in Saturday’s statement, noting that its parliament members had previously affirmed this principle.
WP was the largest party in the parliament, dissolved before the election was called, and its Secretary-General, Pritam Singh, was the Leader of the Opposition.
Singh, also the WP’s general secretary, stressed that MPs must represent all communities and avoid introducing religion into politics, according to media reports.
In its statement, WP said it remained committed to policies that benefit Singaporeans of all backgrounds.
“We remain firmly committed to Singapore’s secular, multi-racial, multi-religious society, and to protecting the integrity of our electoral process,” said the WP.
A total of 2,758,846 registered voters are set to vote on May 3 — 75 per cent of Chinese origins, over 15 per cent Malay, mostly of Islamic faith, and over seven per cent Indian origins. PTI GS PY PY PY
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.