SINGAPORE: It is not for foreign entities or individuals to tell Singaporeans how to vote, least of all along racial and religious lines, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said on Thursday (Oct 16) in response to a statement issued by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS).
“That is divisive and unacceptable. It may be how politics and political parties are organised in other countries. But it is not how politics and political parties are organised in multi-racial, multi-religious Singapore,” said the ministry after Malaysia’s Islamist party on Wednesday released a statement in response to Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam’s ministerial statement on race and religion.
MHA said PAS’ latest statement contradicted its earlier position in April and laid out a timeline of facts.
During Singapore’s General Election this year, PAS National Treasurer Iskandar Abdul Samad on Apr 24 publicly expressed support for the Workers’ Party’s candidate Mr Faisal Manap.
“He praised Mr Manap for having ‘the courage to explain to parliament that in Islam religion must not be separated from politics’, and said he hoped that Mr Manap ‘will be successful once again’,” said MHA.
On the same day, PAS Selangor Youth Chief Mohamed Sukri Omar reposted a social media post which stated that PAP’s Malay-Muslim Members of Parliament cannot be trusted.
“This was a serious interference in Singapore’s elections,” said MHA.
MHA and the Elections Department Singapore (ELD) issued a joint statement on Apr 25, highlighting the dangers of foreigners attempting to influence Singapore’s elections, and of mixing religion and politics.
The joint statement said the government had blocked access to posts by foreigners who sought to influence the General Election, including the posts by Iskandar Abdul Samad and Mohamed Sukri Omar.
PAS issued a statement distancing itself from its members’ actions on Apr 28. The statement said that the posts made by the two PAS leaders “represent their personal views and in no way reflect PAS’s official policy or stance as a political party”.
It also said that as “a sovereign nation”, Singapore had “every right under the law to take any appropriate and reasonable measures to protect and safeguard their legitimate interests”, noted MHA.
