[SINGAPORE] The Republic must never allow prejudice against any community to become accepted or normalised, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.<\/p>\n
Singapore has held together because it has consistently rejected attempts to divide it along racial or religious lines, and chosen instead to recognise one another as fellow Singaporeans, he said in a post on Facebook on Sep 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must keep making that choice,\u201d he said as he urged Singaporeans to hold fast to the ideals of the National Pledge \u2013 \u201cregardless of race, language or religion\u201d.<\/p>\n
He noted that there will always be people who seek to exploit Singapore\u2019s differences, but how the country responds is up to Singaporeans.<\/p>\n
While not every hateful comment online can be stopped, \u201cwe can reject such views, and refuse to give them more space or legitimacy\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
He was addressing\u00a0anti-Indian comments<\/a> that have emerged online\u00a0following the devastating floods in Nepal in which nine Singaporeans remain missing. Such comments also came up over SIA\u2019s investment in Air India.<\/p>\n PM Wong said that while Singapore can and should have robust debates, seemingly legitimate arguments should not be used as a cover to fuel prejudice against any community or hostility towards foreigners.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should be clear about the distinction,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThese views do not represent Singapore. But neither can we dismiss them as harmless online chatter. If such behaviour goes unchecked, it can become normalised, deepen mistrust between communities and pull us apart.\u201d<\/p>\n SEE ALSO<\/p>\n That is why he discussed the developments with his Cabinet colleagues, and Senior Minister K Shanmugam spoke about the issue on Sep 5, said PM Wong.<\/p>\n Shanmugam had told the media that\u00a0the police are looking into the racist and xenophobic comments.<\/p>\n He said some of these comments\u00a0have been \u201cshameful, nasty and totally unacceptable\u201d, with references to snakes, curry, prata, black magic and other racist stereotypes.<\/p>\n The Ministry of Digital Development and Information will also ask platforms to take such comments down as they are in breach of guidelines, he added.<\/p>\n Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong similarly spoke out\u00a0against such comments on Sep 6, saying they were deeply troubling and urging Singaporeans to \u201creject hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n PM Wong noted that the emergence of such online comments are not new, with anti-foreigner and racial sentiments stirred up during the Covid-19 pandemic and in debates over the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between Singapore and India. They also surfaced during the 2025 General Election, where he spoke out against attempts to bring race and religion into politics.<\/p>\n Singapore\u2019s identity must remain open and inclusive, said PM Wong.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever our background, if we embrace our values and way of life, we are part of this nation. This is what our National Pledge stands for, and I believe the vast majority of Singaporeans share this view,\u201d he said. THE STRAITS TIMES<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n He was addressing\u00a0anti-Indian comments that have emerged online\u00a0following the devastating floods in Nepal [SINGAPORE] The Republic must never allow prejudice against any community to become…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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