Apart from disinformation, hate speech, foreign interference, as well as underlying socio-economic issues such as jobs and housing are other factors that have contributed to the protests in the United Kingdom, said Mr Shanmugam.
“We don’t allow this in Singapore,” the minister said, noting that the country tries to “pre-empt such a situation from arising by having a carefully designed legal framework and also carefully designed set of policies which give priority to law and order”.
First, Singapore has various sets of laws to tackle these potential issues.
Apart from the regulation of protests under the Public Order Act, there is the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA) which guards against the incitement of racial and religious hatred, including a strict approach towards hate speech.
“Because when people are repeatedly exposed to hate speech … the latent prejudices, biases will accumulate and eventually, violence. We see that everywhere in the world. So we don’t even allow it to start and we take action,” said Mr Shanmugam.
Since the MRHA was passed in the 1990s and later amended in 2019, authorities “haven’t had to take extreme action”, he said. The number of people who have fallen afoul of the law has been “very small” – at 199 reported cases relating to race and religion over the past five years, he added.
His ministry will also be introducing the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill which aims to consolidate existing laws that deal with racial issues, among others.
Separately, Singapore also has laws to deal with falsehoods and foreign interference, namely through the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) and Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA) respectively.
Together, this legal framework forms a “shield” that protects Singaporeans from the lawlessness seen in other places.
“It’s not that Singaporeans are naturally different or started out different. But our framework acts as a shield,” said Mr Shanmugam.
“Beyond that, the few that get through … we have empowered law enforcement agencies that stop it from getting to a riot, that stop it from getting into anything more serious. So the result is no riots, racial attacks, lawlessness – the kind of stuff that you saw.”