SINGAPORE has proposed a new law that includes establishing controls on “race-based” business groups and clan associations in a bid to safeguard racial harmony and curb foreign influence.
Under the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Parliament on Tuesday (Jan 7), designated entities linked to Chinese, Malay and Indian races will have to disclose foreign donations, overseas affiliations and ensure Singapore citizens are appointed to leadership positions.
“Singapore is vulnerable to external actors exerting malicious foreign influence to exploit race or undermine our racial harmony, to achieve their agenda,” the ministry said in a press release on Tuesday. “Organisations that promote the interests of a racial group or sub-group are potential entry points for such influence.”
The Bill is the latest in a string of legislation in recent years to clamp down on foreign influence and content the government views as damaging. In 2021, it passed one such bill that prevents foreign entities or individuals from influencing politics in the country, while another targeting “fake news” took effect in 2019.
Singapore’s government has long defended the need for such laws, saying the city-state is vulnerable to fake news and hostile information campaigns because it’s a financial hub with a multiethnic population and widespread Internet access. Chinese make up about 75 per cent of the population while Malays account for 14 per cent and Indians 9 per cent.
The new legislation would result in the designation of more than 300 entities in Singapore as being “race-based,” according to a preliminary government estimate. Minister of Home Affairs K Shanmugam will also have the power to issue restraining orders against those groups to combat foreign influence that may “present a threat to public peace and public order.”
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The government will take at least a year to operationalise all the proposals in the bill, while the full list of designated entities it applies to “will be published in due course,” the ministry said in response to a Bloomberg query. It is almost certain to be approved, as the ruling People’s Action Party holds more than two-thirds of seats in Parliament.
The Bill contains other measures, including carrying out community remedial programmes for offenders and introducing a restraining order on content prejudicial to racial relations.
The Home Affairs minister can use the restraining order to prohibit the distribution of content, bar someone from addressing an audience on a subject, or even block them from contributing to a publication.
Specified offences relating to race will also be more harshly punished under the bill, with imprisonment of up to five years, or a fine, or both. These cover acts that incite enmity or hostility against a racial group, insults or abuse of another person on the basis of race, and violence. BLOOMBERG
