Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam stated on Monday ( Jul 1 ) that the upcoming passage of workplace fairness legislation in parliament demonstrates that discrimination against people based on ethnic or religious beliefs is unacceptable.
” It requires companies not to discriminate against people based on a set of guarded features, which include culture, religion, and language, and we plan to present this in parliament after this year”, he said.
The minister was speaking at the Institute of Policy Studies ( IPS)- Ministry of Home Affairs ( MHA ) forum on Non- Violent Ethnic Hostilities.
Lee Hsien Loong, the then-primiminster, made reference to the proposed policy at the 2021 National Day Rally.
Mr. Shanmugam warned that employers who violate it does face consequences for breaking the law, calling it” an essential piece of legislation.”
He emphasized that Singapore has a strict policy against racial and religious hatred, as well as a strong set of laws against love speech.
The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act, which was enacted in 1990 and was updated in 2019, is one such rules.
Everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law, according to Mr. Shanmugam, and the state has a responsibility to care for the interests of racial minorities as stated in the Constitution.
The National Council for Minority Rights examines legislation that has been passed by the legislature to make sure that no racial or religious group is discriminated against.
Apart from its rules, Singapore even has a socio- economical approach towards race and religion, said Mr Shanmugam.
SOCIO- ECONOMIC APPROACH
Mr Shanmugam emphasised the importance of equal possibility, regardless of race, speech or religion.
” Finally you will have trouble,” he said if people believed they were being kept out of the program because of their faith or skin color.
This applies to housing, education, care, common policies and services, he noted.
He claimed that the Singaporean government has “heard a lot” of action to promote social cohesion, in ways that “would become unacceptable in many other nations with a laissez-faire mindset.”
” While we are committed to justice … we are no race blind”, he added.
According to Mr. Shanmugam, Singapore is “probably the just government in the world” with a plan to prevent tribal communities, citing the Ethnic Integration Policy in people housing lands.
” Expect the government had left it to market troops, even in public housing. What would you see?
” You would see places like Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, the more expensive flats – it would be 90 % or 95 % Chinese.
” And then you would notice Indians congregating in some areas, Malays mingling in others.” And they would simply be able to sell to another Indians, and only be able to sell to other Malays”, said the minister.
ANOMALY IN THE WORLD
He noted that Singapore has avoided the issues seen in other places and is a” complete anomaly” in ethnic relations.
Over the past five decades, the police have investigated 199 cases of crimes relating to race and religion, which comes up to about 40 cases a year, he said.
He urged Singaporeans to not dismiss the experiences of nations where ethnic tensions have caused crime.
Mr. Shanmugam cited Myanmar as an example of where conflicts brought on by ethnic and religious distinctions have led to the Rohingya crisis.
” More than 1 million Rohingya Muslims have been violently displaced. These are huge amounts”, he said.
After the Rohingya insurgents attacked military and police positions in 2017, the conflicts between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in the Rakhine State reached an all-time high, according to Mr. Shanmugam.
” Radical Buddhist monks have even incited the crime. They claim to get defending Buddhist Myanmar against Islamisation”, he added.
” Myanmar continues to struggle with governing its multi-ethnic world. Within the military dictatorship and the anti-junta resistance, which includes various ethnic armed groups, is still active.
He noted that the Supreme Court has stated that aggressive speech, even those that call for the Ku Klux Klan’s use of violence, may be protected under US law, unless the conversation is intended to incite or lead to immediate violent action.
According to him, the US is also addressing the issue of white nationalist beliefs-related far-right fanaticism.
According to Mr. Shanmugam,” President Biden has called bright dominance the most harmful terrorist threat” in the US, pointing out that the racial divide is heavy and manifests in many ways.  ,