Protests may start off well-intentioned but often 'get hijacked', putting police in 'impossible position': Shanmugam

SINGAPORE: Protests can start off with well intentions and be led by “honest, idealistic people”, but such events often “get hijacked” by others with their own agenda to create violence, said Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam on Friday (Aug 16).

Citing “many such incidents” around the world including the recent protests in the United Kingdom, the minister said: “If you have 2000 people coming together, 50 in there will want to create violence … and from the police’s perspective, you don't know who is the good guy and who is doing the violence.

“The police shoot. Immediately, the police are then put in an impossible position and targeted as the aggressors.”

“We don't put the police in Singapore in such a position,” said Mr Shanmugam, adding this is why the Public Order Act requires organisers of public assemblies to obtain police permits.

In a speech delivered at the Singapore Police Force Scholarship and Ministry of Home Affairs Scholarships Award Ceremony, Mr Shanmugam sought to lay out Singapore’s approach to ensuring law and order. 

He raised the example of recent protests that have erupted across the United Kingdom after a knife attack that killed three children.

Before the suspect’s identity was confirmed, rumours quickly spread online that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker. Anti-immigrant riots then erupted across multiple towns and cities in Britain, with officials blaming far-right agitators for using the tragedy to further their anti-immigration, anti-Muslim agenda.

The stabbing suspect has since been named as Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old boy born in the Welsh capital of Cardiff to Rwandan parents. 

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.” 

Underpinning the legal framework is a “strong foundation of public trust and support” in Singapore’s law enforcement agencies, said the minister, citing a public perception survey last year where 92 per cent of respondents said they trusted the Home Team. 

The survey done by the Home Team also showed 93 per cent of respondents saying they had confidence in the Home Team’s ability to keep Singapore safe and secure.

Lastly, the country makes sure it has “policies that work for our people”, such as the Ethnic Integration Policy to prevent ethnic enclaves in public housing estates, said Mr Shanmugam.

Leaders from different ethnic and religious communities also regularly come together to organise common activities for Singaporeans from all walks of life, he added.

“This is the system that you are joining, to protect and keep going. No one is throwing you into a system that is facing the frontline of protest every day - That won’t be allowed,” Mr Shanmugam said to the scholarship recipients gathered at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre.

“We look for people like you, because the organisation can succeed only if good people continue to join us. Your task, when starting out, is to keep Singapore safe.”