Singapore Parliament Passes Bill To Strengthen Racial Harmony

By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz

SINGAPORE, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- The Singapore Parliament passed a bill on Tuesday that will consolidate and strengthen the government’s powers, including introducing the use of Restraining Order (RO) to maintain racial harmony and address related threats in the country.

The Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill (RH Bill) was tabled for a second reading by Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam, together with Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling.

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It was read together with the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill, which amends the President’s powers under the Constitution to give effect to the proposals in the RH Bill.

The RH Bill, among other measures, introduces an RO regime to deal with content prejudicial to racial harmony, a community-based approach to dealing with racial incidents, and safeguards to prevent race-based entities from being used as vectors of foreign influence.

The community-based approach, known as the Community Remedial Initiative (CRI), gives the offender the opportunity to mend ties with the community they have attacked.

“The RH Bill will not be a panacea for solving all race-related challenges, but it is a powerful signal of our resolve to remain united as one people,” Shanmugam said.

The minister, citing a 2024 poll conducted on more than 1,000 Singapore residents, found that the public strongly supports various proposals in the RH Bill.

Meanwhile, Sun said Clause 8 of the RH Bill enables the Home Affairs Minister to issue ROs against persons involved in the communication, production, or distribution of content that prejudices the maintenance of racial harmony in Singapore.

However, the issuance of ROs will be subject to stringent safeguards, as all ROs will be reviewed by a Presidential Council for Racial and Religious Harmony (PCRRH), which will be established under the Bill.

The person issued with a racial content RO will be able to make representations to the PCRRH.

The RH Bill also stated that race-based entities be subject to baseline foreign influence measures, including requirements to disclose foreign and anonymous donations accepted, foreign affiliations, and their leadership composition.

Sun said Clause 15 empowers a competent authority to designate a race-based entity if considered necessary or expedient to pre-empt, prevent, or reduce any foreign influence that may undermine racial harmony in the country.

An entity may be designated by the competent authority if it represents or promotes the social, economic, political, educational, linguistic, cultural, or other interests of any race, or discusses any issue relating to any race.

To begin with, clan and business associations linked to the Chinese, Malay, and Indian races will be designated under this Bill.

“We will need time to assess the entities in these categories before we can inform them whether they will be designated,” she said.

Sun added that designated entities would need to comply with leadership requirements, including that their responsible officers must be Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents, and that the majority of the governing body, or anyone exercising functions analogous to a governing body member, must be Singapore Citizens.

The RH Bill closely references existing legislation, including the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA) enacted in 1990 to maintain religious harmony.

-- BERNAMA