Lack of halal kitchens in RSN ships is not the issue – unfair discrimination of Malays is

Workers’ Party’s Member of Parliament Muhammad Faisal Abdul Manap raised a parliamentary question yesterday (7 Apr) on the lack of halal food onboard ships in the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). This deprived Muslim men from serving in RSN ships he said.
In replying to him, Senior Minister of State for Defence, Maliki Osman said:

“The preparation of halal foods require strict adherence to the religious stipulations governing the food stalls, preparation and even storage. So for Navy ships, space is always a premium — which needs to be maximised and prioritised — for key operational requirements in terms of combat systems and equipment spares.”

Mr Faisal then raised a supplementary question. In reminding the Defence Minister about a speech he gave to a group of students and academics during a forum organised by government feedback arm Reach and the National University of Singapore, where the Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said that it was difficult to have a halal kitchen in confined spaces such as those aboard Navy vessels, the opposition MP reiterated his call for halal kitchens on ships.
Replying to the WP MP’s question, Mr Ng said that Mr Faisal was only championing for Muslims, but that the “Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) operational concerns must come first and individual needs sometimes must (be) subsumed under that.”