Writer says Singapore must go beyond blocking content after anti-Indian hate campaign

SINGAPORE: The writer Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh called for the government to make full immigration data public in light of the recent online hate campaign against Indians in Singapore, which resulted in the Ministry of Home Affairs ordering YouTube, Facebook, and X to block content believed to have originated from a China-based platform that targeted the Indian community.

Mr Sudhir noted that the modus operandi of spreading disinformation is not new, and different nations have been affected by it over the past few years.

He described its latest iteration in Singapore, where images and videos purported to show the city-state being overcrowded with Indians, and one even showing President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

“No social issue enlivens Singaporeans as much as the notion of over-immigration by those derogatorily called ‘CECA Indians’ referencing the 2005 free trade agreement,” he wrote, noting that there have been a range of online opinions on the issue, from former Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching and ex-Nominated Member of Parliament Calvin Cheng on one end, and Red Dot United chief Ravi Philemon and Jack Sim, aka “Mr Toilet,” on the other.

He also cited another former NMP, Anthea Ong, who suggested that cohesion and harmony be reimagined in order to nurture societal resilience.

Mr Sudhir then called for the government to “live up to its commitment to transparency, including full immigration data, such as how many dependents and long-term visit pass holders came to Singapore on the back of a CECA provision.

Doing so, he added, would finally eliminate the belief regarding CECA’s significant impact on Singapore’s demographics.

He also called for the government to “encourage a full interrogation of Singapore’s historical bias against non-Chinese, beginning with the racist musings of Lee Kuan Yew.”

The writer pointed out that the now-blocked content had claimed the majority-Chinese demographic was responsible for the city-state’s stability.

“In 1989, Lee said that the lower Chinese birth rate justified the government’s programme of encouraging Chinese immigration from Hong Kong,” and added that the Chinese majority must be maintained, otherwise Singapore’s economy would be affected.

Policies from Mr Lee’s time still “give preference to Chinese immigrants, in order to ensure that the Chinese never lose their supermajority status,” he added.

What is needful aside from the censorship of hate speech is allowing for open discussions on race and immigration, he added, otherwise similar content will continue, without people “understanding why they keep popping up in the first place.” /TISG

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