GE2025: WP can’t be successful if it plays race and religion card and Noor Deros was ‘sadly mistaken’, says Pritam Singh
2025-04-26T05:55:42Z
The party was not aware that Islamic religious leader Noor Deros would be present at the meeting with Malay-Muslim religious and community leaders.
SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh on Saturday (Apr 26) said the party cannot be a successful political party if they “play the race and religion card” and that Islamic religious teacher Noor Deros was “sadly mistaken”, as there was no agreement in return for his political support.
Mr Singh’s comments came the morning after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Elections Department (ELD) revealed that several online election advertisements had been posted by foreigners urging Singaporeans to vote along religious lines.
Mr Noor had in recent days made several Facebook posts mixing religion and politics. He had made a list of demands for political parties and claimed that the WP was the only one that responded to him – adding in a separate post that “so far only WP is taking that matter seriously by having a meeting with me and some asatizah friends”.
Mr Singh was asked by reporters prior to a walkabout in Kovan with other Aljunied GRC candidates to clarify the details of that meeting.
The WP chief said that the meeting that WP had where Mr Noor attended was arranged after a Muslim community member at one of the mosques in Aljunied wanted to speak to former Aljunied GRC MP Mr Faisal Manap and WP Malay members of the party.
“The meeting was supposed to take place with some senior Malay-Muslim religious leaders. There was no indication that this individual would be joining the meeting,” he said.
Mr Singh added that there was no situation where the WP had agreed to his list of demands.
“I’m sorry – we don’t work politics like that in Singapore. We don’t work politics like that in the Workers’ Party.”
“People have views. I think government officials, even ministers, meet with various members of religious groups in Singapore – so do we.
“And if this gentleman thinks that his advocacy will lead to the issues being brought up by the Workers’ Party. I think he’s sadly mistaken.”
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