GE2025: ‘Very dangerous’ for foreign parties to ask Singaporeans to vote along religious lines, says Zaqy Mohamad
2025-04-26T04:59:17Z
It might be a norm to mix religion with politics in other countries, but this could be disruptive in a small, multiracial country like Singapore, said the senior minister of state.
SINGAPORE: It is concerning that foreigners are exploiting race relations and religious elements for political gains during this election period, Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad said on Saturday (Apr 26).
“So when you have a party like PAS, for example, espousing certain views, asking Singaporeans to vote along religious and racial lines, I think that’s very dangerous,” the People’s Action Party candidate for Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC told reporters ahead of a walkabout at Fuchun Market.
“That’s the kind of politics perhaps you can see in Malaysia, where you have different parties representing different faiths or different races, whether it’s UMNO, PAS, DAP and MIC, and you can see how the parties are organised.”
Mr Zaqy was responding to news that the government has directed Meta to block access to posts by two Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) politicians attempting to influence Singapore’s election.
In his comments on Saturday, he referred to the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) as race-based Malaysian parties.
Singapore has spent the last 60 years trying to build peace, harmony, mutual trust and a society that understands and respects each other’s faith, he said.
“But having said that, we don’t want to have a situation where this is being exploited. We’ve seen the dangers of that,” he added.
“In the early days of our independence, we had racial riots, we have protests, whether it’s across different races or along religious lines.”
As a small country, Singapore guards against the use of race and religion to divide people, Mr Zaqy said, stressing that it is “very easy” for these elements to be exploited, leading to a breakdown in trust between different segments of the population.
“We have foreigners interfering – it’s not just about putting posts, but you’re asking Singaporeans to vote a certain way because of their beliefs overseas or the way of life overseas, then I think it doesn’t suit us,” he said.
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