S’pore ‘must remain committed to protecting its minorities’

[chahlley]

(Singapore Today Thursday 2 February 2017)

S’pore ‘must remain committed to protecting its minorities’

Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam addressed the question of

how Singapore can resist the global tide of populism and xenophobia at the third Studies

in Inter-religious Relations in Plural Societies symposium on Feb 1, 2017.

Photo: Koh Mui Fong/TODAY

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By Neo Chai Chin -   chaichin@mediacorp.com.sg -

Updated: 12:09 AM, February 2, 2017

SINGAPORE — The entry ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries ordered by United States President Donald Trump — and the ensuing public disagreement involving the former Acting Attorney-General — has many consequences, including leading Muslims around the world to become anti-US, warned Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Wednesday (Feb 1).

Speaking at a symposium centering on religion, conflict and peace-building — where other former regional leaders also criticised Mr Trump’s actions — Mr Shanmugam, who was initially not slated to speak, said the events could also lead to change in perceptions of the US.

“One of the consequences of everything that is happening, including the debate and the characterisations, and sometimes the caricatures – (it) could lead to Muslims around the world, some of them becoming more anti-American. Believing that the US has become more Islamophobic. And that has serious risks for a lot of people, including us. We have to watch this carefully,” Mr Shanmugam said.

In the face of this and other developments, the Singapore Government must convey a clear message that its people are all Singaporeans, and the State will guarantee the safety, security and freedom of religion to all, including the Muslim community, said Mr Shanmugam, who decided to speak as “there have been a lot of questions on the ground and in people’s minds of what is going on”.

Aside from the Government, the community here must “covenant to ourselves to never allow xenophobism and majoritarianism to overrun the protection and guarantee of equality, particularly to minorities”, he told an audience that included academics, diplomats and students.

Mr Trump’s executive order banned refugees from entering the US for 120 days, and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Syria — are blocked for three months. Syrian refugees have been indefinitely blocked.

When a superpower moves this fast, smaller nations have to avoid “being caught in the slipstream”, said Mr Shanmugam, who is also Law Minister.

He said: “In the last seven to 10 days, we have had a preview of what might happen ... Within a week, the United States went out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), imposed a ban on nationals from seven countries and made a promise of much more to come.”

Mr Trump’s travel ban validated the feelings of a significant section of people who voted for him, and these are anti-Islam feelings that are also sweeping across countries such as France, the Netherlands and Germany, said Mr Shanmugam.

This sentiment, he felt, was a reaction to the perception that minority communities and immigrants have been taking advantage of the existing systems and hardworking citizens of those countries, and that “weak leaders” have been too accommodating. “Politicians who advocate tolerance are seen as out of touch and weak — therefore, a fascination with leaders who promise strength,” he said.

The 3rd SRP Distinguished Lecture and Symposium was organised by the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies. SRP stands for the Studies in Inter-religious Relations in Plural Societies Programme.

During a roundtable, Indonesia’s former foreign minister Marty Natalegawa called the travel ban “a classic case of a solution looking for a problem”.

It came from the sense that “we must do something”, without a proper analysis of the nature of the problem, said Dr Natalegawa, who was expressing his personal view. “It’s a case, I think, where the tail is wagging the dog.”

The policy will create more problems than solutions and more harm than good, helping the narrative of those who wish to portray the US as being Islamophobic. But there have been resistance and demonstrations by groups of Americans, which are “appreciated in Islamic communities”, said Dr Natalegawa, who was responding to a question from moderator Barry Desker on how the ban would affect regional perceptions of the US, especially in Muslim-majority countries.

Dr Natalegawa also noted silence from some countries affected by the travel ban and the lack of a universal common response within so-called Islamic communities.

Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr called it a “revolutionary change” and questioned what would happen after Trump left office. The policy does not appear to lend itself to a swift correction, he said.

The panellists also spoke about the need for integration and the bridging of divides, with Prof Carr saying it was “very hard to whip up hostility against people you know”, while Dr Natalegawa said civil liberty and security need not be an either-or proposition, and can go hand in hand.