Bill to maintain racial harmony tabled in Singapore parliament

Singapore, Jan 7 (PTI) A new bill was introduced on Tuesday in Singapore Parliament that aims to consolidate and strengthen the government's powers to maintain racial harmony in the multi-ethnic city-state.
    The Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill would allow the Home Affairs Minister to make restraining orders and introduce a community-based approach to dealing with racial incidents. The proposed legislation also includes safeguards against foreign influence.
    Under the bill, clan and business associations linked to the Chinese, Malay and Indian races, the three main denominations of the population, would be designated as “race-based entities” and subject to measures to curb foreign influence, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
    If passed, the bill would result in the designation of more than 300 such entities in Singapore, according to MHA’s preliminary estimation.
    Race-based entities would have to disclose their foreign affiliations, foreign donations and anonymous donations, as well as leadership composition. These organisations would also have to ensure more than half of the members of their governing body are Singapore citizens and that their responsible officers are either citizens or permanent residents.
    The racial harmony bill has been in the works for more than three years, according to a report by The Straits Times newspaper.
    MHA said the new bill takes close reference from existing legislation like the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA).
    Similar to the MRHA, it will enable the Minister for Home Affairs to make restraining orders against those involved in communicating, producing or distributing content prejudicial to racial harmony in Singapore.
    However, the authorities have never resorted to issuing a restraining order – a lever that can be invoked without having to establish that a person or entity is engaging in criminal conduct – since the MRHA was enacted in 1990.
    A restraining order against harmful racial content could be used to stop a person from addressing an audience on a specified subject; communicating or distributing certain information or material; printing, editing, assisting or contributing to a publication; or holding office at a publication.
    The proposed law also ports over all race-related Penal Code offences, with updates.
    The term “wound racial feelings” would be replaced with “insults, vilifies, denigrates, threatens or abuses on the basis of race”. MHA said the change “provides clarity and does not substantively expand the scope of conduct that would make out an offence today”.
    To better align penalties with similar offences already found in the MRHA, the maximum jail term for such offences would be raised from three years to five years, MHA said.
    Like the MRHA, the new laws would apply even if the conduct occurred overseas, as long as the offence was directed towards a person or group in Singapore.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)