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No place for racists and xenophobes in Singapore: Tan Chuan-Jin

SINGAPORE — In a Facebook post today (June 20), Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin lauded the move by Google to take down a blog site hosting hate-filled content, and said such “vile and vicious blogs do not reflect who we are as a people”.

Minister Tan Chuan-Jin. Photo: Channel NewsAsia

Minister Tan Chuan-Jin. Photo: Channel NewsAsia

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SINGAPORE — In a Facebook post today (June 20), Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin lauded the move by Google to take down a blog site hosting hate-filled content, and said such “vile and vicious blogs do not reflect who we are as a people”.

Mr Tan said while there are many things posted on the Internet and people may not always like or agree with things said by others, “that’s the nature of the medium”. This changes when these things “crosses a line”.

“Let us be clear. This is not about freedom of speech or a debate about immigration or foreign workforce policy. This is about racism and xenophobia and there is no place for racists and xenophobes in our society,” he wrote.

He added: “We have always been an open society where people come to our shores for a range of reasons. Many have settled down over the years, others may move on, as do some of our own Singaporeans. Many leave as friends with Singapore always in their hearts. That is what will make us big despite being a little red dot.”

The Manpower Minister said that “vile and vicious blogs” such as Blood Stained Singapore “do not reflect who we are as a people”, and that people should make a stand and call it out when they encounter these blogs.

The Philippine embassy in Singapore had on Tuesday called on the Singapore Government to hold the blogger accountable for a blog post that encourages Singaporeans to show intolerance for Filipinos. The post in question offered pointers on how Singaporeans can show displeasure with Filipinos without breaking the law, and was widely circulated on social media.

Blogger, a blog-publishing service owned by Google, subsequently removed the Blood Stained Singapore blog site on Wednesday for violating its content policy of posting hate speech.

“I am glad that the blog has been taken down,” said Mr Tan, who added the police is investigating the case. CHANNEL NEWSASIA

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