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Commentary: The key concern about white supremacy isn’t ethnicity, it’s youth. How can Singapore build good defences?

A report last year by the Ministry of Home Affairs observed that the “structured and dichotomous” extremist worldview appears as “more appealing to the young”.  

The central puzzle connecting both cases is this: Why would non-white Singaporeans buy into far-right extremist ideologies associated with white supremacism?

The central puzzle connecting both cases is this: Why would non-white Singaporeans buy into far-right extremist ideologies associated with white supremacism?

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Reports that a 16-year-old male Singaporean was issued with a Restriction Order under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in November 2023, have puzzled many. Although ethnically Chinese, the Secondary 4 student identified himself strongly as a white supremacist, and desired to conduct attacks overseas in support of this cause. 

His aspiration seems odd as some white supremacist groups in the West have espoused anti-Asian views and have attacked individuals of East Asian descent. 

He is the second Singaporean who seems to have imbibed “far-right extremism”. In December 2020, another 16-year old Protestant Christian of Indian ethnicity was detained under the ISA for planning terrorist attacks against Muslims at two mosques in Singapore. He was released this month after undergoing an intensive three-year rehabilitation programme during his detention.

The central puzzle connecting both cases is this: Why would non-white Singaporeans buy into far-right extremist ideologies associated with white supremacism? 

‘MULTICULTURAL WHITE SUPREMACY’

This phenomenon of non-whites buying into white supremacist “far-right” views is not unheard of in the West. For instance, Sai Varshith Kandula, a 19-year-old American man of Indian descent, was arrested last year after crashing a van into a barrier near the White House while carrying a Nazi flag. 

Political scientists Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph Lowndes have drawn attention to a broader phenomenon in the US of what they call “multicultural white supremacy”.

THE WHITE SUPREMACIST EXTREME RIGHT

The white supremacist extreme right movement in the West is, as I’ve written previously, a bewildering amalgam of white nationalists, some white Christian evangelicals, racists, anti-government militias, misogynists, anti-globalisers, and anti-vaxxers, among others, seeking to exploit global social and political upheaval to promote intolerant ideas and at times inflict violence. 

Recent scholarship, nonetheless, suggests that the central core of this diverse movement is white Christian nationalism. White Christian nationalism fuses white nationalist identity with Christianity. While mainline Christianity aspires to be racially inclusive, white Christian nationalism is based on exclusivist and potentially violent “white supremacist assumptions” about the superiority of “white-Christian” culture and its “traditional way of life”. 

One influential white supremacist narrative is the “Great Replacement”. Birthed in 2012, this belief supposes that white Christian nations are being overrun by masses of immigrants. A “white genocide” is thus supposedly underway, perpetrated by non-white out-groups like East Asians, Hispanics and Muslims.  

While mainline Christianity aspires to be racially inclusive, white Christian nationalism is based on exclusivist and potentially violent “white supremacist assumptions” about the superiority of “white-Christian” culture and its “traditional way of life”, says the author.

White supremacists argue that the “Great Replacement” of the white Christian population needs thwarting urgently, especially through “accelerating” the movement toward a violent race war to set up a white ethno-state.  

Significantly, both the self-radicalised “far right” Singaporean youths were reportedly exposed to the Great Replacement narrative online. 

IT'S ABOUT YOUTH, NOT ETHNICITY

Rather than their non-white ethnicity, what is pertinent about both “far right” cases discovered thus far, is their relative youth. Youths are particularly suitable for extremist recruitment because during the emotionally turbulent teenage years, the executive reasoning parts of their brains are less developed than the emotional centres. 

Thus teenagers often come across as impulsive and rash. They constantly pursue black-and-white answers to complex issues and apparently virtuous, grand causes.  

A report last year by the Ministry of Home Affairs observed that the “structured and dichotomous” extremist worldview appears as “more appealing to the young”.  Additionally, some youth coming from challenging family contexts tend to possess fragile identities.  They tend to seek “external objects that claim to be perfect and ideal”, offering “that necessary sense of connection to something of value” that can “buttress” their “self-esteem”. 

This is possibly one factor explaining why the two non-white Singaporean youths fell prey to what Professor Cristina Beltran of New York University calls “multiracial whiteness”: The desire to identify with “an ideology of power and supremacy”.

THE IMPACT OF THE SMALL GROUP 

During the self-radicalisation process, an individual would likely have been immersed in a small group, whether physical or online. Such groups act as insulated echo chambers in which countervailing ideas tend not to circulate, and within which extremist ideologies are affirmed and internalised. 

During the self-radicalisation process, an individual would likely have been immersed in a small group, whether physical or online, says the author.

In the latest “far-right” case, the youth had honed his extremist beliefs “in far-right online chat groups and channels, where he shared violent anti-African American videos”, and also “expressed interest in a far-right online chat group in carrying out a mass shooting in the US in 10 years”. 

Apart from giving such youth “a sense of belonging to the white supremacist community”, such small groups encourage toxic, violent norms of masculinity, persuading young males that to be a “real man”, one needs to embrace violence. As in the latest case: the youth had wanted to “fight for the whites”. 

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

First, one should not overplay the fact that in both cases of “far-right extremism” in Singapore, non-white Singaporeans were implicated. 

As shown, even in the West, multicultural white supremacy exists. To reiterate, what seems more relevant is the relative youth of the two cases. Youth radicalisation seems clearly a feature of both “far-right” extremism and that associated with the relatively larger number of cases associated with ISIS and/or Al Qaeda in Singapore.

Second, while the violent extremism of the Islamist variety remains the central threat to Singapore and the region, the challenge of “far-right extremism” should not be ignored. Global trends clearly indicate that white supremacist tropes like the Great Replacement narrative have been increasingly mainstreamed in Western societies, and reflected in the electoral success of anti-immigration-oriented far right political parties in recent years. 

Significantly, Donald Trump, seen in some circles as the “white-supremacist-in-chief”, has a good chance of recapturing the US presidency in this November’s elections. A Trump return could thus be a shot in the arm for white supremacist movements in the US and globally, and this would certainly be felt in the online sphere — which impressionable youth in Singapore can all too readily access.

Finally, the strategy for building effective defences against youth radicalisation in any ideological sphere is, ultimately, broadly similar: Building emotional, psychological and intellectual resilience against violent extremism of all stripes. 

Possible options include strong socio-economic support for the stable families that youth need; access for such youth, where relevant, to authoritative religious education promoting inclusivity rather than exclusivism; facilitating their participation in peer networks fostering digital literacy and healthy norms of masculinity; and importantly, helping them develop, in creative ways, a deeper appreciation for the tolerant nature of Singapore’s secular, cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic, society. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kumar Ramakrishna is professor and provost’s chair of National Security Studies as well as dean of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. This is adapted from a piece that first appeared in RSIS Commentary.

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white supremacy ISA multiculturalism

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