Shanmugam meets with individual who made seditious remarks

SINGAPORE — Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said he has changed his mind about filing a police report about “inaccurate and seditious” comments an individual left on Facebook because he found that she did not have an “active intention” to cause ill will between races even though her comments were “completely untrue”.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a community event today (Aug 29), Mr Shanmugam said he met the individual Ms Sangeetha Thanapal today.

In her Facebook post — which has been taken down — addressed to Mr Shanmugam last night, Ms Sangeetha suggested that he was an “Islamaphobic bigot who thinks Malay-Muslims are a threat”.

In response, Mr Shanmugam wrote on Facebook that she had misrepresented his comments made a Singapore Press Club forum on Thursday where he spoke about how the Malaysian education system was not good for integration. After reiterating his meaning, Mr Shanmugam said he intended to lodge a police report on Ms Sangeetha’s post.

Less than an hour later, Ms Sangeetha took down her post.

He also replied to her, saying he would be happy to discuss the matter with face in person.

“So I met her today... She said she had re-read and realized that what she had said was untrue and apologized. And I accepted the apology,” said Mr Shanmugam. “And I think I was prepared to accept that it was a rush of blood, people go and say things without really thinking about what they intend to say and end up saying all sorts of things which are untrue.”

He added: “No sensible interpretation of what I said can lead to that kind of remarks that she had made. And I was also concerned that kind of remarks she makes will cause ill will amongst the different races.”

Stressing that the focus of the police report was on the ill will or problems that could have been caused by the post, Mr Shanmugam said: “I also made a judgement call after listening to her that she perhaps didn’t have active intention to cause that outcome. ... She perhaps realizes that she needs to be more careful when it comes to racial issues and I decided that I will not file a police report.”