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Police confirm reports lodged against Heng Swee Keat over allegedly racially divisive comments; AGC finds no offence committed

Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and PAP candidate for East Coast GRC, seen during a walkabout in Simei on Friday (3 July). (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)
Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and PAP candidate for East Coast GRC, seen during a walkabout in Simei on Friday (3 July). (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE — Police reports were lodged against Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat over remarks he made during a student forum at the Nanyang Technological University on 28 March last year, the police confirmed on Tuesday (7 July).

The Singapore Police Force added that it had consulted the Attorney-General’s Chambers on the issue and were that advised that no offence had been committed.

“Mr Heng’s remarks, in the context they were made, do not evidence any intent to wound anyone’s racial feelings or promote enmity between different races,” it said.

Heng, who is running as a People’s Action Party (PAP) candidate for East Coast GRC, had said in a report last year that the older generation of Singaporeans were not ready for a non-Chinese prime minister.

On Monday morning, a Facebook user posted photos of a police report allegedly lodged against Heng for his comments as published in a TODAY article titled, “Older generation of S'poreans not ready for non-Chinese PM: Heng Swee Keat”. The article was published on 28 March last year.

The police report, allegedly lodged on Sunday at 10.58pm, stated that the complainant found Heng’s comment to be socially divisive.

“As someone from the minority race, I feel unsafe in Singapore. I believe this comment promotes enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony,” said the Facebook user’s post.

Yahoo News Singapore has reached out to the PAP for comment.

The police reports against Heng are the latest in a string of reports lodged in relation to the 2020 General Election.

Earlier on Tuesday, the police said that they were investigating a Facebook user believed to himself have lodged a report on Workers’ Party (WP) candidate Raeesah Khan, for allegedly wounding religious or racial feelings and for harassment.

Reports were lodged against the suspect, who goes by the moniker Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali. The suspect allegedly declared that he had reported Raeesah, who is contesting in Sengkang GRC, over her 2018 social media posts that allegedly promoted enmity between races.

“Whatever it is, I’m glad I was of the first to leak out and viral screenshots of her Twitter account. Thanks to the many unnamed sources with helping to provide the information as well (sic),” said Abdul Malik in a Facebook post.

Raeesah herself is under investigation due to the two police reports were made against her over the weekend for allegedly promoting enmity between racial or religious groups.

“The police have consulted the Attorney-General’s Chambers, which advised that an offence of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race under Section 298A of the Penal Code is disclosed,” the police said in relation to her case.

Raeesah apologised for her “insensitive” post on Sunday evening.

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