Shanmugam calls out Leong Mun Wai for racist comments, making ‘condemned’ HDB dwellers remark in exchange over race-based policies

Mr K Shanmugam: Sir, maybe, I think, picking up from what Mr Leong has said, I realised that the question arises from what Mr Edwin Tong has said. Perhaps we have very different perspectives from Mr Leong on CMIO and its implications, for example, on the Ethnic Integration Policy. And I think that those different perspectives are clear when, for example, you see some of the things that Mr Leong has said in the past. For example, on HDB living, if you look at Mr Leong’s Facebook post of February 2023, and I quote, he says that Singaporeans are not condemned to living in HDB flats. Mr Leong has also made comments in this House which are racist, and he has quite freely admitted to that too.

So, if I can read out from the Hansard of 14th of September, 2021: I asked him, sir, I asked through you, does Mr Leong accept that his party’s statements on CECA, having been interpreted by some of PSP members as being racist, may well be interpreted by Singaporeans as racist as well? And since there was no answer, I had to repeat the question. I asked him again: Some of Mr Leong’s party members interpreted his statements as being racist, and I quote, one of the quotes is, you are targeting the Indian community, and it is totally with racial undertone. My question was, if his own party members can think like that, it is entirely possible for other Singaporeans to take a similar view. And I had to repeat it in a different way, and ask again, Mr Leong, it is commonsensical, is it not, that those PSP members will not be the only ones who think that your statements are racist? If they can think like that, your own party members, then other Singaporeans can reasonably think that your statements are racist too. It’s a simple point, and Mr Leong was good enough to say there will be some people who will think that there is a racial undertone to his statements. Yes, and I will hand out these, sir.

But the point I will make arising from his question is this, so if you look at his comments, that 80 per cent of Singaporeans who live in HDB flats are condemned, and if you combine that with his racist comments, Mr Leong may not put much value in our multiracial approach. He may not put value in our ethnic integration, in our housing estates, but the EIP, for example, is a key plank of our policy to ensure that people live together, are integrated, and we put a lot of value in making sure our housing estates are well managed, because we care for Singaporeans, and the CMIO is a key plank of those policies. I hope that clarifies, sir. And if I can, with your leave, hand over just for the record, the copies and for Mr Leong to refresh his memory. One for yourself, sir, and one for Mr Leong.

Mr Leong Mun Wai: Mr Speaker, sir, I would like to put on record that PSP supports the EIP, the ethnic integration programme, the policy that we have for HDB flats. What we take issue with is that the EIP has caused economic disadvantages. There’s an economic cost to the minorities. So we are looking, we have recommended in this Parliament that we should compensate the minorities for that economic cost they have incurred. So that’s all we say. We are not against the EIP at all.

Mr Shanmugam: I note that Mr Leong doesn’t deny saying that 80 per cent of Singaporeans who live in HDB flats are condemned, and that his comments were racist. Thank you, sir.