Singapore Calls Out 2 Pas Leaders For Election Interference

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 It said two Malaysian politicians and a former Singaporean ISA detainee who is now an Australian citizen had made posts that could harm racial and religious harmony.
PAS national treasurer Iskandar Abdul Samad and Selangor PAS Youth chief Sukri Omar were accused of trying to influence the Singapore general election.PETALING JAYA: The Singapore government has called out PAS leaders and a former detainee, now an Australian citizen, for allegedly trying to influence the country’s general election on May 3 with posts that could harm racial and religious harmony
The posts include one by PAS national treasurer Iskandar Abdul Samad, who expressed support for a candidate in the Singapore elections.
Another was a post by Facebook user “Zai Nal”, identified as Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff, who renounced his Singaporean citizenship in 2020 and is now an Australian citizen.
In his post, Zulfikar accused several Malay-Muslim MPs of failing to represent the Muslim community and said Singapore does not need another Malay MP who did not reflect their views.
Zulfikar’s post was later reposted by Selangor PAS Youth chief Sukri Omar.
The Singapore home ministry and elections department said in a joint statement that several online posts had urged Singaporeans to vote along racial and religious lines, which in turn sparked more social media content of a similar nature.
“All this has the potential to fracture the multiracial and multi-religious harmony that is the bedrock of our nation,” the statement read.
The government said religion must not be mixed with politics, as Singapore is a secular state. “Bringing religion into politics will undermine social cohesion and harmony, as we have seen in other countries with race- or religion-based politics”.
The statement said the Parliamentary Elections Act prohibits foreigners from participating in election activities or publishing online election material. “Singapore’s politics must be for Singaporeans alone to decide,” it said.
The statement said the republic’s internet regulator had restricted access in Singapore to several Facebook posts published by foreigners.
Zulfikar was previously detained under Singapore’s Internal Security Act in 2016 for actively promoting terrorism and glorifying Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Islamic state online.
Authorities said his actions contributed to the radicalisation of at least two other Singaporeans. He had also called for the rejection of Singapore’s constitutional, secular, democratic system in favour of an Islamic state governed by Syariah law, and believed violence was acceptable to achieve that goal. - FMT

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