The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) has criticised the government's response to a video by comedian Preetipls and her rapper brother Subhas Nair as "rather high-handed" and "harsh".

This on the back of two statements from the government on the matter this week — the first by Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam:

And the second, in the wake of an "apology" released by the siblings that mirrored another one issued by Havas Worldwide, the advertising agency responsible for a controversial E-Pay ad in partnership with Mediacorp's celebrity management arm.

Responding to a question from former Straits Times editor Bertha Henson at the party's Aug. 3 launch event, central executive committee member Michelle Lee admitted to likely being the only PSP CEC member to have seen the original video, having herself received a copy of it from younger party members.

Henson had asked how PSP would have handled the ongoing saga, and whether they thought the government was right in their response thus far.

Government response should have been gentler

Lee said a gentler response and guidance could have been used instead.

She suggested that rather than making the issue a police case, it would have been better for the government to simply say something along the lines of, "some of the language used was inappropriate, we hope that you will take it down."

She also stressed that in her opinion, the sentiment expressed by the Nair siblings should not be ignored.

"And I think that we need to look at the response of some of the minority races to that video because I think they felt very hurt, that... Instead of getting an actor who actually was a minority, a Chinese actor was used... I think we have to look at the feelings there."

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Top photos by Andrew Koay