On Sep. 25, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam spoke of the need for new laws to combat foreign interference in domestic threats.

He mentioned Malaysian writers working for sociopolitical portal The Online Citizen that wrote "negative articles" about Singapore society and politics, and questioned the site's motives.

New Naratif

In his speech at the RSIS Conference on Foreign Tactics and Counter Measures, Shanmugam also mentioned another publication, New Naratif and its founders, historian Thum Ping Tjin and journalist Kirsten Han.

Earlier, Shanmugam referred to foreign-backed efforts in other countries to build a particular narrative, citing the example of a campaign in Ukraine to paint its government as fascist and corrupt.

He also spoke of "bad actors" who exploit fault lines in Singapore society.

"All of that hasn’t happened in its full glory in Singapore but it can happen; some of it has happened. And we also see some nascent attempts to combine the different approaches," Shanmugam said.

"I’ll give one example. A group of activists met with Dr Mahathir, the (Malaysian) Prime Minister last year. They urged him to bring democracy to Singapore, amongst other countries."

He added: "One of them, PJ Thum, said Singapore should become part of Malaysia, celebrating Independence on the 16th of September, Malaysia Day."

Activists meeting Mahathir

Shanmugam was referring to a visit made by Thum, Han, former Singaporean dissident Tan Wah-Piow, and others to Malaysia on Aug. 30, 2018.

And on Aug. 31, Malaysia's "Merdeka Day", he wished a "happy unofficial independence day" to the people of Singapore.

Thum responded and said that the idea of him being a traitor to Singapore is "ridiculous and unfounded."

New Naratif

Shanmugam also elaborated on Han's involvement.

Shanmugam said: "Thum and his partner Kirsten Han, who also met Dr Mahathir, set up an organisation called New Naratif -- which is significantly funded by a foreign foundation and received other foreign contributions as well."

"Ms Han, on video, has said that Singapore has failed compared to Hong Kong, because 500,000 people don’t go on the streets to march, unlike Hong Kong. She wants to change that, through classes run by New Naratif."

"This will seem ridiculous on so many levels, but we can leave that aside because everyone is entitled to their views, however reasonable or unreasonable."

Shanmugam was referring to a 2016 video in which Han talked about Hong Kong and Singapore.

Shanmugam said: "My primary point is that is it right for foreign funding to be received in order to advance these viewpoints? That’s the question that should be posed. These are matters that Singaporeans can argue about -- do we think it is appropriate for 500,000 people to go on the streets and you want to run classes on that?"

"Well, that’s one view. But should there be foreign funding? Should foreign NGOs be involved? Should foreign donations be received in order to push these lines? She’s on video saying it."

However, Han has refuted the characterisation of her speech by Shanmugam.

The video

You can see the video below:

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The relevant portion comes at 4:33, where Han says:

"So perhaps if we measure Singapore against Hong Kong and think the goal that we want is to have 500,000 people in the streets, then yes Singapore fails because we do not get 500,000 people in the streets.

But if the goal that we want, being in such an early stage, is growing discussion, growing pushback, growing networks and activism and civil society, then these are things that we can achieve."

Kirsten Han's response

Han responded on Twitter and Facebook on the same day to Shanmugam's comments.

She wrote an email to Today to dispute its reporting of Shanmugam's remarks

She then shared screen shots of this email in her Facebook post.

Han claimed that she had never urged Mahathir to bring democracy to Singapore and other countries in her 2018 meeting.

Addressing the comparison to Hong Kong, Han said in a blogpost that her words were taken out of context:

"But it’d been taken completely out of context: in my speech, I’d said that it would appear as if Singapore had failed compared to Hong Kong if our metric of success was to see 500,000 people on the streets.

But my point was that “500,000 people on the streets” is not a useful KPI to use in measuring the strength and maturity of a country’s civil society—the communities, the networks, and the solidarity between them are far more important."

You can see her Facebook post below, which PJ Thum also shared on his own page:

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Top image via Rachel Ng, Kirsten Han/FB.