PM Wong: Singapore cannot normalise prejudice after online anti-Indian abuse
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sunday said the city-state must never allow prejudice against any community to become accepted or normalised, days after racist and xenophobic comments appeared online about the Nepal-Tibet flash floods disaster and the Singapore Airlines-Air India partnership.
Speaking in a Facebook post, Mr. Wong said 'an uglier side' had emerged in online discussions about the two matters. Racist comments targeted some of the nine Singaporeans missing in the Nepal-Tibet disaster, while questions about SIA's investment in Air India were 'accompanied by anti-Indian abuse', he said.
'We can and should have robust debates. But we should never use seemingly legitimate arguments as a cover to fuel prejudice against any community or hostility towards foreigners,' Mr. Wong was quoted as saying by Channel News Asia.
His remarks came a day after Singapore Senior Minister K. Shanmugam said police were investigating 'shameful' and 'totally unacceptable' racist and xenophobic comments posted online about the same issues.
'If such behaviour goes unchecked, it can become normalised, deepen mistrust between communities, and pull us apart,' Mr. Wong said, adding that he had discussed the developments with Cabinet colleagues, which is why Mr. Shanmugam had spoken about it.
While such views do not represent Singapore, they should not be dismissed as 'harmless online chatter', the Prime Minister stressed.
Singapore has an overall population of over six million, of which 75% are Chinese, 15% Malay, about 9% Indian, and the rest from other countries. The prosperous city-state is trying to manage a declining population due to a low local birth rate and depends on foreign talent to maintain its high-performance economy.
Mr. Wong said Singapore had encountered similar tensions before, pointing to how 'anti-foreigner' and 'racial sentiments' were stirred up during the COVID-19 pandemic and surfaced during debates over the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Such sentiments also emerged during the 2025 general election, when Mr. Wong spoke out against attempts to bring race and religion into politics.
'There will always be people who seek to exploit our differences,' Mr. Wong said. While it is impossible to prevent every hateful comment from appearing online, Singaporeans could choose how to respond.
'We can reject such views, and refuse to give them more space or legitimacy. Singapore has held together because we have consistently rejected attempts to divide us along racial or religious lines, and chosen instead to recognise one another as fellow Singaporeans,' he added.
Former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, now a Senior Minister, also called on Singaporeans on Sunday to 'stand by one another regardless of race, language or religion'. In a Facebook post, Mr. Lee described racist comments directed at the Indian community following the recent floods in Nepal as 'deeply troubling'. He added that it was 'equally troubling' when issues such as SIA's investment in Air India were 'distorted or exploited to stir vicious racial, anti-Indian resentment'.
Expressing condolences to those affected by the floods, Mr. Lee said the tragedy had left many families grieving and that the response should be one of 'compassion and solidarity'. He also noted that Mr. Shanmugam had 'laid out the issues clearly' in his statement on Saturday.
'When incidents like this happen, leaders must speak up with force and conviction, to call out what is happening, condemn the manipulation of base emotions, and call on all Singaporeans to stand together,' Mr. Lee was quoted as saying by Channel News Asia.
