Racism exists in Singapore but the situation is much better than before and improving over the years, Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said on Sunday, in the wake of a controversial video by two Indian-origin YouTubers in response to a recent "discriminatory" advertisement by an e-payment website.
Shanmugam's comments on Sunday came after Preetipls, whose name is Preeti Nair, and her brother Subhas Nair apologised "unconditionally" over a video they created and starred in to call out a NETS E-Pay advertisement for being discriminatory.
The Nair siblings have been in the spotlight over the video, which featured vulgar language and questioned the use of "brownface" in the ad featuring Chinese actor Dennis Chew portraying minority races in Singapore.
Shanmugam, speaking on the sidelines of a temple event in Woodlands, acknowledged that the siblings, like everyone, had the right to raise the issue of racism but said the way they did it was not right.
"If everyone starts discussing race and religion in the way they did, you will in fact get more racism, not less. That is our key concern," he said.
They used the "language of resistance" in the United States, Shanmugam said, but Singapore is in a very different situation, he added.
You look at the regular discussions on race, issues - this is a basic fact. But the situation now is much better than before, improving over the years," he said
He referred to the local survey released last week, that, he said, showed a "slight increase in perception of workplace racial discrimination, despite improvement in some other areas of race relationships."
He also reiterated the words of founding Prime Minister, late Lee Kuan Yew: "We are not a Malay nation, we are not a Chinese nation, we are not an Indian nation. This is a country for all Singaporeans."