SINGAPORE: Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leong Mun Wai has shown that he does not place much value in Singapore’s multiracial approach, and has a history of making racist comments, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said in parliament on Wednesday (Feb 5).
Mr Leong said in response that his stance against the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) for public housing was based purely on economic grounds.
The exchange took place after Mr Shanmugam responded to a question from the former Progress Singapore Party (PSP) secretary-general about the government’s efforts in reviewing the country’s CMIO (Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others) framework, an administrative tool for the government to manage policies around race.
Mr Leong said his question stemmed from Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong’s comments at an Institute of Policy Studies conference on Jan 20, in which he said the CMIO model should constantly be reviewed to reflect Singapore's increasingly complex multicultural landscape.
The Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others (CMIO) model helps the government to administer race-based policies and programmes that promote social cohesion, identify those who need help and safeguard the rights of minorities, said Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam. Replying to a Parliamentary question on Wednesday (Feb 5), he said race remains a key identifier for many individuals. The lack of race-based data prevents measuring and understanding the difficulties that different races face in different areas, and it prevents effective intervention to resolve those issues, he added. Mr Shanmugam pointed out that the CMIO framework has been adjusted over the years, but the government has been “cautious about moving away” from it. “It has worked well for us and has helped...