SINGAPORE – The statements made by leaders of a Malaysian political party before Singapore’s May 3 General Election had “clear intent” to influence Singaporean voters, and is unacceptable, said the Republic’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Oct 16.

In a statement, the ministry refuted the position taken by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) secretary general Takiyuddin Hassan on Oct 15, that the party was cast “as a convenient bogeyman to advance domestic political agendas in Singapore”.

MHA said that PAS had contradicted its earlier position, in April, with its Oct 15 statement.

The ministry then referred to a statement made by the party on April 28, where it distanced itself from comments made by two of its leaders in relation to PAP and WP politicians, ahead of Singapore’s May 3 General Election.

Earlier, on April 24, PAS national treasurer Iskandar Abdul Samad publicly expressed support for the WP’s Mr Faisal Manap.

He praised Mr Faisal for having “the courage to explain to Parliament that in Islam religion must not be separated from politics”, and said he hoped that Mr Faisal “will be successful once again”.

On the same day, PAS Selangor Youth Chief Mohamed Sukri Omar re-posted a social media post which stated that PAP’s Malay-Muslim Members of Parliament cannot be trusted.

MHA pointed out that PAS had, on April 28, said the comments made by the duo “represent their personal views and in no way reflect PAS’s official policy or stance as a political party”.

Referring to PAS’ latest statement on Oct 15, MHA said: “PAS now characterises the April 24 comments by its members as expressions of PAS’s official view. It describes them as ‘ordinary cross-border commentary’, and takes issue with Singapore’s response to such ‘legitimate speech’.

“PAS further claims to be entitled to freely express its views on Singapore politics, so long as this...