Launch of SGSecure Social Experiments Web Series – Speech by Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Securityand Minister for Home Affairs

Senior Minister of State Sim Ann,

Home Team colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. A very good morning to all of you.

2. I am pleased to be here this morning for the launch of this SGSecure Social Experiments web series.

3. What is this? It is a series of videos to really improve the awareness of our SGSecure messages.

The Rising Terror Threat

4. You have seen how terrorist groups are taking advantage of every situation – the Ukraine conflict, the conflict in Myanmar, the conflict in Gaza – and they use it to radicalise, recruit, incite violence.

5. What’s happening in the Middle East: Israel’s conflicts with Iran, Hezbollah, and of course, what’s happening in Palestine – which is quite grievous and has been described as genocidal – have heightened risk of terror attacks elsewhere.

6. But it is not only on that side. The far-right movement has also been on the rise, triggered by rising anti-immigrant sentiments in many countries, particularly in Western Europe.

7. And in terms of the way they operate, we have seen the emergence of more ‘lone wolves’, self-radicalised online. They use simple, everyday weapons to strike at soft targets.

8. Last year, in April, in Sydney, a 16-year-old boy went to stab a bishop during a church service.

9. In New Orleans, earlier this year, a 42-year-old man took a pickup truck. He drove into a crowd during the New Year’s celebrations. 14 people were killed, many others were injured.

10. We have had, what I would say, some close shaves ourselves.

11. In September of last year, we detained a 17-year-old Singaporean under the Internal Security Act. I have spoken about this case previously.

12. He was self-radicalised online. He was going to take a knife and walk around Tampines and try and kill people.

13. A few months later, in March of this year, we detained another 17-year-old. I have spoken about that case as well.

Findings From the SGSecure Social Experiments

14. Now, agencies will continue to try, do our best, detect, prevent any terrorist attacks.

15. We have had young people, some wanted to kill Christians, attack churches. We have had young people, far right, who have been wanting to go into mosques and kill Muslims. So we have had our fair share.

16. The main difference between other countries and here is that the Internal Security Act allows us to pick them up even as they are planning this. We don’t have to wait until they actually try to carry it out. That’s the main difference.

17. Whereas in other countries, they have to wait until the chap carries a gun into a supermarket, or a knife and actually begins the attack.

18. So, you know, we have support for the laws that we have, but agencies alone cannot be the only line of defense.

19. We have said this for many years, Singaporeans have also got to be alert and do their own part.

20. In fact, the public has a frontline part – a very big part to play, to be vigilant, to look out for suspicious behaviour, look out for suspicious activities, and really report them quickly to the authorities.

21. So I asked my Ministry, “Look, we have been conducting these campaigns for such a long time. What is the level of awareness?” “How would Singaporeans react in a situation where it’s a cold start as it were?”

22. It’s not organised, we don’t greet people beforehand. We just try that. Let’s see how many Singaporeans notice if there is something that is, you know, suspicious and report.

23. So the objective was really to understand the level of public vigilance to terror threats.

24. First experiment, we placed a suspicious luggage.

25. It contained a dummy improvised explosive device (IED), in a public area which was very crowded.

26. In the second experiment, we filled a car with gas cylinders which were very visible.

27. It would look like a vehicle carrying explosives, and the car was parked near a walkway which was very busy, and we stood by to observe the reactions of passersby.

28. We interviewed some of them to understand the reasons for the way they behaved, what they did or did not do.

29. Now, only about 17% – less than one in five – who walked past the suspicious luggage and vehicle noticed them.

30. And of those who noticed – these are out of the 17%, only about 5% actually took steps to inform the authorities.

31. How do we explain this reaction?

32. The reality is, Singapore is a safe place. Probably one of the safest cities of our size – international city, cosmopolitan. Given our size, size for size, we are probably one of the safest, or if not, the safest.

33. For decades, it has been like that.

34. So very few people think in terms of crime, terror, terrorism or anything serious is going to happen.

35. That explains the awareness of threats.

36. When I talk to foreigners, or even talk to Singaporeans. I said this is a country where people in the hawker centers leave their wallets as a way of ‘choping’ places, and then go off to order food, and they expect that nothing will happen. Their wallets will be there, their bags will be there.

37. Safety is good, the level of safety we have had is good. But it brings huge challenges when we want to educate the public to say it’s not a question of if, but when will it happen at some point. And at that point you need to be prepared – both to deal with it even before it happens, preferably, and to deal with what happens post the event.

38. So the results of the two experiments show the size of the task ahead of us.

39. And really, public vigilance can make a huge difference.

Responding to a Terror Attack

40. And this programme is one such effort to increase public awareness.

41. The SGSecure Programme Office in my Ministry has worked with MediaCorp and eight social media influencers.

42. We wanted them to film their unscripted responses – their own responses – to a simulated armed intruder attack.

43. So, we are hoping through a variety of means – mainstream media, influencers, other channels, meetings, discussions, schools, really to raise awareness of the key messages from SGSecure.

44. “Run, Hide, Tell”, and “Press, Tie, Tell”, what does it mean.

45. So the first episode of the web series, today, is what I spoke about, and the video will be screened very shortly, and the influencers will share more about their experiences.

Staying United in the Aftermath

46. Now, when there is a terror attack, it can undermine social cohesion.

47. We have seen that elsewhere, particularly if it is committed in the name of religion, or targeted at members of one of our communities.

48. And even if it is not, the falsehoods on social media will convert it to a communal or religious event.

49. We have seen this happen around the world.

50. I mentioned the Sydney church stabbing. Following the attack, religious tensions rose and counter threats were made against Muslim places of worship.

51. Then there were false narratives on social media that threatened to trigger real-world violence.

52. For example, in the UK, in July last year, three young girls were stabbed – they died - at a dance class.

53. Anytime you have young children, five years old, six years old, being killed – boys, girls – you can imagine the outpouring of anger.

54. What happened was, within hours of the attack, there were false claims online that the suspect, the attacker, was a Muslim and that he was an immigrant.

55. So it combined two things – anti-immigrant sentiments, anti-Muslim sentiment, and it spread.

56. Immediately, there was a huge Islamophobic and anti-immigrant sentiment, riots in many towns and cities across the United Kingdom.

57. We are a multiracial, multi-religious community.

58. We guard our religious and racial harmony – very strong values, protected with very strong laws. We prevent hate speech if anyone attacks any other community by speech, we immediately go in and intervene, we arrest.

59. Even discussions of race and religion – we like honest discussions, but we try and create safe spaces, because if you don’t have spaces, people then use it to attack and there are no limits, and then sentiments get hardened against communities.

60. So we do all of that, and the lesson from all of this is, you have to build up the muscles – the trust between communities, between religious and racial communities, before any attack takes place.

61. And this can be done in many ways, really, we have to encourage our people to know their neighbours.

62. This is where People’s Association plays a big part. RCs, grassroots – give them a hand when they need help.

63. The unity and peace we have today is carefully crafted, supported by a framework of laws, supported and then actively worked on. Laws can tell you what not to do, they can’t make you like each other. But on day to day basis, week to week, all the MPs, together with the grassroots leaders, are out there in hundreds of events, trying to build a stronger community across races, across religions, and get people to bond with each other.

64. And this has been built it up over decades. Which is why survey after survey shows Singapore to be one of the best places for minorities as well as for communal peace and harmony.

Conclusion

65. So in closing, I would like to say this – we have to work together, vigilant to the threat of terror, resolute in our response, and if anything happens, united after any such event

66. If we stand together, we become a society that is difficult to attack and impossible to break.

67. Thank you very much.