MHA Statement in Response to Ms Preeti Nair and Mr Subhas Nair’s Apology for the Rap Video

1.     We refer to the statement released on 2 August 2019 by Ms Preeti Nair and Mr Subhas Nair.

2.     The statement contains a mock, insincere apology. It is a spoof of an earlier apology issued by Havas Worldwide for the E-Pay advertisement (Nets subsequently issued an apology). This spoofing is a pretence of an apology, and in fact shows contempt for the many Singaporeans who have expressed concern at their blatantly racist rap video.

3.     This is not the first time Ms and Mr Nair have expressed racist sentiments. About a year ago, Ms Nair published a video where she acted as a Chinese and mocked the Chinese community’s practices, culture and traditions. She portrayed Chinese as money-minded gamblers.

4.     Mr Nair wrote a song recently that says that Singapore condones systemic discrimination. This song was written for MediaCorp as part of this year’s National Day celebrations.  Among the lyrics in the song: “We live in a system that has normalised us... to walk oblivious to a brown man stopped and ID checked”.  This is blatantly false.

5.     MHA takes action whenever there are offensive statements which breach the law, regardless of the race of the offender. In 2018, a 36-year-old Indian lady published comments that made racial insinuations. The Police investigated, and in consultation with AGC, issued her with a stern warning. In January this year, the Police charged a Chinese man in court under the Penal Code for deliberate intent to wound the racial feelings of the Malay population. The man had scrawled racist messages about Malays on walls in void decks and sheltered walkways. His messages had been seen by far fewer people than the videos issued by Ms and Mr Nair.

6.     Police are continuing their investigations and taking advice from AGC.