Transcript of Soundbite by Ms Sun Xueling, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development at Tampines Community Response Roundtable (CRRT)

MOS Sun: We have established 34 Community Response Roundtables (CRRT) nationwide since 2019. Through CRRT, we bring together key stakeholders in the community to ensure that they, during peacetime, establish communication channels whereby they are able to disseminate important information when an emergency arises. At the same time, they are also able to share what their existing resources are.

So in cases of emergency, they are each able to contribute – whether or not in terms of venue, or in terms of emergency supplies, first-aid supplies, or manpower – to help the community rally together should there be a terror-related incident. At the same time, they will also have best practices, such as evacuation plans. So in times of crises, our key stakeholders in the community will share these information with one another, so they know what each and every one of them can do. At the same time, they are able to build mutual trust and confidence in one another, because that is extremely important.

What perpetrators of violence seek to do in a terror-related incident is not only to maim or to kill, but also to create tensions, anxiety, uncertainty, chaos in society in the aftermath. So when key stakeholders in the community come together and strengthen relationships in peace-time, they are better able to ensure that they're able to defuse tensions, re-establish trust, restore normalcy in the community after terror-related incidents.

Question: Given that social media platforms are popular amongst the younger generation, do you think the social media platforms are doing enough to curb the content on these platforms that could result in self-radicalisation?

MOS Sun: We have recently operationalised the Online Criminal Harms Act, whereby the authorities are able to tell designated social media platforms that they are to remove content that can incite violence or spread fear, especially during times of great uncertainty or when there is a terror-related incident. Definitely, social media platforms are a channel in which self-radicalisation can happen. And I think from the recent incident where a 17-year-old youth was self-radicalised through the information that he gathered online, we can see how these channels can be exploited and where young people become self-radicalised.

So I think we need a multi-faceted approach. One important platform is working through schools. The Internal Security Department and the Ministry of Home Affairs are working closely with some of our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to actually conduct talks in schools to have our youths understand the dangers of self-radicalisation and also understand some of the trends worldwide when it comes to self-radicalisation materials. At the same time, we also want to reach out to parents and community leaders to urge vigilance so that they know that actually the best way to protect their loved ones who are at risk of self-radicalisation is to report  early, so that we are able to bring these young people back to normalcy and ensure that they do not conduct any offences or any harm which will severely derail their lives.

Question: What is the government doing to engage more in such community activities like the roundtable today in light of what happened yesterday, possible terror attack in Singapore?

MOS Sun: Since 2019, we have established 34 CRRTs, and we are also finetuning the way we do this as we move along. Our first thing is not just in terms of the quantity of CRRTs, it's also about the quality of the discussions. What this means is that we want to bring in as many stakeholders as possible, and also to encourage the stakeholders to speak up, to offer resources, to offer channels for information sharing, and to share about their best practices.

Question: MOS had talked about the things that stakeholders can do post-incident if terrorist attacks were to happen in Singapore. What about those members of the public who are present at these incidents? How should they react to it, and what should they do at the scene to save themselves and/or others around them?

MOS Sun: SGSecure was launched in 2016. There are different phases to the SGSecure movement. The first phase was about “Not if, but when”. The second phase is about the skills and what each and every one of us can do. So part of that is learning about first aid, for example, how to do CPR and use AED. How it is important that critical information is shared through different channels so that there is accurate reporting, and that members of the public who may have been traumatised in the incident are not misled. Or that fears and uncertainty continue to rock society so that we are not able to restore public confidence and people cannot get back to a sense of normalcy.

There are two areas where members of the public can play an active role. For those who are unfortunately involved at the site of the terror-related incident, they could help by performing CPR and using AED, responding with first aid techniques. Some of them who may be trained in counseling, for instance, could also provide psychological first aid.

The second area in which members of the public can be helpful is in ensuring that accurate information of the incident is shared. I'm sure that there will be many questions arising from members of the public such as what happened? who is responsible? what should we do next? So, in times where there is chaos, especially during emergency situations, there could be misinformation. Misinformation could arise because there is a lack of clarity about what is happening, or there could also be incidents whereby bad actors are actually trying to sow discord and increase tensions in society. Members of the public can be helpful by ascertaining the source of that information, ensuring its accuracy before further sharing that information. That is why, through our CRRT, we want to establish those information channels beforehand, so that we know who are the trusted stakeholders that the community has, and who each and every one of them can reach out to. So, when there is an emergency, the authorities know who they can disseminate information to, and these key stakeholders will also know how they should go about disseminating that information, so that members on the public are correctly apprised about what is happening.

Soundbite in Mandarin:

自2019以来，内政部在全新加坡各地已经组织34个“社区急救圆桌会议”(CRRT)。通过这个频台，我们汇集了多个社区的合作伙伴，让他们在非紧急时刻增进彼此的了解，增进互信互重。这样的话，当紧急事件发生的时候，他们可以提供援助，重拾公众的信心，帮忙缓解紧张的气氛。