Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on the Number of Suspected Foreign Interference Cases That Came to the Attention of the Ministry in the Last Ten Years

Question:

Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) for each year in the last ten years, how many cases of suspected foreign interference came to the attention of the Ministry; (b) how many resulted in further investigations and action being taken; and (c) how many were found to have been actual instances of foreign interference.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:

1.   For national security reasons, the Government does not disclose operational details or publicise statistics of suspected or actual foreign interference in Singapore. We also do not publicise some cases due to bilateral considerations.

2.   MHA has disclosed some of the foreign interference incidents to which we had been subject, as well as international case studies, in Parliament when we were moving the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill. The Workers’ Party agreed that the threat of foreign interference was ubiquitous and the Government must have powers to intervene where appropriate.

3.   For cases which we had been subject to, some we had dealt with under the Internal Security Act and existing laws, whereas for others, we did not have the levers such as those proposed in the Bill to deal with them. For future cases, necessary notice will be given should we take steps under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act.