1. On 15 Oct 2025, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (“PAS”) issued a statement in response to Minister Shanmugam’s Ministerial Statement on Race and Religion.
2. The facts are as follows.
3. On 24 Apr 2025, during Singapore’s General Elections (“GE”), PAS National Treasurer Iskandar Abdul Samad publicly expressed support for the Workers’ Party’s candidate Mr Faisal Manap. He praised Mr Manap for having “the courage to explain to Parliament that in Islam religion must not be separated from politics”, and said he hoped that Mr Manap “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.
4. This was a serious interference in Singapore’s elections.
5. On 25 Apr 2025, MHA and ELD issued a Joint Statement. It highlighted the dangers of foreigners attempting to influence our elections, and of mixing religion and politics. It stated that the Government had blocked access to posts by foreigners who sought to influence the GE, including the posts by Iskandar Abdul Samad and Mohamed Sukri Omar.
6. On 28 Apr 2025, PAS issued a statement distancing itself from its members’ actions. The statement said that the posts made by the two PAS leaders “represent their personal views and in no way reflect PAS’s official policy or stance as a political party”. It also said that as “a sovereign nation”, Singapore had “every right under the law to take any appropriate and reasonable measures to protect and safeguard their legitimate interests”.
7. The latest PAS statement of 15 Oct contradicts its earlier position. PAS now characterises the 24 Apr 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 is not accompanied by “funding, actions, coordination or directives”.
8. What is PAS’s true position?
9. As a Malaysian Islamist political party, PAS cannot have Singapore’s best interests at heart. As Minister Shanmugam stated in Parliament: Does anyone seriously believe that PAS is supporting the Workers’ Party’s Malay-Muslim candidates in Singapore, because PAS cares for Singaporeans? Or that PAS subscribes to Singapore’s model of multi-racial, multi-religious equality and meritocracy?
10. It is not for foreign entities or individuals to tell Singaporeans how to vote, least of all along racial and religious lines. That is divisive and unacceptable. It may be how politics and political parties are organised in other countries. But it is not how politics and political parties are organised in multi-racial, multi-religious Singapore.
11. PAS now also claims that its earlier comments of 24 Apr were unlikely to influence Singaporeans. If that were true, why make these comments at all? Their clear intent was to influence Singaporean voters. That is unacceptable.
12. We recognise that foreigners may have views and are entitled to comment on Singapore’s policies and politics. The foreign media do so regularly. But the Singapore Government will not stand by if a foreign actor attempts to influence Singaporeans for its own purposes, especially by rousing racial and religious sentiments and during elections. The recent Ministerial Statement sets out the reasons for this stance, and the importance of rejecting all such attempts immediately, clearly, and unequivocally.
