Robust laws needed to counter foreign interference: Josephine Teo
Threat of foreign intrusion into Singapore's politics has grown, says Josephine Teo
Singapore is "fine-tuning" proposed laws to counter hostile information campaigns and guard against the threat of foreign interference in its domestic politics.
Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo said the country is studying "legislative levers" that will allow it to obtain information to investigate if such campaigns are conducted by foreign actors to subvert domestic politics, break their virality and carry out counter-messaging to alert Singaporeans.
The Government is looking at how other countries are approaching interference operations that are increasingly sophisticated and well disguised, she added yesterday.
Mrs Teo noted that while the threat of foreign actors working to subvert Singapore's politics has always been present, this danger has grown.
"In recent times, it has risen in potential and severity because of the increasing ease to carry out such operations," she said, adding that Singapore's diversity and openness to the world present opportunities for foreign actors.
MORE ROBUST
It was fortunate that GE2020 went by peacefully, she said. However, more robust preventive measures against foreign intervention are needed given concerning developments in other countries.
She cited how countries such as Australia have reported instances where foreign powers attempted to influence their politics by buying off political parties and politicians.
According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, global cases of cyber- enabled foreign interference in elections increased from seven between 2011 and 2015, to 41 between 2016 and last year.
Mrs Teo said proposed laws will also have to guard against foreign subversion of politically significant individuals and entities here, for instance by considering what levels of transparency in funding, support and leadership will be needed and from whom.
She added that the public has a big part to play in this by helping shape these measures and giving its strongest support.
"It is the only way we can effectively deter bad foreign actors from exploiting our vulnerabilities."
TERRORISM
On the threat of terrorism, she said people have a key role in turning the tide by looking out for suspicious activities or individuals.
Responding to Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC), Mrs Teo said the terror threat is trans- national in nature, and the authorities have strong working relationships with foreign security agencies to share intelligence and disrupt plots.
Local threats involving self-radicalised individuals may be harder to detect, she noted, urging the public to report such cases.
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