Singapore had no choice but to call out PAS, says minister
A Singapore minister, citing bitter lessons from the past, said his government was forced to call out PAS after the Malaysian Islamic party waded into Singapore politics in the run up to the republic’s general election last May.
K Shanmugam, coordinating minister for national security in Singapore, recalled the time racial riots broke out in Singapore in 1964 when the so-called “ultras” fanned sentiments, which he said left scars that took decades to heal.
The term “ultras” was used in the 1960s for Umno members seen to be holding staunch nationalistic views.
“This history is seared into some of us, and it is also seared into some Malaysians, but for very different reasons,” Shanmugam said in a parliamentary speech in Singapore recently.
“So we knew…
