Rehabilitation Programmes for Youth Offenders who make Seditious Remarks

Ms Kuik Shiao-Yin asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what intercultural and inter-religious programmes are in place to actively rehabilitate youth offenders who make seditious remarks against other races and religions; and (b) whether engagement and mentorship from representatives of religious or racial groups are integrated into the rehabilitative care of such youth offenders.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Ms Low Yen Ling)(for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Mdm Speaker, to uphold harmony in our multi-racial, multicultural society, we educate and inculcate the values of tolerance, respect and appreciation of different faiths and religions. This starts as early as the preschooling age and all the way to formal schooling years from primary school onwards.

Youths who make offensive remarks on race and religion may receive different intervention and penalties, depending on the severity of the offence. These could include

Page: 35

conditional warnings, probation and placement in a juvenile rehabilitation centre, reformative training centre or prison. These measures encourage the youth offenders to take responsibility for their actions and equip them with the life skills to embark on constructive lifestyles. Of course, the involvement of families is also very critical in the rehabilitation of youth offenders.

Typically, rehabilitation programmes for those who make offensive remarks on race and religion may include counselling on the importance of respect for other races and religions. The youths would also have the opportunity to interact with people of different races and religions through activities, role-modelling, and also community service or be mentored by staff or volunteers.

Besides rehabilitation measures, education and sound values imparted at home, in school and in public all go towards creating a foundation of strong inter-religious harmony in Singapore.

Just a supplementary question. Given how significant online communication is to the average youth today, are there any collaborative efforts between the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) that specifically look at educating young people about the social, political or legal boundaries that have to do with communications about race and religion?

I thank the Member for the supplementary question. Yes, indeed, MSF and MOE work very closely. You would be aware that MOE has a cyber-wellness curriculum that aims to equip our students with lifelong socio-emotional competency, so that they can grow up to be safe, responsible and respectful users in the online space. Of course, like I have mentioned earlier, parental guidance is very, very critical. To this end, on the parental front, if there are some parents who face difficulties in addressing their children's challenging behaviour, whether online or offline, there are platforms where they can approach community agencies, for example, the Family Service Centre (FSC). We work with MOE and there are also counsellors in the school to guide the parents and students accordingly. All these are made available with a view to preventing the children's behaviour from getting worse, whether online or offline. That is on the parental front.

On the Member's question of whether there are inter-racial programmes and so on, earlier on, I mentioned about youth offenders, for example, that they can be referred to the OnePeople.sg – Explorations in Ethnicity programme. This is put together by the organisation that spearheads racial harmony initiatives in Singapore. To that end, MSF and MOE give it

Page: 36

very strong support. For example, the OnePeople.sg – Explorations in Ethnicity course is a two-day course comprising between 20 and 30 participants and very experiential learning activities, so that participants can absorb better through role-playing and so on. It serves to guide our youths to better navigate some of these very sensitive topics in the online space.