https://mothership.sg/2025/10/shanmugam-pritam-spar-over-wps-response-to-religious-preacher-deros-endorsement-in-ge2025/

Shanmugam & Pritam spar over WP's response to religious preacher Deros' endorsement in GE2025

Word of the day: unequivocal.

Hannah Martens

October 14, 2025, 04:00 PM

Minister of Home Affairs, and coordinating Minister for National Security, K. Shanmugam's ministerial statement on race and religion in parliament, sparred with the Leader of the Opposition and Workers' Party (WP) chief, Pritam Singh, over the Workers' Party (WP) reaction to comments made by Singaporean Islamic religious teacher Noor Deros.

In his ministerial statement, Shanmugam cited Deros as an example where identity politics has no place in Singapore, and events during the recent 2025 General Elections (GE2025) had gone "too far".

Two weeks before GE2025 on Apr. 19, Deros issued a public statement saying he would campaign for any political party that could meet his list of demands, which included the adoption of Islamic economics and ending the preservation of racial proportions.

Shanmugam went on to question the WP's reaction following Deros' post comments.

The minister expressed concern that WP's statement did not "clearly reject foreign influence." Instead, it merely said that WP "had no control over what others said."

Timeline of the statement release

Singh disagreed with Shanmugam's comments that the WP "took too long" to respond to the joint statement by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Elections Department (ELD).

He pointed out that the statement was released on Apr. 25 at 10pm, and WP released a statement the next day (Apr. 26) at 9:30am.

At 11:30am that same day, Singh stated in a doorstop interview with the media that he stood behind MHA's and ELD's message.

Reiterating his Apr. 26 statement in parliament, he said, "our political scene is for our people."

"We persuade Singaporeans of our value proposition, and we urge all Singaporeans, regardless of race, language or religion, to judge us on our manifesto, our proposals and what we do in parliament for all Singaporeans, not specific communities only.
I think once we go down that road, you will have an unnecessary politicisation of the public space, and we do not want that. That is not healthy for Singapore, and that is not healthy for minority communities as well."

Singh added that on Apr. 26 evening at a WP rally, he made more explicit remarks and statements about race and religion.

In addition, Singh said that it was not fair to say WP did not take the issue seriously.

Rejecting Deros

Shanmugam emphasised that WP did not reject Deros' "very serious conduct in asking Muslims here to support the Workers' Party on racial and religious grounds and asking voters in Tampines to vote for Faisal Manap."

He added that WP's response should have been immediate and an "unequivocal rejection" of what Deros said.

Shanmugam took issue with the lack of a clear response from WP, calling it a "deliberate choice based on a calculation of interest."

"There is some benefit in keeping it less clear, and that Deros can swing some votes. Those who understand politics will know this. This is not rocket science. Now, that sort of calculation may bring some short-term benefits... but it does, as I said, long-term damage to our country."

While Singh shared that WP has made its views on foreign interference clear, he did agree with Shanmugam that his statement on Deros could have been clearer.

The two continued their back and forth regarding the clarity of the statement on Deros.

Singh noted that the MHA and ELD statement was on foreign interference and only addressed Deros when Prime Minister Lawrence Wong brought it up at a press conference on Apr. 26.

Singh also pointed out that Deros had gatecrashed an event where Faishal and other WP Malay candidates were present.

Shanmugam closed the clarification by reiterating that WP's statement should have been clearer, outright rejecting Deros' demand.

"Instead of just saying no agreements, promises or commitments, it should have said, we reject his demands. We rejected it when we met him. I don't know, I hope his demands were rejected when there was the meeting."

Shanmugam's statement

Shanmugam addressed two incidents in his ministerial statement relating to the Tampines electoral contest during GE2025 and the WP's reactions to them.

For one, the minister highlighted the Noor Deros incident. Two weeks before GE2025 on Apr. 19, Deros issued a public statement saying he would campaign for any political party that could meet his list of demands, which included the adoption of Islamic economics and ending the preservation of racial proportions.

Apart from Deros, Shanmugam also highlighted the comments of politicians from Malaysia's Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS).

Top photos via Singapore Parliament & MDDI

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