Latest news with #SitiAliaAbdulRahimMattar
South China Morning Post
29-05-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
How is Singapore's fake news law applied?
Singapore wrapped up its general election earlier this month without a single correction order issued against fake news, but a resurfaced case of a candidate being misquoted on the campaign trail has sparked discussion on how the city state's misinformation law is applied. The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) introduced in 2019 and an election advertising bill – enforced just in time for the May 3 poll – guard against misinformation and digitally manipulated content, respectively, in Singapore. Under Pofma, ministers, or alternate authorities for them during general elections, can issue directions to individuals to put up correction notices online to rectify falsehoods, classified as a statement of fact that was false or misleading, if this is in the 'public interest'. Analysts told This Week in Asia the definition of 'public interest' meant that Pofma did not apply to all forms of misinformation, therefore, in the nine-day sprint to the recent election, the lack of any orders did not mean there had been no fake news. (From left) Workers' Party candidates Jamus Lim, Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar, Harpreet Singh, Alexis Dang and Jackson Au attend a rally ahead of the general election in Singapore on April 28. Photo: Reuters An example of misinformation that was not flagged by authorities but by private parties was the misquoting of opposition Workers' Party (WP) candidate Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar by pro-establishment Facebook page Singapore Matters. In a since-deleted post, the page published a picture of Alia, quoting her as having said: 'The Israel-Palestine conflict was more important than bread-and-butter issues.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Singaporean opposition candidate misquoted online ahead of polls
"Are you voting for someone to speak for Palestinians in Parliament? Or are you voting for a voice to speak for YOU on the bread and butter issues that are so close to your heart?" reads the caption of a graphic shared May 1, 2025 on Facebook. The graphic features a photo of opposition Workers' Party candidate Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar, who was standing in the newly created Punggol constituency, and a quote attributed to her. "The deciding factor for me joining the election was the Israel-Palestine conflict," it reads. "The Israel-Palestine conflict is more important than bread and butter issues." The graphic surfaced a day before Singapore's mandated "cooling-off period" when election campaigning must be halted (archived link). The May 3 elections saw voters hand Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) a landslide victory in which they took all but 10 seats in the wealthy island state's 97-seat unicameral legislature (archived link). The PAP, which has steered the country to prosperity during its decades in power while being criticised for suppressing dissent, was always expected to easily retain a clear majority in the legislature. Siti Alia's party could not claim the Punggol constituency, with Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong leading his PAP team to victory with 55.17 percent of the vote (archived link). The graphic spread elsewhere on Facebook in posts criticising Siti Alia. However, it mischaracterises her comments. A keyword search on Google led to a video of the candidate giving a speech on April 24. The Workers' Party uploaded it to YouTube the following day (archived link). Siti Alia begins the speech by saying: "The concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine crosses the boundaries of race and religion." She goes on to question why the Singaporean Ministry of Education had added a course on the conflict without consulting parents, which prompted many to raise the issue with members of parliament. "To have our voices heard is important to us as Singaporeans, ranging from local issues such as lift upgrading in the neighbourhood, to more major issues that affect Singaporeans as global citizens. "We meet our MPs to discuss bread and butter issues, yes, but we would also like to meet our MPs to discuss the effects of certain laws or the government's positions on certain global issues." At no point does she say the conflict is "more important" than local Singapore issues. AFP could find no other evidence of such a statement from Siti Alia. Singaporean online media outlet AsiaOne also covered the claim and ensuing online debate (archived link).
AFP
05-05-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Singaporean opposition candidate misquoted online ahead of polls
"Are you voting for someone to speak for Palestinians in Parliament? Or are you voting for a voice to speak for YOU on the bread and butter issues that are so close to your heart?" reads the caption of a graphic shared May 1, 2025 on Facebook. The graphic features a photo of opposition Workers' Party candidate Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar, who was standing in the newly created Punggol constituency, and a quote attributed to her. "The deciding factor for me joining the election was the Israel-Palestine conflict," it reads. "The Israel-Palestine conflict is more important than bread and butter issues." The graphic surfaced a day before Singapore's mandated "cooling-off period" when election campaigning must be halted (archived link). Image Screenshot of the Facebook post captured May 5, 2025 The May 3 elections saw voters hand Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) a landslide victory in which they took all but 10 seats in the wealthy island state's 97-seat unicameral legislature (archived link). The PAP, which has steered the country to prosperity during its decades in power while being criticised for suppressing dissent, was always expected to easily retain a clear majority in the legislature. Siti Alia's party could not claim the Punggol constituency, with Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong leading his PAP team to victory with 55.17 percent of the vote (archived link). The graphic spread elsewhere on Facebook in posts criticising Siti Alia. However, it mischaracterises her comments. A keyword search on Google led to a video of the candidate giving a speech on April 24. The Workers' Party uploaded it to YouTube the following day (archived link). Siti Alia begins the speech by saying: "The concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine crosses the boundaries of race and religion." She goes on to question why the Singaporean Ministry of Education had added a course on the conflict without consulting parents, which prompted many to raise the issue with members of parliament. "To have our voices heard is important to us as Singaporeans, ranging from local issues such as lift upgrading in the neighbourhood, to more major issues that affect Singaporeans as global citizens. "We meet our MPs to discuss bread and butter issues, yes, but we would also like to meet our MPs to discuss the effects of certain laws or the government's positions on certain global issues." At no point does she say the conflict is "more important" than local Singapore issues. AFP could find no other evidence of such a statement from Siti Alia. Singaporean online media outlet AsiaOne also covered the claim and ensuing online debate (archived link).
AsiaOne
25-04-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Post about WP new face Siti Alia's rally speech sparks online debate, Singapore News
A speech by The Workers' Party (WP) new face Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar has resulted in online discourse regarding candidates speaking on global issues at election rallies. At the party's first rally for General Election (GE) 2025 on April 25, the 43-year-old lawyer said that while Singaporeans meet their MPs to discuss "bread and butter issues", they would also like to "discuss the effects of certain laws or the government's positions on certain global issues". "The concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine crosses the boundaries of race and religion. It is something that many Singaporeans, regardless of their ethnicity and beliefs, have expressed concern about," she said. Clips of Siti Alia making these statements were stitched together and shared on Reddit with the title "WP's Siti Alia declares Palestine is important global issue, more important than bread and butter Punggol issues?" This prompted a heated debate among netizens, some of whom criticised her for mentioning the topic during a GE rally. One such comment read: "We are talking about Singapore and Singapore's policies and government. Singapore is so small, what use would that have on Palestine, which is halfway across the world?" "We have matters that need to be fixed within Singapore borders and this topic being mentioned in a Singapore GE rally makes things very unappealing to me," read another comment. Netizens who claimed they were at the rally in person wrote that they saw people "turn around and walk off" upon Siti Alia's mention of the topic. Some other commenters, however, pointed out that she did not say the Israel-Hamas conflict took priority over local matters, adding that the post was misleading. One such netizen wrote: "She didn't say in verbatim that the Palestine cause is more important than bread and butter issues in the video. That was inferred by [the Reddit post]." "Her point is that such an important and sensitive global issue was inserted into the MOE curriculum without consulting parents. I don't think her intention was to express any stance on this issue," wrote another commenter. 'We want healthy discourse' Siti Alia, who is a candidate for Punggol GRC, had started her speech by addressing concerns regarding the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. She then brought up the Ministry of Education's (MOE) Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) lesson on the Israel-Hamas conflict, which sparked online discussion and parliament debate in 2024. MOE eventually revised the lesson to make it better scoped for students of different age groups and provided teachers delivering it with additional support. Siti Alia questioned why parents were not asked for consent before their children were taught that lesson. "I put forward this example to show how much it means to the average Singaporean to have their voices heard. After all, the elected officials are elected in order to be the voice of Singaporeans," she said. "This is where I hope that myself and my colleagues from The Workers' Party can help. No issue brought up by a constituent will be too trivial or unimportant to be raised. We want healthy discourse to take place," she added. She was addressing some 10,000 attendees at a field along Anchorvale Crescent on April 24, alongside 12 other WP election candidates. While it was the party's first physical rally since 2015, the long absence did not dampen the enthusiasm of rally-goers, who began trudging into the muddy field nearly two hours before the first speaker took to the stage. For our GE2025 microsite, visit here. [[nid:717197]] This article's headline has been edited for clarity.
AsiaOne
25-04-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Misleading post about WP new face Siti Alia's rally speech sparks online debate, Singapore News
A speech by The Workers' Party (WP) new face Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar has resulted in online discourse regarding candidates speaking on global issues at election rallies. At the party's first rally for General Election (GE) 2025 on April 25, the 43-year-old lawyer said that while Singaporeans meet their MPs to discuss "bread and butter issues", they would also like to "discuss the effects of certain laws or the government's positions on certain global issues". "The concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine crosses the boundaries of race and religion. It is something that many Singaporeans, regardless of their ethnicity and beliefs, have expressed concern about," she said. Clips of Siti Alia making these statements were stitched together and shared on Reddit with the title "WP's Siti Alia declares Palestine is important global issue, more important than bread and butter Punggol issues?" This prompted a heated debate among netizens, some of whom criticised her for mentioning the topic during a GE rally. One such comment read: "We are talking about Singapore and Singapore's policies and government. Singapore is so small, what use would that have on Palestine, which is halfway across the world?" "We have matters that need to be fixed within Singapore borders and this topic being mentioned in a Singapore GE rally makes things very unappealing to me," read another comment. Netizens who claimed they were at the rally in person wrote that they saw people "turn around and walk off" upon Siti Alia's mention of the topic. Some other commenters, however, pointed out that she did not say the Israel-Hamas conflict took priority over local matters, adding that the post was misleading. One such netizen wrote: "She didn't say in verbatim that the Palestine cause is more important than bread and butter issues in the video. That was inferred by [the Reddit post]." "Her point is that such an important and sensitive global issue was inserted into the MOE curriculum without consulting parents. I don't think her intention was to express any stance on this issue," wrote another commenter. 'We want healthy discourse' Siti Alia, who is a candidate for Punggol GRC, had started her speech by addressing concerns regarding the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. She then brought up the Ministry of Education's (MOE) Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) lesson on the Israel-Hamas conflict, which sparked online discussion and parliament debate in 2024. MOE eventually revised the lesson to make it better scoped for students of different age groups and provided teachers delivering it with additional support. Siti Alia questioned why parents were not asked for consent before their children were taught that lesson. "I put forward this example to show how much it means to the average Singaporean to have their voices heard. After all, the elected officials are elected in order to be the voice of Singaporeans," she said. "This is where I hope that myself and my colleagues from The Workers' Party can help. No issue brought up by a constituent will be too trivial or unimportant to be raised. We want healthy discourse to take place," she added. She was addressing some 10,000 attendees at a field along Anchorvale Crescent on April 24, alongside 12 other WP election candidates. While it was the party's first physical rally since 2015, the long absence did not dampen the enthusiasm of rally-goers, who began trudging into the muddy field nearly two hours before the first speaker took to the stage. For our GE2025 microsite, visit here. [[nid:717197]]
