No action against foreign sponsors of Pink Dot event: MHA
SINGAPORE — Some large foreign firms here have maintained their stance on supporting the Pink Dot movement, while the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said yesterday that “no action” will be taken against foreign corporate sponsors and the organisers of this year’s event, held recently.
The firms’ reaffirmation of their commitment to inclusivity and diversity came a day after the MHA warned foreign organisations against interfering in domestic issues, in particular controversial matters with political overtones, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) causes.
This year’s Pink Dot, held at the Speakers’ Corner on June 4 in support of the LGBT community, attracted 18 sponsors, up from nine last year.
The sponsors included Facebook, Google, Barclays, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, BP, Bloomberg and Twitter.
Reaffirming its long-standing support, a Google spokesperson said: “We’ve been proud supporters of Pink Dot since 2011.” Barclays also reiterated its stance of supporting the movement by directing TODAY to the Pink Dot website.
On the website, John Currie and Kok May Yin, co-chairs of Singapore Spectrum Network, Barclays LGBT Employee Network, had stated: “Barclays’ core value of respect underscores a commitment to treating employees equally, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, disability or sexuality. Our relationship with Pink Dot is an important element of our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”
A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs said it was “currently reviewing the Government’s statement”.
TODAY reached out to 15 corporate sponsors of the Pink Dot event following the MHA’s statement on Tuesday, but firms such as JP Morgan, Apple and Bloomberg declined to comment.
In that statement, the MHA had also said that it would “take steps to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, support or influence” such events held at the Speakers’ Corner.
Yesterday, in response to further media queries on the issue of foreign corporate sponsorship for the Pink Dot event, the MHA said: “The Speakers’ Corner is meant for Singaporeans to speak and demonstrate without a permit, if certain exemption conditions are met. These include no participation by foreigners.”
It added: “MHA will take further steps, including reviewing the exemption conditions for Speakers’ Corner to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, sponsor, support or influence such events held at the Speakers’ Corner.
“No action will be taken against the foreign corporate sponsors, and the event organisers, in relation to the foreign corporate sponsorships this year.”
Mr Daniel Chia, a lawyer at Morgan Lewis Stamford, said this appeared to be the first time that MHA was taking a stance on a “hot-button issue”, by linking the matter of foreign funding to social causes.
“Traditionally, this would stem from the whole rule of foreign entities not influencing local politics, such as how websites should not be funded by foreign sources ... But this seems to set new ground,” he added.
Pointing out the “fine line” between political and social issues, Mr Chia said the MHA should be clearer about its position on what constitutes as activity of a political nature.
While all Singapore-registered firms are technically considered local ones, Straits Law Practice senior director M Rajaram said more needs to be done to spell out the definition of a “foreign corporation”.
Agreeing, Mr Chia said the MHA should issue guidelines on what exactly the foreign firms could or could not do. Such a move might discourage large companies from donating to philanthropic causes, he added.
