Mr Shanmugam also said he wants to “move on” from the incident and focus on building community by having engagements to “discuss issues, including difficult ones”.
“We can do it (in a) constructive way. If you look at Singapore, all our cultures, that’s the approach,” said Mr Shanmugam.
“That message is even stronger in this month of Ramadan … so let’s focus on building a stronger, better community together.”
Mr Shanmugam added that the sisters are both young and he hopes they learn from this.
“I’m like their parents’ generation, and really I hope that they will have the space to learn and grow from this incident,” he said.
Mr Shanmugam had said earlier that there was a trend of disturbances at Meet-The-People Sessions. A PAP spokesperson said a group that calls itself Monday of Palestine Solidarity had disrupted more than 10 Meet-The-People Sessions over the past few months.
A reporter then asked Mr Shanmugam about online suggestions that the incident was staged, apparently because his voice was captured very clearly on the video he shared on social media.
Mr Shanmugam said: “Staged means the whole thing was planned, which means I made the sisters behave in the way they did and I got everybody to act and shout ‘coward’ and do everything else.
“I think the sisters will be the last to agree that they are part of a programme by the PAP.”
He explained that his voice was clear because he had been miked up for a community event before the MPS. His volunteers had been filming him at the event, as well as greeting the residents at the MPS when he encountered the sisters, he said.
“Certainly it wasn’t planned … I think to suggest that would be an extreme conspiracy theory.”
Before the doorstop, Mr Shanmugam and four Nee Soon GRC grassroots advisers met the chairmen of Darul Makmur Mosque to break fast. The former North View Secondary School is serving as a temporary prayer site for the mosque while it is being refurbished.
Mr Shanmugam updated that the mosque should reopen by the end of the year.
During the event and doorstop, Mr Shanmugam was accompanied by Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim and their fellow Nee Soon MPs Ms Carrie Tan and Mr Derrick Tan.
Spotted with them was former Nominated MP Syed Harun Alhabsyi, who had resigned from his NMP post on Feb 14, saying that he intends to “explore opportunity for political service”.
