Atlas with race comments not used here: MOE

By Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh, The Straits Times, 7 Feb 14

THE Ministry of Education (MOE) has clarified that schools here do not use an atlas with a page on Singapore containing "inflammatory comments" about its demographics.

The page draws attention to the affluence of particular groups in the Republic and a photo of it has been circulating on Facebook.

Post by Ministry of Education, Singapore.

It has caused fury among netizens with some claiming it comes from a school textbook used by the MOE. However, the ministry took to the social networking site yesterday to confirm that the page does not come from any of its textbooks and is from an "unknown publication".

Checks by The Straits Times found that the photo is of page 318 of the fourth edition of a pocket-size atlas, published by British company Dorling Kindersley in 2010. It was printed and bound in Singapore by local company Star Standard.

The photo has been shared on online platforms including Facebook and Twitter for about two weeks. Some netizens mistook the text as coming from a textbook used in schools and questioned how it had got past the MOE.

A check on bookstore Kinokuniya's website showed it is out of stock in its stores here. The fifth edition, published in 2012, is available in two of its four stores but it is not clear if it contains the text.

A spokesman for bookstore chain Popular said its shops do not stock either edition.