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.
stirring?
