Dutch FM Stef Blok has come under fire for saying ethnic diversity breeds conflict, in footage which showed the foreign minister challenging people at a private meeting to name a “peaceful” multicultural society.

Local media reports that the minister, a member of the liberal VVD party, made the remarks during a meeting this week with around 80 Dutch people working for globalist bodies such as the United Nations (UN), the World Bank, and NATO.

In footage leaked to current affairs show Zembla Wednesday, Blok — speaking to the audience in the Hague via videolink — can be heard saying: “I have asked my ministry this and I will pose the question here as well.

“Give me an example of a multi-ethnic or multicultural society where the original population still lives, and where there is peaceful cohabitation. I don’t know of one,” he said.

After an audience member named Suriname, the minister responded to say he admired the person’s optimism, but that the former Dutch colony is “a failed state, and that is mostly due to ethnic division”.

“Suriname peaceful? A functioning rule of law and democracy? Courageous, this remark,” he said, pointing out that politics in the South American country are strongly split along ethnic lines.

When another person at the meeting suggested Singapore as an example, Blok pointed out that the island city-state is “extremely selective in its migration”.

“Extremely selective — It is very difficult to ‘get in’,” he stressed, adding: “They do not allow poor migrants.”

The FM’s observations on so-called “diverse” countries somewhat echo remarks on the topic made by Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of the Singaporean state under whose 50 years of formal and informal rule it went from being a backwater colony with no natural resources to a wealthy first world nation and global financial centre.

Asked his opinion of the Western ‘liberal democracy’ model compared to his authoritarian-style leadership over Singapore, in a 2005 interview with Der Spiegel, the statesman argued democracy is incompatible with multiculturalism.

“In multiracial societies, you don’t vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion,” he said, adding it would result in a “constant clash” in which demographics were the decider of election outcomes.

Blok also told the Hague audience there is a likely a genetic component to the troubles which arise from multiculturalism and the fact that humans prefer to operate within groups of people who are similar.

“It’s probably somewhere deep in our genes that we want to have a well-organised group to hunt with or to maintain a village with,” he said, noting people “don’t find it easy to make connections with people who are unfamiliar to us”.

The VVD politician added that people living in upmarket, safe parts of Dutch cities who extol the virtues of multiculturalism have so-far been insulated from its downsides.

“You might think it is great to go to the Turkish bakery on a Sunday if you are living in Benoordenhout, which isn’t suffering from any of [diversity’s] side-effects,” he said, remarking, “But there are enormous problems if you live in the middle [of a multi-racial area]”.

The video prompted outrage from NGOs and from Parliament, where politicians have demanded Brok withdraw his remarks, which were branded “extremely ominous” by Refugee Foundation chief Tineke Ceelen.

Demanding Prime Minister Mark Rutte denounce the minister’s comments, the Dutch Council of Refugees issued a statement complaining the footage was “a slap to the face for our 13,000 volunteers who spare their time and roll up their sleeves to help integrate newcomers into the Netherlands”.

“These people demonstrate that there is vigorous support in society for the resettling and protection [of third world migrants],” added the NGO.