And so the non-newsy news gets announced, with Mdm Halimah Yacob announcing her candidacy for the reserved presidency.
The reserved presidency was ostensibly done in a bit to protect multiculturalism, to give the Malay community a chance to have representation in the presidency, after a hiatus, post Yusof Ishak.
Putting aside the skepticism and critique (and there are many) of the reserved presidency for the moment, is the Community better off in terms of representation, especially in light of the fact that there will be no by-election in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC to find a replacement for Mdm Halimah?
Well, the Community lost a Speaker of Parliament (the first woman Speaker too), and Malay MP in Parliament.
And the Malay residents in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC have lost their representative voice in Parliament.
After all, the very purport of the GRC is to apparently ensure a certain level of minority representation in Parliament.
And it is a considerable period of time till the next GE (which must be held by Jan 2021).
The argument is that other MPs can stand in for Mdm Halimah.
But (again putting aside critique of the GRC system for the moment) the raison d’être of the GRC system is precisely that the minority MP is there to represent minority aspirations and concerns.
Why deprive the minority of Marsiling-Yew Tee of their rights?
Also, the other MPs (whether of majority or minority ethnicity) would have had their full load of responsibilities too. It won’t be fair on them either.
Source: Nizam Ismail in Suara Melayu Singapura
