Blog

Singapore’s worst-kept secret is out. Or maybe it’s not a secret. It’s speculation that lacked confirmation – which wouldn’t come. Until last night. So Speaker Halimah Yacob has decided to throw her hat (tudung?) into the presidential ring. The surprise would be if she said she wouldn’t.

Will anyone question her ethnicity like what happened with the two men who had indicated their intention to run for the top job? Businessman Mr Salleh Marican isn’t fluent in Malay while corporate man Mr Farid Khan is of Pakistani descent. Probably not, or the committee which screened her for suitability as a minority candidate in a Group Representation Constituency for general elections would have much to answer for.

So that’s a hurdle cleared. Will she pass the other criteria on ability to manage large sums of money and big organisations? The other two contenders are said to be below the threshold for private sector aspirants, which is set as the top executive who runs a company with at least $500 million in shareholder equity, widely acknowledged to be a very stringent criteria. This doesn’t knock them out automatically. They can still make their case before the Presidential Elections Committee by citing other factors. Madam Halimah has no such worries because Speaker of Parliament is one of the public sector jobs that are on the list. Plus, she has been on the job for more than three years.

In fact, the talk about her possible candidacy surfaced almost as soon as the G published its White Paper in response to the report of the Constitutional Commission on amendments to the presidency. The Commission had suggested that the candidate, whether from the public or private sector, should have at least six years in the top job to “capture at least some elements of the applicant’s performance”. The G decided to keep to the old three years of experience. That meant that Madam Halimah just about made it on the three-year front.

During the parliamentary debates on the amendments, MPs did not raise queries on the three-year threshold directly, except to note that the private sector requirements seemed rather more onerous than those for the public sector track.

Then on Feb 6, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing let slip and twice referred to Madam Halimah as “Madam President” in Parliament – on the same day that changes to the Presidential Elections Act were debated. Most considered that a show of the PAP’s intentions and now, after some humming and hawing, she has, as expected, put her name in the hat.

Would Madam Halimah have run if this was not a reserved presidency? Why has she been so coy all this while? One answer could be that she really hadn’t decided whether to run. Another could be that she was waiting for Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s application to the court to declare whether the start date for a reserved presidency, which is this year, was right. A third could be she wanted to announce her intention to her constituents first, in a National Day dinner.

There is something strange (for want of a better word) about people intending to contest when such a critical matter hadn’t yet been settled – unless it doesn’t matter to them whether it is a reserved or open election. Checks showed that Mr Salleh declared his intention on May 31, more than three weeks after Dr Tan applied his legal challenge on the reserved election to the court (May 5). Mr Farid did so on Jul 11 after Dr Tan failed in his first attempt on Jul 7. Dr Tan appealed the decision the next day (Jul 12). A five-judge court heard arguments from both the G and Dr Tan’s counsel on Jul 31. With the Chief Justice promising a verdict as soon as possible, a week has passed and Madam Halimah has spoken.

When Mr Farid was asked about Dr Tan’s legal challenge, he said he would contest the election whatever the court outcome. He put his name out early because he was an unknown quantity to the people who would be voting.

Madam Halimah should have waited; she doesn’t need any name recognition. It can’t be too long before the Chief Justice delivers a verdict given that President Tony Tan’s term expires at the end of this month. Delaying the announcement would be a nod to the dignity of the court and to those who still think that the G (and Parliament) did wrong to count the late Wee Kim Wee as Singapore’s first elected president. In fact, her announcement only adds to the cynicism about the coming election, as if the court verdict is a foregone conclusion. Unless she makes clear it didn’t matter which way the verdict turned.

But let’s say it will be a reserved election this year, then the hope is that even more Malay candidates will come forth. During the parliamentary debate on the amendments, Workers’ Party MP Pritam Singh made this comment: “I take the position that because minority candidates are likely to be few to begin with, many candidates are likely to enter Presidential elections through the public sector track or public sector deliberative tracks rather than the more stringent private sector track with its $500 million threshold. This may render hollow the Government’s claims that it is not relaxing the criteria to make it easier for minorities to assume the presidency as a result of the latest constitutional changes.’’

So far, we have two private sector candidates who do not make the automatic threshold and a public sector candidate who just about cleared it. Not a great start.

Source: http://themiddleground.sg