If a minority candidate leaves his group representation constituency (GRC), a by-election will not be called, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing said in February 2017.
That was the response he gave to the opposition Workers’ Party’s Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC), who wanted to know what would happen if a minority member of a GRC were to step down to run for presidency.
Mr Singh specifically used Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob as an example in his question.
As most Singaporeans have known, Madam Halimah, the minority member of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, has been tipped as a potential candidate for the upcoming election, which is reserved for Malays since months ago.
Mr Chan said that when Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong explained the GRC system in Parliament decades back, he said its intent was to achieve two purposes:
One, to ensure enough minority members in the House. This, Mr Chan said, had been achieved over the years.
Two, to ensure no political campaign on issues of race and religion, “that we will all, regardless of party lines, campaign on the basis that we are all Singaporeans, that we will not use race, language or religion for political reasons”, Mr Chan said.
Elected members are also expected to serve all residents, regardless of race, language and religion.
These key goals would not be affected if one member of the GRC left, Mr Chan added.
1.PAP says Singapore is a sworn Meritocracy. We are not like Malaysia with its affirmative action policy of helping the indigenous people of the land. Malays in Singapore are not like that! Malays in Singapore do not need handouts or any help. They can self-help!
2. Lee Kuan Yew determines that the national reserves of Singapore must be secured with two keys: The Parliament and an Elected President (not a lame duck President like Sheares) even when GIC for which he heads which handles the biggest Sovereign fund of Singapore is absolutely controlled by him and is not required to publish any accounts. What is the dollar worth of our wealth? Only he and God knows. So such a move is really to shore up his absolute control over the Nation’s reserves. He thinks that an elected President from his own ranks will co-operate with that.
3. Enter the Elected President who does not play ball, Mr. Ong Teng Cheong. First thing he did was to ask for a full audit of the National Wealth – He wants to know what is in the safe for which he is holding one key. The stone-walling and delay was legendary. Lee Kuan Yew does not want Ong Teng Cheong to know what is in that vault.
4. The next elected President played ball to a tee and reap a million dollar salary without any incidents in a period when GIC made all sorts of investment blunders including investing in CitiBank which later got into trouble. But Nathan cannot live forever…
5. And then there are others who dare to challenge and try out for the Presidential elections. One or two of these are mavericks that PAP cannot control. For as a Chinese elitist political party, no one can threaten the Chinese PAP but other Chinese. The Malay “leadership” have been unashamedly castrated and are little more than house-niggers to the Chinese PAP masters.
6. So something needs to be done. Enter Lee Hsien Loong the proverbial son to hatch a “brilliant” plan. Confine the Presidential elections only to Malays. If you are Chinese or Indian or anything else you are automatically disqualified. Never mind Meritocracy. Never mind Non-Communal politics. Never mind the fact that this is what Malaysia’s affirmative action looks like. But not any Mat, Dollah or Minah can qualify! Set a criteria that only well to do Malays within or those close to the establishment can ever qualify and PAP will be secured. No such Malay will pull an Ong Teng Cheong move!
7. Enter the foolish Malay who finds pride in all of these scheming political shenanigans. We are going to have a Malay president! How GREAT this is! What an achievement of the Malays of Xing Chia Poh!
***
Thinking Malay-Muslims should reflect properly and consider whether they should be proud of this or really be shameful of a Malay who is for all intents and purpose appointed by the PAP to be made a tool of. Maybe for the one who has sold his or her soul that million dollar salary is all worth it.
La hawla wa la quwatta illa biLlahil Aliy ul-Adzim!
So much nonsense is being spouted about the Presidency that you have to wonder if Singaporeans have lost all of their critical faculties or are they just too busy virtue signalling.
There was widespread righteous indignation in our so-called “alternative” media over a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing’s alleged Freudian slip when he addressed Halimah Yaacob as “Madam President” rather than “Madam Speaker” in Parliament on Monday. I see that. Yes. It was a slip that gave away an early indication that our next President is going to be Madam Yaacob. Shock horror! But frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn and here’s why.
It’s a fact that this election is reserved for a Malay candidate.
It’s a fact that the PAP introduced new eligibility rules last year.
It seems likely that Mdm Halimah Yaacob will be the only Malay candidate who will be eligible given facts 1 and 2.
How many of these indignant scribblers are even minority race, obliged by law to carry an National Identity card identifying them as minority race? Whatever race you are, why bother getting worked up over the PAP’s moves to ensure that they have even more control over who gets elected President?
All checks and balances on executive power in Singapore disappeared a long time ago. How did they disappear? Historically through the usual power plays, deceit and conniving by Colonial rulers and vested outside interests. More recently because we the people, who still have the vote, did not resist. In fact most people welcomed the chance to give up their individual power to a draconian nanny state.
Get over yourselves. The PAP have unfettered power. Every branch of government and every institution has been brought firmly under the PAP’s control. There are no checks on that power and control. ( actually in recent years there was one. A man called M Ravi and he stopped the PM’s power over when to call a by-election- but he’s been fixed now)
Despite all the manufactured outrage by alternative media and keyboard warriors over the changes to the Elected Presidency, the EP was never an institution that was intended to keep Lee Kuan Yew and his son and later generations of the Lee family from power. The Elected Presidency was introduced solely to put a potential pebble in the machinery of government if an Opposition party was ever to take power in Singapore and produce a constitutional crisis to allow the PAP to take back power.
To understand what the Elected Presidency was about, everyone should watch this video of JBJ and Chiam See Tong debating with Lee Hsien Loong:
if you watch it and educate yourself as to how the role changed you will understand my view point. I simply cannot get excited over some of our brave so-called “civil society activists” slamming the recent changes to the Elected Presidency. These people are not prepared to agitate about any issues of real importance, merely where they feel the PAP have permitted them a safe space for a controlled and calibrated amount of dissent.
If Singaporeans want to see real democracy in action they can look no further than the huge protests have erupted all over the US against Trump and his executive orders. A judge, appointed by a Republican President, is prepared to stand up and place a temporary hold on Trump’s ban on Muslim immigration.
What does it matter who our President is? It is always going to be a PAP choice. Even before the new rules it was always pre -selection according to a PAP agenda and never was a free and open election.
I also cannot be bothered with the fools who get worked up about a not-so-much PAP candidate- i.e. retired long term PAP MP or civil servant. If one of these candidates were to be elected then again it would not matter. Why? The EP has no power because the EP must follow the advice of the Council of Presidential Advisors, which has recently been expanded and given more power. Should the EP ever go against that PAP group ‘s advice then he or she can be overruled by a 2/3 majority vote in parliament. The PAP always has, always had and probably always will have that 2/3 majority required to veto any President.
And why should I get excited over the EP when last election not one of the four campaigned on the actual unconstitutionality of the role? How it is a breach of parliamentary sovereignty. Did even one candidate ever say , “I’m just a ceremonial figurehead so long as the PAP have that 2/3 majority.”
How did all these virtuous bloggers and scribblers and activists follow up the wins of GE 2011?- by making sure the unified message to get 1/3 of opposition seats in Parliament was sabotaged. The result is a PAP majority and veto.
Get over it. You chose to put your lives and every aspect of life in Singapore into the hands of one political party. Ownself fury about ownself choice. Uniquely Singaporean!
this year’s Life Theatre Awards theme was “Future Perfect”. Lim Kay Siu & I went dressed in SDP colours, because for us, a perfect future for our country would be one where there was more opposition in Parliament. I thought long and hard if this was the right platform for this. I think it is. What other platforms do we have? (what do YOU think?)
As artists, we should stand up for what we believe in. I learnt from playing Soh Lung Teo in Cooling Off Day that everyone should be involved in politics, that we should be unafraid. Life, Art, Politics are all part of the human experience. I shed tears when I spoke to GoH Baey at the after-party, because I felt a little bit chastised. He was kind, but felt that this was not the right platform for what I did. I’m still not sure if he is right.
All I know is, I am very passionate about my beliefs, and I hope that the voters in Bukit Batok will do the right thing. Be brave! You have a beautiful estate, I visit it often because my late mother’s ashes are interred in Bukit Batok, I am a stone’s throw away.
I have no doubt Murali is a good man too, but now is the time to give Chee Soon Juan a chance. He will do good for you, I promise you. I believe in him. You should too. (please re-share if you like: nomination day is today!) #nowisthetime
