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Tag: contest

  • Commentary: No Need For A Contest? Reserved Election Promotes Multi-Culturalism? What Utter Nonsense!

    Commentary: No Need For A Contest? Reserved Election Promotes Multi-Culturalism? What Utter Nonsense!

    *********** Not Par for the Course ****************

    Over the weekend , the MSM was suggesting that perhaps there is no need for a contest in the upcoming Presidential Election and that the reserved Election promotes multi-culturalism .

    What utter nonsense !

    This reserved Election has already gone down as the most despised , ridiculed and discredited election in Singapore history . It has set back the Singapore identity and race relations by 50 years . It has laid to waste all the efforts at Nation building for the past half a century , all for the sake of political expediency by the establishment .

    The Singapore identity meant amongst other things , that when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility , what counts is not membership of a particular class but the actual ability which the man possesses . That Singapore identity has been totally shredded by this reserved election .

    The Establishment uses euphemisms such as promoting multi-culturalism to camouflage the racial ugliness of their stratagem . Multi-culturalism is always inclusive and never exclusive , which sadly is what the reserved election is all about .

    Halimah Yacob says that the reserved election is still meritocratic because all the candidates have to meet the same qualification criteria . No Madam . A meritocratic system is one where other races are not excluded from being elected President . You are participating in a ” handicapped ” election where other races are excluded in favour of a particular race . It is comparable to the US Masters Golf tournament being reserved only for Black golfers in a particular year . Tiger Woods did not require such a handicap competition to win the Masters in 1997 or 13 other major championships , and countless other tournaments throughout the world . Neither did Barack Obama require a reserved Election to become the first Black American President in 2008 , an achievement which was thought well-nigh impossible just 2 years earlier .

    For those who suggest there is no need for a contest , I have this to say . Whoever becomes the next President of Singapore has already become so diminished by this whole absurd saga . To even begin to salvage a modicum of respect for a hollowed out Office requires the person to win the command and respect of the Singapore people in a proper contest . If there is a walkover , there will be no mandate or respect from Singaporeans for this President , who will assume Office on 14 September as the lamest of ducks !

     

    Source: Tean Lim

  • Commentary: Halimah Yacob Has Abandoned And Betrayed Residents That Voted For Her In The First Place

    Commentary: Halimah Yacob Has Abandoned And Betrayed Residents That Voted For Her In The First Place

    She was voted by the residents living in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, yet instead of serving the residents as she was voted in for the next 5 years, she abandoned the residents who had voted for her and choose to run in September’s Presidential Election. And wayang so much whether want to contest in the election, no way would I voted for this joker who abandons the residents and abandons her constituents and self-claim herself Malay while her father is an Indian.

    She betrays the residents who had voted for her in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC and betray her own race. What would you expect if she was voted in, perhaps would be even worse than Tony Tan who has done nothing while being a president.

     

    Source: Wong Hong Teng

  • Suitable Eligible Candidates Should Step Forward, Proper Contest Of Presidency Beneficial To Singapore

    Suitable Eligible Candidates Should Step Forward, Proper Contest Of Presidency Beneficial To Singapore

    By Lin Weijie

    The ruling party in Singapore, the People’s Action Party (PAP), has governed our country for more than 50 years. PAP has dominated the Parliament since independence. The judiciary has been highly supportive of the government. It can be beneficial for our country, government and even ruling party to have an independent, non-partisan and qualified President who is caring, capable, committed, credible and constructive (5Cs?). An additional bonus is if he or she has charisma. The eighth President of Singapore who assumes office in September 2017 should be able to successfully work with our government to lead, unite and care for our people while exercising his constitutional, ceremonial and community responsibilities as our Head of State. Who are the potential candidates?

    Currently, the two interested candidates from the private sector, Salleh Marican and Farid Khan do not meet the stated financial criteria as their companies to do not have shareholder equity of at least $500 million. Salleh Marican is an Indian-Muslim chief executive officer (CEO) who seems not very fluent in Malay language. Farid Khan, who grew up in Geylang Serai, is a CEO of Pakistani descent. The third potential candidate is Halimah Yacob, our Indian-Muslim Speaker of Parliament who expressed interest.

    The Singapore electorate can benefit from having suitable Malay-Muslim candidates taking part in this election. As Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in Parliament, the 2017 Presidential Election will be reserved for Malay candidates.

    Presently, there are a few potentially eligible Malay CEOs who may qualify as possible private sector candidates. One of them is Alternate Member of the Council of Presidential Advisers and Bank of Singapore CEO Bahren Shaari, who has not ruled out running for the Presidential Election. He was appointed CEO in February 2015. Though he has not met the minimum three years criteria as CEO, the Presidential Election Committee (PEC) may approve of his application and allow him to run for this election, if he decides to take part.

    The other potentially eligible private sector candidate is Shafie Shamsuddin who has served as CEO of Carrefour in Singapore and Malaysia. He is currently, the president and chief executive of PT Trans Retail (Carrefour Indonesia). Shafie Shamsuddin was named the Outstanding Chief/Senior Executive (Overseas) of the Year at the 2016 Singapore Business Awards. In 2016, Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation (GIC) invested 5.2 trillion rupiah (SGD$387 million) for a 17% stake in PT Trans Retail.

    According to the Presidential Election 2017 Candidate Handbook, one of the financial requirements is that “the company must have, on average, at least $500 million shareholders’ equity, during the interested candidate’s most recent 3 years of service as chief executive”. It has yet to be ascertained if PT Trans Retail meets this requirement. The companies led by Salleh Marican and Farid Khan do not meet this requirement.

    From the public sector, other potentially eligible candidates include Minister Yaacob Ibrahim and Abdullah Tarmugi who served as Speaker of Parliament from 2002 to 2011. Minister Yaacob Ibrahim has publicly declared that he was not interested. Abdullah Tarmugi may be persuaded to step out of retirement from politics to contest for this election.

    Another possible candidate is Singapore’s non-resident Ambassador to Kuwait and Foreign Minister’s Special Envoy to Middle East, Zainul Abidin, who is the Indian-Muslim CEO of Mendaki from 1990 to 1993. He served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in 2004 and Senior Minister of State from 2006 till 2011, when he lost his parliamentary seat as part of the PAP team that contested in the General Elections for the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency.

    Though former Senior Minister of State Zainul Abidin may not meet the requirement 1.1.1a of holding the office of Minister for 3 of more years, the PEC may qualify him under requirement 1.1.1c, which specifies that he has “served for 3 or more years in an office in the public sector for which the PEC must be satisfied, having regard to the nature of the office and the person’s performance, that he has experience and ability comparable to a person who satisfies paragraph 1.1.1 (a)… The PEC must also be satisfied that he has the experience and ability to effectively carry out the functions and duties of the office of President.” There is also a similar clause for private sector candidates who might not meet the exact requirements. There should not be a walkover for this Presidential Election.

    Indeed, it can be beneficial for our country if we have highly suitable (5Cs?) and eligible candidates from both public and private sectors taking part in this reserved Presidential Election so that our citizens will not be denied the opportunity to take part in this democratic process and vote for our eighth President of Singapore.

     

    Lin Weijie is a director in the private sector. He has served more than 15 years in the public service, before providing consultancy services to overseas governments and organizations such as the World Bank. 

     

    Source: www.theindependent.sg

  • Damanhuri Abas: The Reserved Malay EP Irony – Malay Votes Do Not Matter

    Damanhuri Abas: The Reserved Malay EP Irony – Malay Votes Do Not Matter

    With Mr Salleh Marican coming forward and putting his hat in the ring, we may have a contest for the upcoming EP in September. There are sceptics commenting since he made the announcement but he had previously indicated well in advance his willingness to respond to the PM’s call for capable Malays to come forward to meet the call to serve the people.

    In fact, I was present at the Reach session when Mr Salleh Marican was the first to speak to the government panel comprising of Dr Yaacob Ibrahim and Mdm Rahayu Mahzam. He expressed his disappointment to them about the change to the financial requirement from 100 million paid up capital to 500 million equity shares company. He indicated then that this change would affect his chance of serving which he was seriously considering when the EP was made exclusive for Malays.

    However, he clearly is determined by still coming forward and willing to make the pitch to convince the EP committee to qualify him possibly on the third equivalent route.

    He mentioned his strength of being a businessmen thus comfortable with big numbers as his company is worth at least 200 million in equity shares. Thus he has a valid reason to be heard fairly by the committee on his other credentials that would compensate for not exactly meeting the minimum financial requirement for the job. On that note alone, we should give him a chance to make his case before the committee.

    The Malay community is still hoping likewise for more potential candidates with credentials to offer themselves as a possible EP. The value of a contest should not be underestimated.

    The word on the ground is a great sense of disappointment among the Chinese majority who felt this reserve EP is undermining their believe in the ‘system’. Their reaction however is mix from out right condemnation and a desire to cast a protest vote possibly through spoiling them to voting in any other non-government candidate.

    Among the Malays they are similarly mix about the EP as they never see this anywhere in the community’s priority to do list for the government. The mainstream media nonetheless as expected has gone into overdrive since the announcement for a reserve EP was made. The picture coming from them is the general support and gratitude of the Malay community towards this initiative by the government. The more realistic ones see this as a desperate manoeuvre to stop the potential victory of Dr Tan Cheng Bock at the polls if it was an open election. This group would likely cast a vote for the non-government candidate.

    In all honesty, the Malay vote ironically do not really matter much as it is a low percentage. The swing will be to see where the supporters of Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Mr Tan Jee Say cast their votes. They are clear defined blocks that may determine who wins. The PAP block are quite predictable and from what the last EP showed its about 30-40% at most. So there are 60-70% potential vote eagerly waiting to be cast against the PAP/government candidate. All is not lost people. Let this EP be a healthy contest for a better deal to the people to check this government. So let the contest begin.

    #PE2017 #MalayPresidentforSingapore

     

    Source: Damanhuri Bin Abas