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Tag: EP

  • Ismail Kassim: PAP Leaders Must Ask Themselves If They Are Cowards

    Ismail Kassim: PAP Leaders Must Ask Themselves If They Are Cowards

    To all PAP leaders, watch the Hollywood classic High Noon and ask yourself:

    Am I a coward?
    A craven coward,
    A coward till my grave

    This is the refrain from the theme song. In this film, a sheriff played by Gary Cooper deliberates on his dilemma: hand over his badge and leave town with his bride (Grace Kelly) or stay and face four just released gunmen screaming for his blood.

    He could have left office as planned, but he decided to face the challenge head-on, and only after despatching all four to the nether world did he go on his honeymoon.

    The same question can be asked of the PAP leaders. When faced with a challenge from TCB, instead of taking up the gauntlet as our great departed leader would have done, they resorted to a cowardly dodge to avoid a fight.

    Now, one after another, they come up with all kinds of rationalisation to make themselves look good.

    But it will all be in vain. The damage has been done; multi-racialism and meritocracy have been sacrificed on the altar of political convenience and the disunity among the people and between and within each ethnic group will only get worse with time.

     

    Source: Ismail Kassim

  • Nizam Ismail: No Need For Yaacob Ibrahim To Belittle Geylang Serai In Making Flawed Meritocracy Argument

    Nizam Ismail: No Need For Yaacob Ibrahim To Belittle Geylang Serai In Making Flawed Meritocracy Argument

    Yaacob Ibrahim has confirmed that he won’t run for the elected Presidency.

    Well, if a role that is reserved for a Malay is now seen to be still meritocratic, then you can simply extend that argument to any position in government.

    Let’s have a Malay PM (without any competition from non-Malays), and that can be meritocratic?

    I think it’s regrettable that there is a derogatory remark about the people in Geylang Serai.

    “But we believe it must come about because of meritocracy. Even for the elected president, you don’t just pick up somebody from Geylang Serai – the person must qualify, the person must earn the respect of all Singaporeans,” he added.

     

    Source: Nizam Ismail In Suara Melayu Singapura

     

     

  • Abdul Salim Harun: If Halimah Yacob Becomes President, By-Election Should Be Called For Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC

    Abdul Salim Harun: If Halimah Yacob Becomes President, By-Election Should Be Called For Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC

    As a resident and voter of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC and residing under the Marsiling Constituency helm by Mdm Halimah Yacob, I hope that she can be forthcoming and inform her residents of her intention on the upcoming Presidential Election.

    If she intents to run for the Presidency, a By-Election should be called considering that a GRC should consist of a minority MP. Currently, all her other colleagues in the GRC are all Chinese.

    Aside from that, it is only right that residents and voters of Marsiling Constituency should have their own MP and representative in Parliament, an MP they can called their own, and not MPs loan from other wards.

    The next General Election will only be held 3 years down the road and it is not right for Marsiling Constituency to be left without their own MP.

    Furthermore, the Government had already stated that the GRC scheme was implemented to enshrined minority representation in Parliament and at least one of the MPs in the GRC must be from the minority race.

    As can be seen from the current Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, Mdm Halimah is the only minority MP in the GRC while the other 3 are of the Chinese race. If she intents to run for the Presidency, the GRC will be left without a minority MP.

    So, Chan Chun Sing is totally wrong when he says that there’s not a need for any By-Election in regards of his “Mdm President” if she were to leave the GRC.

    I hope Mdm Speaker will not leave her residents hanging and a By-Election should be called if she really leaves the GRC to contest the Presidential Election.

     

    Source: Abdul Salim Harun

  • Jufrie Mahmood: Yaacob Ibrahim Must Stop Thinking The Malay Community Are Fools

    Jufrie Mahmood: Yaacob Ibrahim Must Stop Thinking The Malay Community Are Fools

    Dr Yaacob appeals to Malays to allow themselves to be made pawns in the PAP’s on going grand design to ward off any serious challenge to its absolute hold on all levers of power – at the expense of the community’s self worth and dignity.

    He then wayang by saying, “the Malay community is concerned not just about the president, but also Malay permanent secretary, Malay general ,,,, because we want to see representation across the entire Singaporean life”.

    Then he contradicts himself saying “but we believe it must come about because of meritocracy ……”.

    Good try Dr Yaacob. You think we are fools?

     

    Source: Mohamed Jufrie Mahmood

  • Yaacob Ibrahim: Give Elected Presidency A Chance To Develop

    Yaacob Ibrahim: Give Elected Presidency A Chance To Develop

    Give the elected presidency (EP) a chance to develop and allow it to evolve, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim yesterday urged the Malay community, in particular, its youth.

    He made the appeal in response to a question during a dialogue with tertiary students on whether the upcoming presidential election, which has been reserved for Malay candidates, is “mere tokenism”.

    “I think, let’s give it a chance and see how it works because no policy is cast in stone. One day, the Government might change its mind and decide that this reserved election doesn’t work. You never know,” he added.

    “You’ve to sort of recognise the fact that we must continue to evolve and learn from the experiences on the ground.”

    Dr Yaacob was speaking publicly on the EP for the first time since the Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill was passed last week.

    The Bill provided details such as the election period and the size of the committees to assess whether candidates are eligible to contest. It follows broader constitutional changes passed last November that spell out how a presidential election will be reserved for a particular racial group if no one from that group has been president for five terms in a row.

    The upcoming election is reserved for the Malay community, which has not seen a Malay president for 46 years since Singapore’s first president Yusof Ishak, who died in office on Nov 23, 1970.

     

    In his reply, Dr Yaacob, who reiterated that he will not contest the election, said his preference “would have been clearly an open election, where a Malay could actually win the EP on his or her own merit”.

    “But I think we also have to ask ourselves whether or not we are able to achieve that if we take that risk,” he added.

    He said tribal tendencies “are still very strong” and “run deep”, not just among the miniorities, but even among the majorities.

    “So how you ensure that the imbalance doesn’t become a burden on the minority is something which the Government has to think about all the time,” he added.

    He said the Malay community is concerned “not just about the president, but also Malay permanent secretary, Malay general… because we want to see representation across the entire Singaporean life”.

    “But we believe it must come about because of meritocracy. Even for the elected president, you don’t just pick up somebody from Geylang Serai – the person must qualify, the person must earn the respect of all Singaporeans,” he added.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com