Tag: EP

Leon Perera: Abandon Reserved Elected Presidency, Return To Appointed Presidency

We all want a President who can be a unifying symbol for all Singaporeans. But we disagree about the best means to achieve that end.

In Parliament on 6 Feb 2017, DPM Teo suggested that in November 2016, I had supported measures to depoliticise Presidential Elections (PEs). In fact all the Workers’ Party MPs and NCMPs, including myself, had argued in Parliament for not having an elected President at all and reverting to appointed Presidents.

DPM Teo alluded to my comments about a PAP MP who suggested political safeguards in PE campaigns. In fact, I said that it was to her credit that she attempted to address the politicisation risk issue, not that I agree with her proposed solution. I had argued earlier that day that Presidential elections inevitably become politicised.

DPM Teo went on to say that because I am “not shy” to speak in debate and since I had not challenged his characterisation of what I said, that means I agree with it. It does not. Nowhere did I say that I supported an elected President with politicisation safeguards. I did not raise my hand a second time to challenge his characterisation of what I said because my colleagues and I had already made our views emphatically clear during the three days of debate – we support an appointed Presidency, not an elected one, safeguards or no.

I reiterated my views in Parliament on 6 Feb 2017. For those who are interested, please scroll down below to read the excerpts, watch the clips and judge for yourself.
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What I had said in Parliament on 9 November 2016 referring to a PAP MP’s speech was:-
“My second question pertains to a question we have repeated a few times – what are the strategies that the Government has to mitigate the risks of politicising the unifying office of the Presidency? No doubt, that politicisation may not have fully materialised for the past EPs that we have, but there is good reason to believe in future Presidential elections, if let us say there are 10 candidates, and let us say the winner gets 5% of the votes or let us say the campaign ends up becoming bitterly partisan, the Office of the President could be politicised. I have not heard any strategy from any Member of the PAP on how this can be managed. I think Ms Rahayu Mahzam came closest to that. To her credit, she talked about tightening up the rules for partisanship during the Presidential election campaign. So, what would be the Government’s strategy to mitigate that? That is my second question.”

This was DPM Teo’s reply to me at the time:
“Turning to the risk of politicisation and the possible tightening of rules for the Presidential Elections. The risk of politicisation is there. I have addressed it explicitly just now in my answer. But I think what Mr Leon Perera suggests, and what the Commission suggests also, is to look at rules and the way that the Presidential Elections are conducted. I think there is merit and I agree with Mr Leon Perera there.”

https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/topic.jsp…

In my earlier speech on the Bill delivered that very same day, I argued for reverting to appointed Presidents. Here is an extract from that speech:-

“Mdm Speaker, the Presidency, and I concur with Members who have talked about the importance of the Presidency, is the one precious unifying symbol of our national unity, above party politics. As a National Serviceman, I pledged my allegiance, as did many Members here, to the President and the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, proudly. When we elect this office, inevitably, it becomes a proxy General Election…The Constitutional Commission, the Menon Commission recognised this. They had the courage to do so, and suggested that we cast our eyes back to the time when Presidents were not elected.”

https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/topic.jsp…

Here is the video clip of that speech. It makes clear that I am not calling for rule changes to Presidential Elections but for a reversion to appointed Presidents.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/…/leon-perera-s…/3275492.html

On 8 November 2016, in responding to PAP MP and MOS Dr Janil Puthucheary, I said:

“Firstly, and most importantly, we have argued that subjecting the office of the Presidency to an election runs the risk that that election will inevitably become a proxy General Election, will become politicised. As a result of that process, the Elected President that emerges from there with a mandate that is less than 50% will be seen in a political light and will, therefore, have his or her ability to unify the entire country severely curtailed…Can the President be a unifying figure, after being subject to an election that is vulnerable to the tinge of partisanship? …Our proposal actually saves the Presidency from the risk of this kind of politicisation.”

https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/topic.jsp…

Here is the video clip of my exchange with DPM Teo in Parliament on 6 Feb 2017:

https://youtu.be/1Isvb5773MU

Source: Leon Perera

February 9, 2017
Mdm President. A Tale Told By Idiots Full Of Sound And Fury, Signifying Nothing
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.
1. It’s a fact that this election is reserved for a Malay candidate.
2. It’s a fact that the PAP introduced new eligibility rules last year.
3. 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!

Source: https://kenjeyaretnam.com
February 8, 2017
Why Is Ong Teng Cheong Not Recognised As Singapore’s First Elected President?

The changes to the Elected Presidency (EP) scheme were passed by Parliament on Monday, 7 February.

The Government have also announced that the next EP will take place in September 2017.

This next presidential election will be a special one which is reserved only for Malay candidates.

It is part of the slew of changes made to the EP scheme by the Government which claimed that it was concerned about there not being a minority-race president for an extended period.

The changes ensure that this would not be so. If there has not been a minority-race president for five terms, the following EP election will be reserved only for minority candidates.

The proposed changes had only been announced last year and were quickly debated in Parliament in November last year.

Barely two months later, the changes are now in force and the next election will be reserved only for Malay candidates.

Since the proposed changes were raised, some have expressed suspicion that they were engineered by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) to bar Dr Tan Cheng Bock from running in September.

Dr Tan had come within a whisker of defeating the PAP-approved candidate, former PAP minister Dr Tony Tan, in the 2011 election.

Dr Tan Cheng Bock had last year announced that he would contest the next presidential elections.

The Government, in the meantime, has said the changes are not to bar anyone, and that it was making the changes because of its concern that Singapore, being a multi-racial society, should be represented at the highest level by the different racial groups.

While there have been many questions raised about the new rules, one in particular is worth delving further into.

This has to do with the decision to designate the next election as a reserved one.

Workers’ Party chairman and Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC, Sylvia Lim, highlighted the issue in Parliament on Monday.

“The Schedule sets out a table showing President Wee Kim Wee as the first President to be counted,” Ms Lim said. “Together with the subsequent Presidential terms of President Ong Teng Cheong, two terms of President SR Nathan and one term of President Tony Tan, these form 5 terms where a non-Malay President was in office. Thus, the government reaches the conclusion that this year’s Presidential Election will be reserved for Malays. This is a conclusion that has left Singaporeans bewildered and suspicious.”

Indeed it has.

The Government, which said it was advised by the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), had explained that counting should begin from President Wee because he was the first President to exercise the powers of an Elected President.

“This advice was surprising and illogical to many Singaporeans, given that President Wee Kim Wee was never elected to office,” Ms Lim said.

“Why not count from the first Elected President, Mr Ong Teng Cheong?” she asked. “Is it because if President Ong was the first one to be counted, we would have to go through this year’s election as an open election and risk the contest by Chinese or Indian candidates who may not be to the Government’s liking?”

In his response, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Chan Chun Sing, said Mr Wee was the first president to exercise the powers under the elected presidency.

According to news reports, Mr Chan doesn’t seem to have elaborated further on his argument, except to insist how the Government had no political intentions, and that in fact “the changes carried high political risk and cost.”

“If this Government led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is for short-term political advantage, would we do it?” he asked. “Would we expend our political capital to do this?”

Rhetoric aside, the Government’s position on why Mr Wee should be the starting point makes him, in effect, the first elected president because he had exercised the powers under the elected presidency.

But such a view runs counter to earlier statements by Government ministers themselves, including former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, and the government-controlled media, who had all described Mr Ong as Singapore’s first Elected President.

Let us take a short walk down memory lane.

Way before the EP scheme became reality, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who had initiated the idea, “hinted” in 1985 “that Singapore might have its first elected President at the end of Mr Wee’s four-year term or, perhaps, earlier.”

The Business Times, in September 1993, just a day before Mr Ong was sworn in as President, described Mr Ong as “the first elected president.”

In the Malay Berita Harian newspaper the next day, it said “History made: Mr Ong Teng Cheong has been sworn in as S’pore’s first [elected president].”

6 years later, in 1999, the Straits Times published a chronology of Mr Ong’s achievements, including: “1993: Mr Ong Teng Cheong wins Singapore’s first presidential Election..”

In 2002, upon Mr Ong’s demise, the radio station 93.8FM had this headline: “Former president Ong Teng Cheong, S’pore’s first elected president, has died..”

And even as recent as 2007, the Straits Times was still referring to him as Singapore’s first Elected President:

“Hwa Chong Institution now has student centre in honour of Singapore’s first elected president, Mr Ong Teng Cheong.”

And if you are still not convinced that Mr Ong was indeed Singapore’s first Elected President, here are two authoritative sources which might change your mind.

First, there is the government’s own National Library website.

Right the top of its “History SG” page is this headline, in caps:

“ONG TENG CHEONG IS THE FIRST ELECTED PRESIDENT OF SINGAPORE”.

That is pretty unequivocal from the curators of our history.

And second, here was what then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 2002 said in his condolence letter to Mr Ong’s family:

“As the first elected President, Teng Cheong had to work the two-key system…”

So, there you have it.

Singaporeans, the media and even the Government itself, had referred to Mr Ong as Singapore’s first Elected President many times the last 24 years since he was first elected.

Mr Chan’s explanation on why it was instead Mr Wee who is being counted as the nation’s first Elected President is unconvincing at best, and totally disrespectful of Mr Ong, at worst.

It also denies our own political and national history which, in fact, is plain for all to see. And not to mention it is also an utter repudiation of Singaporeans’ choice when they elected Mr Ong to be the first Elected President.

All in all, a simple stroke of the pen to change our history is an act of betrayal.

Mr Ong Teng Cheong presented himself to the people as a candidate, convinced them he could do the job and they elected him through the ballot.

This, with all due respect to Mr Wee who himself was a very excellent president indeed, is what the ELECTED president is supposed to do, at a minimum.

What Mr Ong has done as Singapore’s first Elected President resonates even today with many Singaporeans, especially when he stood independent from the rulers of the party he once belonged to, in carrying out his duty on behalf of Singaporeans.

And because of his presidency, the EP went through many substantial changes and improvements as well.

Mr Ong was Singapore’s first Elected President and the changes to the EP should take reference from his tenure.

To conveniently sidestep his presidency, without any valid or convincing explanation, only fuels suspicion and speculation that the current Government has ulterior motives in pushing through the changes at such speed.

In the end, it damages the credibility of the EP, especially the reserved EP, and this is not good for the country.

Mr Chan needs to do better to convince Singaporeans that the Government has no ulterior agenda in not recognising Mr Ong’s presidency.

Source: https://andrewlohhp.wordpress.com

February 8, 2017
Jufrie Mahmood: Malays Oppose Reserved Malay Elected Presidency Not For Racist Reasons

If you are a non Malay and you oppose the amendments to the constitution to reserve the post of the Elected President for a Malay this time round solely because you don’t want a Malay to hold the post then you are opposing for the wrong reason.

You may then be accused of being a racist.

For your information many enlightened Malays also oppose the amendments but for different reasons. They hate the insinuation that they are unable to stand on their own merit and would end up having a PAP puppet for a president. We prefer a capable and fair minded person who is independent and can stand up for all Singaporeans, irrespective of his racial background.

MOST IMPORTANTLY WE WANT A PRESIDENT WHO IS NOT BEHOLDEN TO THE RULING PARTY AND CAN SAY “NO” TO THE PAP SHOULD THE NEED ARISES. THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE. GET IT?

MAJULAH SINGAPURA!

Source: Mohamed Jufrie Bin Mahmood

February 8, 2017
Bernard Chen: Lee Kuan Yew Would Not Have Approved Of Malay President Through Affirmative Action

The PAP turns 62 today. A week ago, they spoke up for and stood by affirmative action, the very principle that its founding members fought against, every tooth and every nail. The irony passes them by as they legitimises it with an overwhelming vote in Parliament.

Unlike affirmative action apologists, the late Lee Kuan Yew would never rush into positions for appearance sake. He would have turned in his grave, literally and metaphorically. He took what he saw as a Malaysian Malaysian, put everything on the line and took us out of a merger that he had so vehemently believed in. The conviction in their spirits then, soulless today. The PAP of 2016 turned their back on what the pioneer generation believed, the same generation whom they had so profusely thanked in 2015. We the younger ones were asked to learn from our pioneers. They have clearly forgotten all of that today.

I grew up being told by my PAP leaders that affirmative action is not what Singapore believes in. Look at Malaysia, affirmative action. Singapore wants none of that. Now we have affirmative action delivered on a plate by that parliamentary majority. Sad, none of the sitting MPs thought that this was so so wrong. None. And they say they have the interests of Singapore at heart. The temerity, the audacity, the tragedy of it all.

Today, we have nothing but this obscurantist doctrine, reinforced by the sitting Minister for Malay-Muslim affairs. Simply to get a ceremonial position for a Malay and their problem as a community will be resolved. This is no different as how easily a bill gets passed in a parliament heavily skewed in the favour of these new apologists. The whole clan [and parliament] celebrates. It was not too long ago they call members on the other side of the spectrum chauvinists and discredit them with the might of the machinery.

They clutched at straws but wielded the stick with the blank cheque they were given. The recent amendments to the Constitution is an indictment of how far the PAP had deviated from their beliefs and founding principles. Just cut the rhetoric. This is a totally different party today, from what it was in 1954.

With you, for you, for Singapore. The hypocrisy. The PAP of 2016. Happy 62nd Birthday, the leviathan that is the PAP. Barely recognisable from the one that ushered in independent Singapore in 1965.

The next time, when you say you believe in the PAP, remember to opt yourself out from that affirmative action that is now a part of the PAP’s DNA. Guilt by association, as they say.

Source: Chen Jiaxi Bernard

November 23, 2016