Rilek1Corner

Tag: Ong Teng Cheong

  • 6 Reasons Why Fandi Ahmad Should Not Run For Presidency

    6 Reasons Why Fandi Ahmad Should Not Run For Presidency

    Halimah Yacob, Salleh Marican and Farid Khan – three names that have not inspired confidence in their race to the Istana. Singaporeans are getting desperate to the point of encouraging presidential hopeful, Dr Tan Cheng Bock to become Malay. And then there’s Singapore’s favourite footballing son, Fandi Ahmad – a popular choice, even though we don’t see him qualifying as a candidate.

    Will Fandi make a good President?

    Here are 6 reasons why Fandi Ahmad should totally not become President:

    1. He is not educated. He was from a vocational school and has never graduated from a university like many of our very elite millionaire Ministers. Even though he became rich from playing football and his business interests, he is still not considered elite like our Ministers.

    2. Fandi doesn’t have the look of a President. He doesn’t have a back comb, and wear large glasses like our current President who is very Presidential and charming. When Tony Tan speaks, the room is quiet (because people fall asleep). Compare that to Fandi. Wherever he turns up, people make a lot of noise and mob him. How very un-presidential. Who would support Fandi?

    3. He is too handsome. The only President that was handsome was the late President Yusof Ishak. He will make all the men jealous. They will ban their wives from going to Istana open houses and National Day parades. We don’t want that too happen do we?

    4. Fandi is a sporting legend and national icon. How many sporting icons have served in public office? Sporting icons contribute back to the country through their grassroots work. Don’t meddle in the work of the elite leaders and the natural aristocrats of our land.

    5. For a prospective Malay President, he has too many friends from other races to be called truly Malay.

    6. Lastly, Fandi Ahmad is too humble. His humility is the stuff of legend, just like the man himself. Presidents cannot be too humble because they need to keep the political elites and natural aristocrats in check.

    There you have it, 6 reasons why abang Fandi shouldn’t run for Presidency. We totally don’t want a down-to-earth, humble, handsome and capable President who is Malay.

    Convinced yet?

     

    Rilek1Corner

     

    Disclaimer: We would totally vote abang Fandi if he runs for Presidency. Totally. We know Singaporeans would too. 

  • Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s EP Appeal To Be Heard On 31 July

    Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s EP Appeal To Be Heard On 31 July

    Former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock’s appeal against the High Court’s decision to dismiss his legal challenge on the timing for the reserved presidential election will be heard on July 31.

    In a Facebook post on Sunday (July 23), Dr Tan wrote that the hearing in the Court of Appeal will also be open for members of the public to attend.

    “I look forward to a final judicial clarification on whether the Government had correctly picked President Wee (Kim Wee) as the first of five presidencies to trigger a Reserved Election for 2017,” he said.

    After his legal challenge was dismissed on July 7, Dr Tan said his lawyers have advised that “the judge may have misconstrued the relevant constitutional provisions”, and proceeded to file an appeal to the apex court.

    Dr Tan had earlier challenged the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ (AGC) findings that Dr Wee was Singapore’s first elected President, which formed the basis for the Government to trigger a reserved election for Malay candidates for the coming polls in September.

    After changes to the Elected Presidency scheme were passed, a reserved election will be triggered for a particular race that has not seen an elected representative for five consecutive terms.

    The Government, on the advice of AGC, started counting the five terms from Dr Wee’s presidency. The late Dr Wee was the first President to exercise powers under the EP scheme, after it was introduced in 1991 while he was in office.

    But Dr Tan said it was unconstitutional to start counting from Dr Wee’s term, and the Government should have started counting from the popularly-elected Mr Ong Teng Cheong instead, who succeeded Dr Wee. This would make it four terms since the Republic has had an elected Malay President.

    Earlier this month, Justice Quentin Loh dismissed the appeal. He ruled that after amendments to the EP scheme were passed, Parliament was “entitled… to specify President Wee’s last term in office as the first term” of office of the President to be counted under the relevant article for a reserved election.

    He found that “on a plain reading” of Article 164, Parliament is not limited to choosing a particular term of office of the President as the “first term”. There was also nothing in the text or textual context of Article 19B that limits Parliament’s power by requiring it to start the count from the term of office of a popularly-elected President, said the judge.

    Dr Tan said on his Facebook page on Sunday that the legal case has allowed him “to express a different legal view”, adding:  “The case will end on 31 July 2017. But it is good to let our conversation on these national issues continue.”

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s Constitutional Challenge On Reserved EP: High Court Reserves Judgement

    Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s Constitutional Challenge On Reserved EP: High Court Reserves Judgement

    The High Court reserved its judgement on Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s constitutional challenge against the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) over the timing for the reserved presidential election, after a 3.5 hour closed-door hearing on Thursday (June 29).

    Justice Quentin Loh is expected to deliver his decision in a week or so, Deputy Attorney-General Hri Kumar Nair, representing AGC, and Dr Tan’s lawyer Chelva Retnam Rajah told reporters after the court session.

    Last month, Dr Tan filed a legal challenge against the AGC’s findings that Dr Wee Kim Wee was Singapore’s first elected President, which formed the basis for the Government to trigger a reserved election for Malay candidates for the coming polls in September.

    Among the various changes to the Elected Presidency scheme – passed in November last year – was triggering a reserved election for a particular race that has not seen an elected representative for five consecutive terms.

    The Government, on the advice of AGC, started counting the five terms from Dr Wee’s presidency.

    The late Dr Wee was the first President to exercise powers under the EP scheme, after it was introduced in 1991 while Dr Wee was in office.

    But Dr Tan, who was contesting the constitutionality of reserving the upcoming presidential election for Malay candidates, argued that the Government should have started counting from the late Mr Ong Teng Cheong, who succeeded Dr Wee. This would make it four terms since the Republic has had an elected Malay President.

    The upcoming presidential polls should, therefore, be an open election, he said, in a press conference on the same issue in March.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Damanhuri Abas: Malays Do Not Mind Waiting Another Six Years As Long As Government Acknowledges Ong Teng Cheong As First EP

    Damanhuri Abas: Malays Do Not Mind Waiting Another Six Years As Long As Government Acknowledges Ong Teng Cheong As First EP

    By the evidence that Dr Tan Cheng Bock presented this morning, the Government in its haste has clearly made a mistake in terms of the number of elected Presidents to date.

    Simply quietly moving the goalpost again by resorting to the AG’s interpretation is arbitrary as Dr Tan has provided all the statements over the years from the Government itself that acknowledges Mr Ong Teng Cheong as the first elected President. Clearly now, the Government must stay true to its own terms and wait for the Presidential election after this coming one for a clear 5 election cycle for a particular minority absence requirement to be met.

    It will be a desperate move for the Government to insist on a clearly wrong premise and hide behind the AG.

    We the Malays do not mind waiting another 6 years.

    No worries mate, we are patient people and used to waiting for many other things which are more priority such as discrimination in the SAF, Tudung and others!!!

     

    Source: Damanhuri Bin Abas

  • Singaporeans Petition For Ong Teng Cheong To Be Recognised As First Elected President

    Singaporeans Petition For Ong Teng Cheong To Be Recognised As First Elected President

    “The President shall be elected by the citizens of Singapore in accordance with any law made by the Legislature.”

    – Singapore Constitution, Article 17(2).

    This is a call for the Government of Singapore, led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, to not disregard and disrespect Mr Ong Teng Cheong as our nation’s first Elected President.

    This call is made in light of remarks made in Parliament by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Mr Chan Chun Sing, on 6 February 2017.

    Mr Chan, in responding to a question from the Workers’ Party Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC, Ms Sylvia Lim, said that “President Wee Kim Wee was the first president to exercise the powers under the new Elected Presidency act”, and thus Mr Wee was Singapore’s first Elected President.

    Mr Chan said that the Government was advised on this by the Attorney General.

    Mr Wee is the fourth of Singapore’s seven presidents.

    We contend that the Attorney General is wrong in advising the Government that Mr Wee was our country’s first Elected President simply because Mr Wee had exercised the powers under the Elected President scheme; and we ask that the honour be rightly bestowed on Mr Ong Teng Cheong instead.

    We present the following reasons for this call.

    – Mr Wee, who held the post of president with distinction and honour, was nonetheless unelected, a fundamental requirement of our Constitution. He did not present himself to the people of Singapore as a candidate. Instead, Mr Wee was appointed by then Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.

    – No other candidate was able to present himself as a challenge to Mr Wee and to let the people of Singapore choose or make their choice in a democratic and open election.

    – Mr Ong had relinquished his position as a minister in the Government, resigned his post from the People’s Action Party (PAP), before offering himself as a candidate for the Elected Presidency.

    – Mr Ong faced an opponent in Mr Chua Kim Yeow, a former Accountant General, in an open and democratic presidential election in 1993. Mr Ong won the popular vote and became our 5th President, and our First Elected President.

    Also, we note that through the last 24 years since Mr Ong became Singapore’s 5th President, numerous media reports and articles have cited and recognised him as our first Elected President.

    But the highest recognition of Mr Ong as Singapore’s first Elected President came from our former Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, himself.

    In his condolence letter to Mr Ong’s family when Mr Ong passed away in 2002, Mr Goh wrote:

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

    Mr Goh is, of course, correct and right in recognising Mr Ong and affirming the fact that Mr Ong was indeed Singapore’s first Elected President.

    So was our founding Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, who had initiated the idea for an Elected President as far back as 1985.

    Mr Lee had said then “that Singapore might have its first elected President at the end of Mr Wee’s four-year term or, perhaps, earlier.”

    Mr Ong’s status is also recognised by curators of our nation’s history.

    The website of the National Library Board (NLB) also affirms this fact, with this title on its “History SG” page on Mr Ong:

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

    Please see here: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/a99d13…

    The basis for anyone being recognised as an Elected President is two-fold:

    1. He must offer himself as a candidate in a presidential election, so that the people of Singapore have a choice to express their wish. This is at the very heart of a democratic election, whether parliamentary or presidential. This is an unequivocal stipulation in Article 17(2) of the Constitution.

    2. Even if it turns out that there is no actual contest because of a lack of opponents, the candidate would still be recognised as the winner because he had actually stepped forward and put himself up as a candidate for the people to choose.

    The Elected President scheme was introduced so that the candidate and eventual president would have to go through an open election to get the people’s endorsement. And this was required for one very important reason:

    The Elected President must have the moral authority to act on behalf of the people in being a check on the government of the day. And he can only have such moral authority if he has the assent of the people who bestow such powers on him through the vote.

    With all due respect to Mr Wee, he did not offer himself as a candidate in an open election. This is not his fault as the scheme was introduced halfway through his term.

    Nevertheless, it would not be right to recognise him as our first Elected President.

    Professor of Law, Jack Lee, of the Singapore Management University, wrote on the Singapore Law website in 2016 that while Mr Wee was the first to exercise the powers of the Elected President scheme, “[the] provision [in the law] was carefully worded to avoid deeming Wee Kim Wee as having been elected, so although he exercised all the discretionary powers of an elected President, the first truly elected President was Ong Teng Cheong.”

    It is quite clear that Mr Ong, who fulfils all the necessary and important requirements of the Elected President scheme as stated in the Constitution, should be recognised as SINGAPORE’S FIRST ELECTED PRESIDENT.

    We must not do him a dishonour by brushing off his contribution with a simple stroke of the pen without any substantive, rational explanation.

    Mr Ong gave his whole life to public service, first as a Member of Parliament, later as minister and deputy prime minister, and finally as president.

    To now dismiss him as Singapore’s first Elected President is to dishonour him, and to dishonour Singaporeans who still hold him in the highest regard.

    It is also an attempt to re-write our history.

    We thus call on the Singapore Government to respect history and to respect Mr Ong, and to recognise him as our first Elected President.

     

    Source: www.ipetitions.com