Rilek1Corner

Tag: President

  • Singaporean Malays Must Reflect On PAP’s True Intentions For The Reserved Elected Presidency

    Singaporean Malays Must Reflect On PAP’s True Intentions For The Reserved Elected Presidency

    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!

     

    Source: Abd’ Al-Halim

  • Osman Sulaiman: Reserved Election A Reminder From Government That Malay Community Cannot Stand On Own Merits

    Osman Sulaiman: Reserved Election A Reminder From Government That Malay Community Cannot Stand On Own Merits

    Presidential Election to be held in Sept where it has been reserved for Malay candidates.

    What’s the problem some may ask? The problem is that our gov thinks that the Malays cannot stand on its own merits and constantly reminds the public about it.

    Such perceptions, if remains unchecked and not proven, will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is the gov that made my community to look like second class citizens.

    Remember when Mr Masagos was promoted to be a full minister, we were reminded that it was given due to ‘the progress’ of our community, implying that we were indeed not up to par prior to the promotion.

    It is sad that my community is being used to promote the gov’s political agenda and some of my community people are raising their hands in appreciation for the ‘favours.’

     

    Source: Khan Osman Sulaiman

  • New Panel To Certify Ethnicity Of Presidential Hopefuls

    New Panel To Certify Ethnicity Of Presidential Hopefuls

    Potential candidates running for the presidency will need to have their ethnicities certified by a new Community Committee, under proposed legislative amendments tabled on Monday (Jan 9) for the new hiatus-triggered model to ensure the country has a minority President from time to time.

    The proposed Community Committee will be made up of a chairman and five members each from the Chinese, Malay, as well as the Indian and other minority communities. Depending on which ethnicity a prospective candidate submits an application under, the sub-committee for that particular community will determine if the individual belongs to that community.

    The Community Committee members will be appointed by the Prime Minister, on nomination by the Presidential Council for Minority Rights, according to the legislative changes mooted for the Presidential Elections Bill tabled for first reading in Parliament by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing on Monday.

    Last November, changes to the Elected Presidency scheme were passed into law, including instituting a mechanism that reserves an election for a particular ethnicity that has not had an elected representative for five consecutive terms. The upcoming presidential race due in August will be reserved for the Malay community.

    Under the proposed legislative amendments tabled on Monday, all prospective candidates will have to submit a community declaration, on top of the existing application for a certificate of eligibility with the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC). This applies for both open and reserved elections.

    The Elections Department said requiring a community declaration for an open election is needed to operate the hiatus-triggered reserved election process.

    Applicants can be rejected if they fail to submit an application with either committee.

    There is a possibility that in an open election, some candidates are not considered to be members of the three main communities — such as a naturalised citizen — or are rejected in their applications for the community certificates. But they can still contest in an open election as long as they meet the other criteria for the certificate of eligibility.

    In the event that no candidate is successfully nominated at a reserved election, the amendment Bill states that the Prime Minister will issue a fresh writ to call for an open election or a reserved election for the next eligible community.

    The new Community Committee is similar to the Malay and Indian and other minority communities committees found under the Parliamentary Elections Act, which determines if the potential candidate contesting in a particular Group Representation Constituency belongs to these minority groups
    Voters can know who will be on the new committee by May at the latest, just before prospective candidates can start applying for the certification. Applications for such certificates open three months before a sitting President’s term is up. President Tony Tan’s term lasts until end August.

    Given that applicants will need to submit more information to the PEC now that more stringent criteria for potential presidential candidates are in place, the application deadline was proposed to be extended to five days after the writ of election is issued, up from the current three days.

    To give the PEC more time to assess the applications, the Prime Minister’s Office also proposed that Nomination Day falls 10 days after the writ is issued, up from the current five.

    The Second Reading of the Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill is expected next month.

    Other amendments under the Bill include improvements to the election processes, where the Returning Officer will automatically carry out a recount if the winning margin is 2 per cent or less. This is to avoid unnecessary delays. Currently, a recount is carried out only if a candidate or his counting agent applies for one — provided the winning margin is 2 per cent or less.

    Overseas voters could also have up to two calendar days after the writ is issued to register as an overseas elector, up from the current deadline on the day it was issued. Contingency procedures proposed include allowing the Returning Officer to provide up to an additional seven days for overseas votes to reach Singapore for counting.

    The same amendments for overseas voting processes will be made through future amendments to the Parliamentary Elections Act, which contains the relevant legislation.

     

    Source: Today

  • Internet Notices Something Odd About Donald Trump’s Time Cover

    Internet Notices Something Odd About Donald Trump’s Time Cover

    The Internet has noticed something odd about the placement of US President-elect Donald Trump’s head on the cover of Time magazine.

    Time on Wednesday (Dec 7) named Donald Trump its Person Of The Year for 2016 for his stunning upset election victory.

    The President-elect called NBC’s Today show, welcoming the accolade as a “very, very great honour” and denying he was responsible for divisions within the country since his win.

    But as the news sunk in, people started noticing something strange about the Time cover.

    “Horns. They gave him horns,” tweeted actress  Alyssa Milano.

    She wasn’t the only one who noticed.

    Time dismissed the horn assessment and pointed to 35 other covers on which the “M” was partially blocked by someone’s head.

    “Any resemblance to cats, bats or devil horns is entirely coincidental,” Time said in a short post about the issue.

    Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Abraham Lincoln, Pope Francis, Darth Vader from the movie Star Wars, and even Jesus Christ have been depicted on the Time cover with apparent “horns”.

    Time last year (2015) assured its readers that any extra features sported by its cover stars were not a statement of any sort, but rather a result of “the shape of the letter ‘m’ in the magazine’s name and its location on the cover.

     

    Source: The Straits Times

  • Walid J. Abdullah: What Would Malay Community Feel About Affirmative Action-President?

    Walid J. Abdullah: What Would Malay Community Feel About Affirmative Action-President?

    Some people have made the point that having a Malay president would be a good sign to the rest of the world, and that when people of other countries see a Malay as a President of a non-Malay majority country, it looks good for both Malays and Singapore. Which is a fair point.

    However, looking at the matter a bit deeper, one could perhaps see some flaws in that line of argumentation. Firstly, how many non-Singaporeans really care about (the ethnicity of) our President? And secondly, for those who do, would they not be aware that the President was there by legislation, and not after a fair electoral battle with people of other ethnicities?

    But more importantly, the Presidency – it needs to be reiterated – is a symbolic, ceremonial post: not one with significant powers. Having a Malay Foreign Minister, one who deals with other countries perhaps only less than the Prime Minister, would be a far greater achievement, for example. A Minister, in a parliamentary system like Singapore’s, wields more influence and has more responsibilities than the head of state.
    (Incidentally, most of our Foreign Ministers have been Indian, perhaps to highlight the avowed multi-racial nature of our nation.)

    And i cannot help but wonder how the non-Malays in our country would actually feel about the President. Would they have genuine respect for that person, or would they – consciously or otherwise – feel that she, err i mean he/she, is there only because of affirmative action.

     

    Source: Walid J.Abdullah