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Tag: Presidential Elections

  • Judgment Reserved For Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s Appeal Against Reserved EP

    Judgment Reserved For Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s Appeal Against Reserved EP

    The Court of Appeal has reserved judgement on the appeal by former presidential hopeful Tan Cheng Bock against the basis and timing of the coming reserved Presidential Election, after a panel of five judges heard the case on Monday (July 31).

    The court gave no date as to when the judgement by the five judges, among them Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, would be delivered. The other four judges hearing the case are Judges of Appeal Judith Prakash and Steven Chong, as well as Justices Chua Lee Ming and Kannan Ramesh.

    Dr Tan told reporters: “Singaporeans must fully understand the issue, not just accept (it). If in the end, we are found to be wrong, then we accept it. That’s what democracy is about.”

    He filed the appeal to the apex court after his earlier legal challenge was dismissed on July 7.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Issues That Need To Be Addressed Fast Before The Formal PE 2017 Process Begins

    Issues That Need To Be Addressed Fast Before The Formal PE 2017 Process Begins

    PE 2017 by Former MP Inderjit Singh

    In less than 2 months, Singaporeans will get a new elected President. Unlike the past Presidential Elections (PE), the run up to this year’s PE has not been a smooth sailing one. Parliament passed a new ruling allowing for a Reserved Election. While many have questioned the wisdom of a reserved PE, Parliament has passed the law and this is our current system of how we will select our future Presidents.
    As the Head of State, the President must have the respect of all Singaporeans once he or she is elected (or appointed as in the past). After the new President has been elected in the reserved PE in September this year, I hope all Singaporeans will give that elected person the respect the office of the President of Singapore deserves.
    Many of us are saddened with the recent developments and comments from different quarters of society but I hope that we can put all these differences behind us. Once the new President is elected, we should all unite behind that person and focus on uniting the nation so that the respect accrued to the office of the President remains intact.
    To help that process, I feel that the following issues need to be addressed fast before we go into the formal PE 2017 process:

    1. For the purposes of effecting a reserved election, it is important to establish who our first elected president was Some feel that it is Mr Ong Teng Cheong. He was the first person who was formally elected to the office of President. Before him though, Mr Wee Kim Wee had exercised the powers of the elected president during his term, which was when the constitutional changes were made to allow for Singapore to have an elected President. The court will be deciding on this very soon, but I feel the policy makers could have avoided this question all together by paying more attention to this issue – the constitution could have said that the 5th election should be a reserved election and not the 6th. Nevertheless, once the courts decide, we have to move on.

    2. The concept of “Malayness” has also become a debatable issue. Questions about how Mendaki and SINDA classify who is a Malay and who is an Indian do not seem to be aligned with how a Malay or an Indian is defined for the purposes of a GE or a PE. For now, it is critical that the leaders of the Malay community and the government come out and make this position clear and hopefully this position will apply to all aspects of life in Singapore. I hope this can be resolved before the formal process of PE 2017 starts.

    3. This being the 1st ever reserved PE, many hope to see qualified Malays step forward and give Singaporeans an opportunity to choose their President. It is also very important that Singaporeans and the rest of the world see that we have enough qualified Malays in Singapore who meet the very stringent requirements set in the constitution. It will be a pity if we don’t have enough qualified candidates to choose from for the first ever reserved PE. So, I hope all those who meet the criteria, come forward for this wider call.

    4. While the constitution is open about having a current sitting government politician standing for the PE, some Singaporeans have expressed concerns on the prospects of a current government MP, still in parliament, resigning as an MP and immediately standing for the PE. The spirit of the Elected President is independence of office as intended by Mr Lee Kuan Yew when the idea was mooted. While I have no question about how each person will do his or her duty to serve the office they are elected to serve, public perception is also important. While Mr Ong Teng Cheong also did the same in 1993, I sense people are increasingly uncomfortable with this.

    As the Head of State, the President of Singapore holds the highest office and he or she must get the full respect of all Singaporeans. I hope the above issues are addressed before PE 2017 kicks off formally. It is good that Singaporeans are debating the issue of the reserved PE. My hope is that we can largely come to an understanding of the above 4 issues before we kick off PE 2017. And once our President has been elected, let’s all show respect for the President of Singapore and stand united as Singaporeans.

     

    Source: Inderjit Singh

  • Speaker Halimah Yacob To Run For The Presidency: Sources

    Speaker Halimah Yacob To Run For The Presidency: Sources

    Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob has decided to run in this year’s presidential election (PE), according to a source close to the 62-year-old.

    Halimah, who is also a Member of Parliament for Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, has communicated her decision to run in the September election to grassroots leaders and People’s Action Party (PAP) activists, the source told Yahoo News Singapore on Thursday (27 July).

    The former union leader said that she is sad to leave her constituency after having served there for the past two years, added the source.

    When Yahoo News Singapore asked Halimah to comment on her bid for the presidency, she replied, “No. I am still considering.”

    Earlier this month, Halimah told reporters that she is thinking about running for the presidency. “The elected presidency is a very heavy responsibility and an important institution in Singapore, so it’s not something that one should take lightly,” Halimah said then.

    Signs of her impending run for the presidency have been growing for months. Another source in the PAP told Yahoo News Singapore that Halimah had indicated to party members as far back as March that she was planning to run for the country’s top office.

    If Halimah were to be elected as president, Singapore’s already strong ties with the Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia would be further enhanced, said the second source. This year’s PE has been reserved for Malay candidates following amendments made to the Presidential Elections Act earlier this year.

    Trained as a lawyer, Halimah began a long association with the labour movement in 1978 when she joined the National Trades Union Congress as a legal officer. She eventually rose to become Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC.

    The mother of five entered politics in 2001 when she successfully ran as part of the PAP team that contested Jurong GRC. The team was re-elected twice before she crossed over to Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC for the 2015 General Election, following the redrawing of electoral boundaries.

    Along the way, she also served as Minister of State at the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

    In 2013, Halimah became Singapore’s first female Speaker of Parliament, replacing Michael Palmer after he was forced to step down over an extramarital affair.

    Prior to Halimah’s announcement, two other potential candidates, Farid Khan and Salleh Marican, had also announced their intention to run for the presidency.

    Farid, the chairman of Bourbon Offshore Asia Pacific, made the announcement at a press conference held at the Village Hotel Changi on 11 July.

    Salleh, the Second Chance Properties founder and CEO, spoke to  Yahoo News Singapore in an exclusive interview about his candidacy and Halimah as a potentially strong opponent in the election.

    Halimah has been stepping up her engagements with the unions, senior public servants and other groups in recent weeks, according to the posts on her public Facebook page.

    Halimah has been meeting union leaders and workers from the steel, petroleum, HDB, chemicals and other industries. She met with the French ambassador to Singapore, Marc Abensour, on Monday. At a dialogue organised by the Institute of Policy Studies on 17 July, she had a discussion with 50 corporate associates about improving Singapore and the lives of Singaporeans.

    In a Facebook post on her dialogue session with union leaders on Wednesday, she said, “We’re all fellow Singaporeans and regardless of race, we have stood together in solidarity for a common cause of securing a better life for our workers.

    “During our dialogue, I am reminded that it’s been almost 40 years and we shared many experiences of heartaches and celebrations of our journey together. There will be more to come as we strive to build a stronger Singapore for the next generations.”

    Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

  • Gilbert Goh: PAP’s Main Motive For Suing WP’s Three MPs Probably To Stop Them From Standing For Next General Election

    Gilbert Goh: PAP’s Main Motive For Suing WP’s Three MPs Probably To Stop Them From Standing For Next General Election

    Let’s support the Workers’ Party as the PAP seeks to destroy and bring down the opposition party here. They can’t unfortunately ownself clear ownself like our PM did three weeks ago in Parliament.

    The PM’s own ward Ang Mo Kio Town Council also faced similar alleged corruption but the case was easily settled out of the public scrutiny when the town council general manager was relieved of his duties last year and dismissed without implicating the MPs.

    Its also a important distraction tactic as the government faces a host of its own problems involving the PM’s own abuse of power allegation by his two siblings which he has cleared himself in Parliament and the Malay-only Presidential Election.

    The PE which will take place in September has hurt the feelings of alot of our Singaporean Malays and put the government on a back-foot for the past few weeks as it struggles to properly address the racial legality of their preferred Indian-Muslim candidate Halimah.

    As for the lawsuit against the three WP main figures, if it involves corruption, the goverment should bring in the CPIB to investigate WP but it has instead threw the legal law book at the opposition party which will give the issue wider smear publicity.

    By appointing Philip Jeyeretnam son of WP’s founder father JB Jeyeretnam to preside over the case, it has also stir up much sentiments against the former founder’s son who now works for the government.

    Its vintage PAP’s distraction technique at its best to sue the WP now when the government has also faced many Accounting-General Office’s official complaints for the past 3 years into financial irregularities for many of its own statutory boards and civil services.

    Nothing is believed to have being done to properly investigate and clear the irregularities as the same financial problem is being re-flagged the next year. Should we not also sue the government for improper handling of our millions of taxpayer money?

    If the WP’s three MPs are found guilty by our court system, they are likely to be heavily fined and may not be able to stand for the next general election – probably the PAP’s main motive for suing them now.

    Let us support WP for the sake of our opposition cause!

     

    Source: Gilbert Goh

  • Commentary: I’m Indian Muslim And That Defines My Trail Of Thoughts

    Commentary: I’m Indian Muslim And That Defines My Trail Of Thoughts

    The upcoming PE has definitely once again throw the spotlight on Malays and Indian Muslims. In Singapore context, Indian Muslims have always been the sandwich race. We are sandwich between our Malay living lifestyle and our identity. Mendaki double standard is not helping in this matter.

    Malay and Muslim are used interchangeably in Singapore context as and when they feel the need for it (Senang cakap ikut suka hati mak bapak dorang lah).

    I give you a true point in case. Most of my Indian Muslims relatives contributed to both Mendaki and Sinda. When their children applied for the bursary or financial assistance, the favorite quote would be ‘sorry, Mendaki are for Malays. You can try applying to Sinda.”

    But lo and behold, when any of this INDIAN MUSLIMS did well, suddenly they will be invited to Mendaki for whatever not ceremony to pose for pictures with you know who and claim their success under MENDAKI MALAY / MUSLIM banner. And Sinda never does that before. It’s very confusing tau for us! it leads to our own IDENTITY CRISIS…..Sad right?…..

    This has always been our bone of contentions and I don’t think much has changed since.

    As a Mendaki spokesman had declared and confirmed this biases “Malay-Muslim self-help group Yayasan Mendaki has a set of criteria for its financial assistance schemes for students administered on behalf of the Government. Among other things, the recipients “must be of Malay descent” as stated in their identity cards. It spells out a list of what it considers to be “Malay descent”, and this includes 22 ethnicities including Acehnese, Javanese, Boyanese, Sumatran, Sundanese, and Bugis. Students with “double-barrelled” race are eligible if the first race is listed on the identity cards as Malay, said a Mendaki spokesman. For example, a student who is Malay-Arab would qualify for the schemes but an Arab-Malay student would not, he added.”

    CONFUSED HOR!

    P.S – My daughter did not get any financial help from Mendaki after finding out all the stringent rules attached to it. It works out to something like ‘I scratch your back and you have to scratch more of mine’. However, when she did well, she was invited to attend the Mendaki ceremony, giving the impression that she owes her success to Mendaki.

    WHATEVER!

     

    Source: Zarina Jaffar