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Tag: race and religion

  • PM Lee: Why Didn’t Malay Candidates Come Up In PE2011? Cause They Knew Non-Chinese Have No Chance

    PM Lee: Why Didn’t Malay Candidates Come Up In PE2011? Cause They Knew Non-Chinese Have No Chance

    Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made it plain that he knew the reserved presidential election would be unpopular and would cause the ruling party to lose votes, but said it had to be done because it was the right thing to do.

    Addressing the unhappiness over the election for the first time at a dialogue last Saturday (Sept 23), he said: “Did I know that this subject would be a difficult one? That it would be unpopular and would cost us votes? Yes, I knew. If I do not know that these are sensitive matters, I cannot be in politics.”

    “But I did it, because I strongly believe, and still do, that this is the right thing to do,” he added.

    The candid remarks were the first by the Prime Minister, since Madam Halimah Yacob was declared President in a walkover at the election reserved for Malay candidates.

    PM Lee was speaking at a People’s Association Kopi Talk dialogue with about 500 grassroots leaders last Saturday, and the Prime Minister’s Office released an edited transcript on Friday (Sept 29).

    During the dialogue, he spoke about race, multiracialism, terrorism and the elected presidency, and gave a stout defence of why constitutional changes were made to reserve elections for groups that have not held the presidency for some time.

    Acknowledging that there was “some unhappiness” over the election, PM Lee said: “I can feel that; you don’t have to tell me.”

    He noted that the Government had spent nearly two years preparing to make changes to the Constitution, and had discussed and debated the issue continually since he first raised the subject in January 2016 during the opening of Parliament.

    “But it is only now that people are seized with it, after a reserved election in which only one candidate qualified,” he said.

    PM Lee added that while some people think “we may be going backwards towards racial politics”, the reality “is the opposite”.

    In fact, he said, ensuring that minorities are elected president from time to time will strengthen Singapore’s multiracial system.

    The current state of affairs, where Singaporeans of different races and religions live in harmony, is not a given, he said.

    “There is nothing natural about where we are – multiracial, multi-religious, tolerant and progressive. We made it happen, and we have got to protect it, nurture it, preserve it, and never break it.”

    Referring to the recently-concluded reserved election, Mr Lee said that three Malay candidates had put themselves up for the presidency, of whom two did not qualify.

    “But they came forward,” he added.

    In the 2011 presidential election, there was not one Malay candidate, he noted.

    “Was there a Malay candidate? Where were the Farid Khans and the Salleh Maricans? Why didn’t they come? It did not cross their minds? No. So why didn’t they come? Because they knew that in an open election – all things being equal – a non-Chinese candidate would have no chance,” he said.

    Citing President Halimah, who said when she was sworn in that she looked forward to the day when reserved elections are no longer needed, Mr Lee said: “I too hope that we will eventually not need such a mechanism to ensure minority representation.”

    But he said it would take time to work towards this ideal state.

    “In climbing towards that ideal state, we need guide-ropes and guard-rails to help us get there and to prevent us from falling off along the way. The reserved election for the President is one such guard-rail,” he added.

     

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com

  • Singapore High Commissioner Rebutted Utusan Malaysia’s Article On Elected Presidency And Claim That President Is Only “Symbolic”

    Singapore High Commissioner Rebutted Utusan Malaysia’s Article On Elected Presidency And Claim That President Is Only “Symbolic”

    The Republic’s High Commissioner to Malaysia has rebutted “false assertions” that Utusan Malaysia made in a recent commentary on Singapore’s Elected Presidency.

    The article, which was published on Monday (Aug 14) in the Malay-language newspaper, described the Elected President’s role in Singapore as merely symbolic, and as such not something that the Malay community should be proud of, in spite of recently entrenched laws to guarantee minority representation.

    In his letter sent to the newspaper on Thursday, Mr Vanu Gopala Menon said that the Singapore President, who is elected with a popular mandate, “plays key roles in nation-building and in ensuring good governance”.

    The roles include serving as the symbol and unifier of a multi-racial Singapore, custodian of the country’s reserves and protector of the integrity of its public service, he explained.

    The Utusan commentary was titled Berubahkah nasib kaum Melayu di Singapura? Presiden sekadar simbolik (Will the fate of Malays in Singapore change? President is only symbolic).

    Noting that the Elected President’s post “has been dominated by non-Malays”, the commentary stated: “Perhaps it is because the non-Malays in Singapore have been given priority and advantages in whatever fields, that the Presidents concerned did not have to struggle to think about the fate of their own community.

    It added: “As such, when a Malay holds the position of President, the direction that the Malay community is headed for will surely be given more attention, since the community has often regarded itself as being sidelined in its own country.”

    In his letter, Mr Menon said: “It is incorrect to say that non-Malays in Singapore have been given ‘priority and advantages’. We certainly do not have a race-based system of benefits and patronage.” He noted that Singapore’s Malay community “has achieved significant social and economic progress within Singapore’s rules-based and meritocratic society”.

    “We are, as a nation, proud of these accomplishments, and we will achieve further progress together.”

    Mr Menon added: “Singapore will not tolerate the use of race or religion to promote ill-will between different segments of Singapore society, or to undermine our institutions.”

    It was the second time in three months that the High Commissioner had written to the newspaper on the subject.

    He previously responded to a May 28 editorial in Utusan on the Elected Presidency scheme, to point out several inaccuracies such as its claims that  “meritocracy was always being used as an excuse to discriminate against Malays” and “meritocracy was also open to manipulation”.

    In his response to the earlier commentary which was published on the Singapore Foreign Ministry’s website, Mr Menon said: “Singapore’s meritocratic system has never been ‘manipulated’ or ‘used as an excuse to discriminate’ against Singapore’s Malay community, or any other community.”

    In his letter to Utusan on Thursday, Mr Menon pointed out that the newspaper did not publish his response to the May 28 editorial “for reasons I could not understand other than not providing a true picture to the readers”.

    “Instead, the Editor published a second commentary (on Monday), with similar inaccuracies and misrepresentations of Singapore’s Presidential Election and of the statements by Singapore’s political office holders,” he added.

     

    Source: http://www.todayonline.com