Tag: Singapore

Next Presidential Election To Be Reserved For Malay Candidates: PM Lee

The next Presidential Election due next year will be reserved for Malay candidates, based on the hiatus-triggered model, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 8).

Mr Lee also said that as the Constitutional Amendment Bill states that the Government should legislate on when the racial provision should start, it intends to do so when amending the Presidential Elections Act in January next year. It will start counting from the first President who exercised the powers of the Elected Presidency, who was Dr Wee Kim Wee.

He was speaking during the parliamentary debate on proposed changes to the Elected Presidency system, which started on Monday.

So for the Presidential Election next year, if a qualified Malay candidate steps up to run, Singapore will have a Malay President again, the Prime Minister said.

“As Minister Yaacob (Ibrahim) noted yesterday, this would be our first after more than 46 years, since our first President Encik Yusof Ishak,” Mr Lee said. “I look forward to this.”

The hiatus-triggered model means that while presidential elections will generally be open to candidates of all races, but if there is not a President from a particular community for five consecutive terms, then the next term will be reserved for a President from that community. This means that in the course of six terms, there should be at least one President from the Chinese, Malay, Indian and other minority communities, provided qualified candidates appear, he explained.

ENSURING MINORITY REPRESENTATION ‘MOST DIFFICULT QUESTION’

Mr Lee also noted that amongst all the proposed changes in this complicated Bill, the one hardest thought about and where the most is at stake is the question of ensuring multiracial representation in the Elected Presidency.

He said as the Head of State for Singapore, the candidate must represent all Singaporeans and the office must be multiracial. If the President always comes from the same race, not only will the President cease to be a credible symbol of our nation, the very multiracial character of the nation will come into question, the Prime Minister said.

“Every citizen, Chinese, Malay, Indian or some other race, should know that someone of his community can become President, and in fact from time to time, does become President,” Mr Lee said.
He pointed out that Singapore is building a “radically different society”: Multiracial, equal and harmonious, gradually enlarging the shared Singaporean identity while celebrating different cultures and faiths. It is also allowing minority communities ample space to live their own ways of life, and not forcing everybody to conform to a single norm set by a single majority group.

“We have to work consciously and systematically at this,” Mr Lee explained. “It will not happen by itself, nor will we get there if we blithely assume that we have already arrived.”

ELECTED PRESIDENT AN ‘IMPORTANT STABILISER’

The Prime Minister reiterated why the Elected President is an important stabiliser for Singapore, noting that founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew proposed the idea of the office because he was worried that there would be a freak election result one day, and the nest egg of reserves would be “squandered by a profligate Government”.

He added that Singapore’s system is unique and “very difficult to get right because the balance is a delicate one”. This is because the President is a symbolic Head of State but elected through a national ballot, and as such has a popular mandate but not a mandate to govern. The President can also use his mandate to say no in certain specified areas, but not push for policies or to initiate action.

The Prime Minister also argued against vesting the powers of safeguarding Singapore’s reserves in the Parliament instead of a separate institution. He said that while it may help, the pressure in Parliament is to do more rather than spend less. Making everything depend on just one institution – the Parliament – “creates a single point of failure”, he added.

Doing so will mean everything hinges on the outcome of a single general election, and on the Government elected into Parliament with that one vote every five years, he said.

Mr Lee said the Presidential Election itself presents difficulties, particularly in a fiercely contested campaign where “emotions and sentiments can build up and issues that have nothing to do with the role of the President can become hot”.

He cited the 2011 Presidential Election, when one candidate championed a S$60 billion economic plan supposedly to create jobs and enterprise, while another made proposals such as better recognition for national servicemen and more help for the poor and unemployed.
These, Mr Lee noted, are the Government’s responsibility, and for the Prime Minister and Cabinet to decide. “But in 2011, some candidates’ attitude was: Never mind, just say it. Get elected first, worry about the Constitution later on.”

The Prime Minister referenced the US presidential election, saying that while the two candidates – Mr Donald Trump and Mrs Hillary Clinton – represent radically different world views, people can take some comfort in the strong checks and balances in the US political system.

He cited James Madison, one of the country’s founding fathers, who wrote in the Federalist Papers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

“A dependence on the people is no doubt the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

“That is wisdom,” noted Mr Lee, adding that while a system like the US one cannot work for Singapore, the city-state needs some stabiliser besides the primary control of the Government, and that is the Elected President.

CHANGES ARE ‘MY RESPONSIBILITY’: PM

As for the timing of the changes, the Prime Minister reiterated that he has been involved with the Elected Presidency almost from the beginning and knows the system – from the intent and design to how conditions have changed and ideas evolved.

“These changes are my responsibility,” he said, “I am doing it now because it would be irresponsible of me to kick this can down the road and leave the problem to my successors.

“They have not had this long experience with the system, and will find it much harder to deal with.”

In an exclusive interview with Mediacorp in September, Mr Lee said he believed this is something which needs to be done, and if it is not done, this would mean trouble for Singapore – “not today, not tomorrow, but 10 to 15 years’, 20 years’ time definitely”.

Source: ChannelNewsAsia

November 8, 2016
Ex-BSI Banker Trial: Yeo Jiawei ‘Lived Jet-Setting Lifestyle, Became More Arrogant’

Former BSI banker Yeo Jiawei enjoyed a jet-setting lifestyle on super yachts and at luxury resorts after he left to work for controversial Malaysian tycoon Jho Low, a court heard yesterday.

An employee of financial firm Amicorp Group testified that Yeo – a key figure in an alleged money laundering operation linked to scandal-hit 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) – became a “consultant and adviser” to Mr Low and Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny.

Al-Husseiny is a former high-level official of Abu Dhabi state fund International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC).

Amicorp relationship manager Jose Renato Carvalho Pinto told the court Yeo’s relationship with Mr Low was so close that he travelled on his private jet and accompanied him on his luxury yacht Equanimity on a business trip to the Caribbean.

Yeo stayed at five-star beach-front resort Sandy Lane, one of the most luxurious hotels in Barbados, Mr Carvalho testified.

He also claimed Yeo arranged for Amicorp to pay invoices totalling US$1.36 million (S$1.9 million) for 27 tickets for Mr Low, Al-Husseiny and several other celebrities to the Manny Pacquiao boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The cheapest seat was US$30,000, while the most expensive was US$75,000, Mr Carvalho said.

He added Yeo also asked Amicorp to top up the Las Vegas casino membership cards of Mr Low and his close associate, Mr Eric Tan Kim Loong, by at least US$1 million each.

Mr Carvalho further testified that Yeo became “more arrogant and abrasive”, dismissively calling some associates, including Mr Samuel Goh Sze Wei, Mr Kelvin Ang and 1MDB chief financial officer Terence Geh, “working level” people.

Yeo faces four counts of obstructing justice by allegedly urging witnesses to lie to police and destroy evidence while out on bail after being arrested on March 17 in connection with money laundering.

Al-Husseiny, who is being investigated over offences under the Swiss Criminal Code, was chief executive of IPIC unit Aabar Investments and a former chairman of Falcon Bank, whose licence was withdrawn by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) last month.

One reason for Falcon’s shutdown was because its head office failed to guard against conflicts of interest when managing accounts of a customer linked with Al-Husseiny. The MAS said he misled Falcon’s Singapore branch into processing the customer’s “unusually large transactions” despite multiple red flags.

Mr Carvalho, who was testifying on the fifth day of the trial, said Amicorp was asked by Yeo to set up trusts and also to open bank accounts for several entities as well as for Mr Low and family members.

IPIC has denied ownership of Aabar BVI, to which 1MDB said it sent US$3.5 billion.

Yeo allegedly told Mr Carvalho that after leaving BSI, he would work as consultant to Aabar and Al- Husseiny and “collect a 5 per cent fee on every invoice to Aabar”.

Mr Carvalho also said Yeo claimed that he would be working for sovereign wealth funds that were part of a “highly confidential government-to-government arrangement involving Saudi Arabia and Malaysia”. Mr Carvalho learnt that these were 1MDB and SRC International, which was set up by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government.

“I thought Amicorp was cheated by Yeo because he created the story of a ‘g-to-g’ arrangement between countries so he can collect referral fees,” Mr Carvalho said.

Mr Samuel Goh, the former head of agency distribution at NTUC Income, testified yesterday that he received more than US$4 million for his role as Yeo’s partner in alleged kickback deals linked to 1MDB.

Source: The Straits Times

November 8, 2016
Countries Like Singapore Stealing US Jobs: Trump

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claims that countries such as Singapore, China, India and Mexico are stealing jobs from Americans, and vowed to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“America has lost 70,000 factories since China entered the World Trade Organisation, another Bill and Hillary-backed disaster,” he told supporters in Florida, reported the Press Trust of India. “We are living through the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world. There’s never been a country that’s lost jobs like we do, so stupidly, so easy to solve.”

Mr Trump said Goodrich Lighting Systems laid off 255 workers and moved jobs to India, while Baxter Health Care Corporation laid off 199 workers and moved its jobs to Singapore. “It’s getting worse and worse and worse,” he said.

A Trump administration, he said, would impose a 35 per cent tax on any US company that wants to fire its workers and move to another country, and then shift its product back into the United States.

He also said he would immediately stop the “job-killing” TPP, calling it another disaster in the making.

Source: The Straits Times

November 8, 2016
Ustaz Abd Al-Halim: The Ummah Should Be More Concerned About ARS

AsSalaam’alaikum!

I attended the ARS seminar days ago – the first one in English – and cannot shake off the feeling that there is more that needs to be discussed. Though I brought up quite a few issues that need addressing and were responded to, many agree that some of the responses were not assuring. I think that the ummah should be more concerned about the ARS then they are now. I, like others, worry that it is becoming a mechanism for control.

May Allah swt preserve the well-being of the true knowledgeable ulama and protect the ummah from being misled by the ulama suu’ as well as the asatizahs who actually have little knowledge and yet dare to teach and guide the ummah.

Source: Ustaz Abd’ Al-Halim

November 8, 2016
Nuradillah Zakbah – Meet The Singaporean Accidental Mediator Who Brought Peace Between An African American And PRC Family In France

A Singaporean woman used her language skills to mediate a misunderstanding between an African American man and a group of Chinese tourists in France’s Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday (Nov 5).

Ms Nuradillah Zakbah, 31, was in Paris for a seven-hour stopover, enroute to Portugal where she was attending a conference. She works as a creative technologist at an advertising agency.

She was in a queue at immigration in front of an African American tourist and a group of Chinese tourists when she heard a commotion behind her.

“As I turned around, this rather tall African American man made eye contact with me and said ‘Can you believe this? This group of people just called me a n**ger!’” she told The Straits Times.

The Chinese group, comprising of two men and three women, were puzzled as to why they were being scolded, and the two parties started quarrelling, she said.

“And a man I assumed to be the grandfather of the group was pointing his fingers and shouting back at the American man,” she added.

“That was when I realised that the Chinese tourists had said the word ‘that’ (na ge) in Mandarin a few times in their conversation, which sounds like the word ‘n**ger’. Therefore the American tourist might have misunderstood them.”

Ms Nuradillah, who is Malay, told The Straits Times she intervened on the “spur of the moment”.

“I had to explain to him (the American man) that he misunderstood – and had to explain to him that I understood a little bit of Mandarin to know that they were saying or pointing to ‘that thing’ (na ge) instead of calling him the derogatory term,” she told The Straits Times.

She also explained the misunderstanding to the Chinese group “in the best broken Mandarin” she could. She asked them to forgive him and move on from the situation.

After her intervention, both sides were slightly embarrassed and shook hands and apologised.

She also explained to an airport security guard in her “broken French” that the incident was just a misunderstanding.

Where did Ms Nuradillah pick up her language skills?

“I picked up Chinese from friends growing up, reading subtitles on Channel 8 dramas and also went to a basic Mandarin course at 18 – to prepare myself for the workforce back then,” she said.

Ms Nuradillah recounted the incident on her Facebook on Saturday and the post has since received numerous comments that praise her act

Through this episode, Ms Nuradillah also realised the importance of living in a multicultural society.

“I thought that it was just really cool to be able to help others out because I’m a Singaporean. That was the time that I was extremely thankful to have lived and grown up in a place that exposed me to a diversity of cultures and languages,” she said.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

November 7, 2016