WAS OUR CONSTITUTION AMENDED SPECIALLY FOR MDM HALIMAH TO RUN FOR PRESIDENCY?

Did Parliament amend constitution specially to let Halimah run for Presidency?

According to the amended Singapore Constituion Section 19B, the Presidential Election will be reserved for a community if none of its members has held office of President for 5 or more consecutive terms. However, it is interesting to observe how Sub-Section (6) defines a community in the amended constitution:

(6) In this Article —
“community” means —
(a) the Chinese community;
(b) the Malay community; or
(c) the Indian or other minority communities;

“person belonging to the Chinese community” means any person who considers himself to be a member of the Chinese community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Chinese community by that community;

“person belonging to the Malay community” means any person, whether of the Malay race or otherwise, who considers himself to be a member of the Malay community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Malay community by that community;

“person belonging to the Indian or other minority communities” means any person of Indian origin who considers himself to be a member of the Indian community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Indian community by that community, or any person who belongs to any minority community other than the Malay or Indian community.

Now, notice that in the case of Malay community, there is an addition clause added – “whether of the Malay race or otherwise”. In other words, you don’t have to be specifically a person of Malay race to be considered part of the Malay community. Persons of other races can also be considered part of the Malay community, presumably as long as he or she is a Muslim.

And we all now know that Halimah is an Indian Muslim because her father is an Indian.

So, was that clause, “whether of the Malay race or otherwise”, added specially for Halimah to run for the upcoming reserved Presidency?