Tag Archives: Elected Presidency

Apparently in agreement with the Attorney-General Chamber (AGC), Justice Loh said: “From the perspective of ensuring multi-racial representation in the Presidency in view of the President’s symbolic role, it makes no difference whether the President was elected by the electorate or by Parliament. Did anybody notice that instead of saying "appointed by the Government", the term "elected by Parliament" is used to distinguish it from "elected by the electorate"? So President Wee Kim Wee was "elected by Parliament" and not merely “appointed by the Government."

With the first ever reserved presidential election coming up later this year, former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock and the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) have been locked into a legal battle in court over the constitutionality of the recent changes to the Elected Presidency.

Lim Tean, Tan Kin Lian, Syafarin Sarif and I had started the initiative to publish a Non-Partisan Joint Statement in support of Dr Tan Cheng Bock's challenge of the Constitutional change to enforce Reserved Elected Presidency based on dubious grounds. We have come together as a group of concerned Singaporeans, from diverse walks in life and from a wide political spectrum, to ask Singaporeans to stand up and to protect our Constitution from constant manipulation by the PAP government to suit their selfish political needs. We are pleased to note that Dr Tan Cheng Bock has mounted a judicial challenge to the constitutionality of the next Presidential Election being a reserved election. Even if it is now the law that there must be a reserved election for a particular racial group if no one from that group has been President after 5 continuous terms, it is clear to everyone of us that only the Presidential election of 2023 need be a reserved election. The next Presidential election in September this year should be an open election as there have been only 4 elected Presidents since the Elected Presidency scheme came into effect, with Mr Ong Teng Cheong being our first elected President. We do not know of any ordinary Singaporean who has taken an opposing view. Since the PAP Government insists that the upcoming Presidential election is a reserved election under the Presidential Elections (Amendment) Act 2017, the burden was on them to explain to the Singapore people the basis of their decision. It was incumbent upon them to produce the advice which they said they had obtained from the Attorney-General, which formed the basis of their decision. This is no different to a judge having to give his reasons for a decision made by him. It was important for the Government to have made known the reasoning behind the Attorney-General’s advice because the Attorney-General’s advice does not constitute the law of the land and is open to challenge by way of Judicial Review.

If the govt wins 70% of the popular vote, while the president won only 35%, who would have the more legitimate claim to possessing the moral authority to act on citizens' behalf? Why should a president who only had 35% support possess power to check on a govt elected by 70% of the people? With the changes, the Elected President scheme has become a bit of a joke, really. It is nothing more than an Ivory Tower club reserved only for selected elites who twist and turn the scheme in such contortions that it has banned everyone else, except the very elite of the elites, from qualifying. In short, it has no relevance to the average citizen at all.

It is common knowledge to Singaporeans that the first elected President was Ong Teng Cheong. However, the government has called this simple fact into question by claiming that President Wee Kim Wee, who was elected into the presidency by parliament, had exercised the powers of the Elected President.

This is a call for the Government of Singapore, led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, to not disregard and disrespect Mr Ong Teng Cheong as our nation’s first Elected President. We contend that the Attorney General is wrong in advising the Government that Mr Wee was our country’s first Elected President simply because Mr Wee had exercised the powers under the Elected President scheme; and we ask that the honour be rightly bestowed on Mr Ong Teng Cheong instead.

Why was Wee Kim Wee considered as SG's first Elected President by Lee Hsien Loong and his gang? Go figure out yourself.

How is it that when it comes to the presidency, they tell us that we need to ensure minority-race representation, but they do not have the same requirements for the prime ministership? And while they created the GRC precisely to have minority-race representation, Chan Chun Sing now says there is no need to hold a by-election if a minority-race MP steps down from a GRC, leaving the GRC with an all-Chinese slate of MPs.

In response, Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, declared that, "If a minority candidate leaves his group representation constituency (GRC), a by-election will not be called". Mr Chan added that the GRC system, which has been in place since 1988, makes it compulsory to include at least one member of a minority race in each team.

PAP bulldozes through multiple last minute changes to the Elected Presidency, most significantly that a minority candidate can leave a GRC *days* before running as a *non-partisan* candidate. Chan Chun Sing then jokingly refers to Halimah Yacob as 'Madam President' instead of 'Madam Speaker' (??)