Think of all the advantages of doing away with the president. I can think of all the good things and nothing bad. There is no need to hold on to this historical legacy. Why waste so much money and land just to keep up such an image? Even the British were thinking of doing away with their monarchy many years back. The only reason is that the British monarchy provides jobs for the people. Dunno who is paying for it.
In our case we don’t need those jobs. We have full employment and the staff can be deployed into more productive areas. But don’t think of building properties on the Istana land for sale. Keep it as a green lung, a park in the city for the benefits of the people, everyday, not 3 or 4 times a year. The property belongs to the people and everyone should be allowed to benefit from it, not a few individuals under the present system.
And I am sure our foreign workers would love to have the Istana park for leisure over the weekend. We need all the free space we can get hold of to share with the people and to loosen up the crunch.
So much money saved. And no need to spend time and money just to elect a ceremonial head that is mainly a rubber stamp but collecting millions and millions from the public coffer. This is definitely bad.
How many of you agree with doing away with this office? To me it is not an institution that is a must have, definitely no need to be so costly. If we are so preoccupied with high offices or monarchys, it may be more romantic to instal a royal family. Then we can have coronations, prince and princess, uncles and aunties of royal families. These will be good stuff for fairy tale authors and the media.
Created to guard the reserves? Guard my foot! No power, no say, no nothing. Just a fallacious creation of a character to instil fear in Singaporeans.
ReplyDeleteThe earlier they get rid of it, the better.
imo the judiciary and the people can collectively exercise most of the president's responsibility.
ReplyDeletewhen we are at a gridlock over decisions all we need is a referendum, no?
I have long advocated the abolishment of the ceremonial post of a powerless and useless presidency. As everybody knows he is just a puppet on a string whose every action is dictated by the government in power. How is the President going to protect the country's reserve if he is even not suppose to question the amount of reserves and the where about of the reserves. Thus the whole exercise of electing a president is a whimsical farce wasting people's time and money. A ceremonial predsident shouldn't be paid at all. He should be appointed from among the prominent citizens like retired bankers, business tycoons, respectable retired lawyers or civil servants. These respectable citizens will be more than happy to serve at the ceremonial post as they personally feel they are honoured to be nominated for the post. You can be sure they are not self seeking to gratify themselves with the millions of tax payers money . People always wonder why PAP leaders always think in terms of high monetary benefits in the multi millions. They want so much money for what. They can't eat all the money. Why are they so greedy to take easy money from tax payers? In the meantime there are hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans crying for help. The millions of dollars saved can be used for the good of these underpriviledged and deprived citizens.
ReplyDeleteWell any body who thinks in terms of getting rich by the millions should not enter politics and become a politician. He should not use politics and the system as a short cut to wealth. That is not fair to the people and the country. Instead he should go into business on his own capital and if he can make millions in an honourable way, good luck to him. The people will not begrudge him for growing rich on his own endeavour and will not be envious of his wealth. But it is a different thing if politicians take short cut to wealth and riches by taking easy money from the people through unconscionable high taxes and high bills . It is a sin for ministers, politicians and the president to unfairly rewarding themselves with insane high salaries which run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
Southernglory1
Oops, southernglory, Rupert Murdoch has just suggested to the British to pay their politicians like how we pay ours.
ReplyDeleteThis can only mean that our high paying system is the envious of Murdoch. And if the Brits take his recommendation, it will also be practised in UK.
It is a Sin indeed!
ReplyDeleteAnd
in Sin we live,
Singaporeans and Sinners.