This is the primary duty of the Elected President. Probably the only executive duty he is expected to perform in a time of great crisis. The rest of his roles are mainly ceremonial and rubber stamping of what ever the govt wants him to stamp.
So, how important and effective will an Elected President hold himself as the last man in the defense of the nation’s reserves? It may be useful to understand what is a rogue govt to start with. A rogue govt is not just a bunch of rogue politicians, all 87 of them in Parliament at most. A rogue govt is not just all 87 MPs plus all their crony party members.
A rogue govt, if it is called a govt, must be all the civil servants, military and police personnel in cahoot with the ruling party. Only then can a rogue govt be formed to capture all the powers of a country and run the country as it likes, and to empty the treasury.
In the face of a rogue govt presenting the Elected President and his team of Presidential Advisers with an ultimatum,, and the rogue govt simply says, sign on the dotted line, what can an Elected President do? Can he say no?
Then again, it is unlikely that a rogue govt can be formed and get to that stage when all the civil servants, military and police personnel are with the rogue govt to do its biddings. An Elected President can only be effective if he can preempt the whole development, before a govt shows its greedy face that it is a rogue govt, and still has the civil servants and uniformed men on his side.
The critical point is when and how would the Elected President know that he has to act? Would he act if say an alternative party wins the majority in the next election to form the govt? Would the EP decide at that moment when a new govt is formed, that it is a rogue govt and call in the troops? Or would he wait till the day when the rogue govt reveals itself by asking him to sign on the dotted line?
To be effective, the EP must jump the gun. If not, he will not stand a chance when the day comes.
It is difficult to know when a govt has become rogue. Robbing the reserves can come in many ingenious and ingenous ways.
ReplyDeleteJudging from the last three years GE result, Singaporean are foolish enough to want to entrust the President as the last man to guard against a rogue government of the day.
ReplyDeleteDoes he has the capacity and ability to monitor when rogue policies are legislate in Parliament notwithstanding of the limited power given to him in the constitution?
Why thrust it to one man when more opposition members in Parliament could at least sound the warning bell earlier when policies are debated.
Many will debate that the Opposition candidates were not credible but things have changed for a lot better if you have followed the last GE.
Precisely it is diificult to know when a future government of the day can become corrupt that we always need a good standing of opposition in Parlaiment.
My friends, the real counter. The real secret of how to prevent exposure is very well known and is ALREADY acted on by the govt - that is the control of the press and its twin control of the people's freedom of speech.
ReplyDeleteSurely, all those public 'spectacles' at the Istana's front and at the Speaker's Corner involving the SDP is not about some 'childish' acts of Chee and his group which the govt tries very very hard to portrayed and some ignoramus and foolish govt proxies and naive citizens tries to characterise or even caricature when it is a TRUE struggle for our right to freedom of speech at the street level by citizens against a repressive regime.
The problem is a great majority of Singaporeans behave like those 'tamed' elephants. The elephant handlers would initially tether an elephant's rear leg to an immovable anchor point that effectively restricts its movement. After a certain period, its leg would be tied to say a log or something strong enough but which the elephant could have easily drag along if it wants to. But the pachyderm wouldn't as it has by then been conditioned to think of the tethered hind leg being impossible to break free from.
So it is for the same reason that the govt uses such STRONG ARMED tactics against a few simple defenceless opposition members - it is to prevent the conditioning from being BROKEN by the opposition members while the whole country is watching. This is reinforcement against others following the examples of Chee. And to further reinforce this and to encourage people to shy away from exercising their freedom, the govt has 'helped' it along by introducing a law which makes it impossible even for ONE person to demonstrate his or her speech freedom by calling it an ILLEGAL GATHERING of ONE!!!
Singaporeans ARE already in a pot of slowly heating up water like the proverbial frog. We would be cooked before we realized TOO LATE that we are being cooked alive!!!
In times of crisis, great men will appear to lead. Chen Show Mao just reported to have resigned from Davis Polk to be a full time MP and politician. He is giving up all the money he could earn, to work for the people and country.
ReplyDeleteThe example he sets will be followed by many more talented individuals who will sacrifice their huge incomes and other things to step forward. Not all is lost.
The most dangerous thing is not to know when the reserves is being raided.
ReplyDeleteRedbean has indeed made the best definition of a 'good' president.
ReplyDeleteBUT,
he forgot that the president can be part of a rogue government.
And most likely so when it is a president supported by the Regime.
It is not a conspiracy theory, it is a fact of life.
isn't that what he is trying to say?
ReplyDeleteAll we are talking about is who to choose to safeguard the reserves.
ReplyDeleteFor all we know, we do not even know how much the reserves amount to in actuality. Only figures thrown up occasionally when they feel like doing so just to confuse and diffuse the questioning.
Keep up the cloak and dagger wayang folks.