Hsien Loong - I did the right thing

A few weeks back Hsien Loong said he did the right thing by changing the Constitution to entrench race as a key factor in the election of a president. The statestimesreview has this to say,

'In his speech addressing to PAP grassroots leaders on Friday (Sep 29), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong claimed that Singaporeans are unhappy that he did the “right thing” to create a race-based election leading to his choice of candidate winning without a contest:
“Did I know that this subject would be a difficult one? That it would be unpopular and cost us votes? Yes, I knew. If I do not know that these are sensitive matters, I cannot be in politics. But I did it, because I strongly believe, and still do, that this is the right thing to do.”'

This thing about doing the right thing regardless of how the people thing is a LKY legacy. It was relevant then as most of the people were either illiterate or not well informed. Today, with so many people educated to tertiary level, many are more well informed than those in govt and this kind of thinking can only get increasing irrelevant and misplaced.

How many people agree with Hsien Loong that he did the right thing? It all depends on who you ask and under what circumstances. The answer will be yes if the right group would to conduct a survey, for sure. If social media were to conduct a survey, it will be unanimously NO.

Hsien Loong admitted that it was a difficult one, an unpopular one and very costly politically. So what is so right about this EP thing? That the majority of the Chinese population is racist? That the Malays would never be voted to be the president? Why not do the simple and right thing and go back to square one, return to the system of a president appointed by the Parliament?

Practically every ‘racist’ Chinese is rooting for Tharman to be the next PM. Queer isn’t it? How about this? ‘According to Yahoo survey, almost 70% hope Tharman to be the future PM’. Tharman, do you think the Chinese are racist by voting for you and wanting you to be the PM? Oops, maybe Tharman is a ‘Chinese’ and only the racist Chinese know about this secret.
What about this comment in TRE:
NC Tay wrote, “Stop accusing the Chinese of being racist just to push your agenda! I’m all for a minority PM now as Long as he’s capable. Mr Tharman is much more capable than you, why don’t you step aside and let him be the PM. Are you oppressing the minorities?”

Why so gungho about wanting to do the unpopular, the difficult and the costly thing? Is this stylo milo, a show of statesmanship, great leadership, a show of great political thinking?

What is going to happen down the road following this highly controversial and to a certain extent bizarre decision is very serious. In the first place I don't think the Malay community is amused or won over by this funny walkover EP in Halimah. As some Malay leaders had said before this event, we did not ask for it, we did not want it, but since it is given, we will accept it, but not really happy about it.

This change, in my view, did not win the Malay votes but actually undermine the trust among the Malay to serve a political agenda. The Malays are not daft. They could see everything clearly in black and white.

As for the rest of the races, it is a no go from the start and many are fuming. What did Hsien Loong gain to push this through? Political wisdom or what?

Just because Hsien Loong said it is the right thing does not make this the right thing to other people. This could be the worst mistake that he had made in his political career. Not to mention the indiscriminate influx of foreigners and the withholding of the people's 'blood and tear' money in the CPF.

History will be the judge. If this is not the right thing, history will be very harsh on him. But that is not the point. The point is that the people will have to bear the consequences of this constitutional change, and our politics will not be the same again. Race is entrenched in our Constitution when we are singing and pledging regardless of race language or religion everyday