Hsien Loong
has said it many times. I did not say the govt said it many times because no
one else seems to be saying anything about the impending changes to the process
of electing the President. Hsien Loong gave three reasons for the changes to
the rules. 1. The EP is not just ceremonial but has a very important function
to guard the reserves and to approve senior appointments in the Civil Service
and uniformed services. 2. The person qualified to be the President must be
able to make difficult decisions on financial matters and a stringent set of
criteria must be met like managing a multi million organization to the tune of
$200m, top civil servants or ministers. 3. The system must be changed to allow
minority Presidents to be elected.
The above
are the official reasons for this big constitutional change to enshrine racial
considerations and elements into the office of the EP when race will be a
factor in choosing the EP. Racial politics enshrined into the constitution a
good thing, a progressive or regressive thing?
The
unofficial version or reasons for the changes to the EP process in everyone’s
lips is about keeping Tan Cheng Bock out of the race. Whether one subscribe to
this view, whether one believes this is the real reason, this is what everyone
is talking about. True or not, depends on who you want to believe. If the govt is to amend the rules to bar the
majority Chinese from the next EP election, saying that it is recommended by
the Constitutional Commission, and applies this, then Cheng Bock would be
locked out from the race and it would only confirm what the people feared and
believed in.
And to add
another barrier to people like Cheng Bock, the bar was raised higher, that the
person must have managed an organization of more than $200m instead of $100m to
take in inflation and the increasing value of the reserves. So Cheng Bock’s previous organization would
not be big enough and thus not eligible. This reason may be too flimsy to hold
water as the inflation should also applies to the value of organizations at
different times. Thus Cheng Bock’s $100m organization then would be revalued to
$200m at today’s value, if there is no nitpicking. He was eligible then and
should be now.
So, what is
the real reason for the changes to the EP process? It depends on who you are
and who you want to believe. Oops, please ignore those jesters recommending
that there should be more than one EP at one time. They think Singapore is
their grandfather’s company and money is no problem, can anyhow pay. And they
may also be thinking Singapore is the biggest country in the whole world,
bigger than USA and China combined, so need a few flower vases in the Istana,
and pay them by the millions because their jobs are more important and difficult
than the PM and ministers running ministries.
I got this funny
feeling when I think of these extraordinary criteria for a non executive
president. Should not these criteria or more stringent criteria be applied to
people wanting to be PMs and ministers, the people that really wield great
powers in managing the affairs of the state? Or are the PM and minister’s jobs
easier than the EP so anyone can become a PM or minister without having to run
a $200m company, just manage a town council will do? Make sense?
Oops, I
digress. How many of you believe in the Hsien Loong’s version for the need to
change the constitution on EP? How many of you believe the talk of the town,
that the changes are rushed to keep Tan Cheng Bock out of the Istana? This one
not I say one, everyone is saying this is the real reason.
At this
moment, one thing is looking quite certain. The new conditions would mean that
Tan Cheng Bock would not be qualified to stand in the next EP. What are the
bookies stand on this? 1000 to 1 that Tan Cheng Bock would not qualify?
I think the
bookies would even chicken out on such a bet.