The next EP
in 2017 is reserved for Malays. Cheng Bock is out in the cold. Period. Nothing
can change the fate of Cheng Bock on his chance of becoming the next EP.
So
Singaporeans can now prepare for this big day when a Malay would be voted to be
the next EP. Actually to be more accurate and correct, it should be the next EP
election is reserved for a Malay candidate. By saying that it is a reserved EP
election reserves for Malays may give a different as if it is only for the
Malay community to vote their candidates to be the next EP.
Let me try
to crystal ball the scenario on this election. Just hope that it would not be
on a long weekend when the non Malays would find a good excuse to go for a
holiday or a long weekend up north. Being a reserved election for Malay
candidates may put the other races to think that this election has nothing to
do with them since the candidates are from a particular race and they may not
bother to go vote. Some may say it has nothing to do with them. If many non
Malay voters adopt this attitude then the turnout may be quite low.
Another
possibility, assuming that the govt’s assumption that the Chinese voters are
racist, and they ‘tulan’, don’t want to vote, but since voting is compulsory,
they cast blank votes or spoilt votes. What then?
In a worst
case scenario, if the non Malay voters did not want to vote or cast blank or
spoilt votes and the number of valid votes ended up with only 20%, don’t say
not possible, the number of votes in favour of the candidate may be less than
what Tony Tan got in the last EP election. This could be embarrassing
especially after listening to what a minister said about a successful candidate
not gaining an absolute majority votes. If the total vote cast is low, if the
actual votes that went to the successful candidate is less than 30%, there
would be many red faces.
This is an
eventuality that could turn out to be real. Then what or what can the govt do
now to fix this undesirable outcome when the non Malays felt that the election
has nothing to do with them and everyone start to ‘chut pattern’ to stay away
from voting? Would the election result become a mockery of the system?