A-Z Guide to S'pore's Elected Presidency
By FLOP FB Page
A IS FOR ADVISERS
The president's panel of wise
men has expanded, and wields more power following changes to the elected
presidency passed in Parliament last November.
The president must now consult
the Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA) on all - as opposed to some -
monetary matters relating to the reserves, and on key public service
appointments.
If the president acts in
accordance with the CPA's advice, his veto is final and the Government must
abide by it. If he goes against its advice, the Government can bring the matter
up to Parliament, which can override the president's decision with a two-thirds
majority.
In the light of its heavier
responsibilities, the CPA now has eight members, up from six.
After all, as Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong noted: "The system does not solely rely on the judgment of
a single person acting alone but, rather, on the president well advised by a
team of wise and experienced men and women."
B IS FOR BILL
The road to a reserved election
began in January last year, when PM Lee raised the need for a review of the
political system during the first Parliament session since the 2015 General
Election.
A Bill to amend the
Constitution was passed last November with the backing of 77 MPs, after a
Constitutional Commission set out its recommendations on the elected
presidency, and after three days of intense debate in Parliament.
All six elected Workers' Party
MPs voted against the changes, which include raising the eligibility criteria
for presidential candidates, strengthening the Council of Presidential
Advisers, and ensuring members of racial minority groups are elected from time
to time through a hiatus-triggered reserved election.
The changes were the widest
made to the elected presidency scheme in its 26-year history.
C IS FOR COMMUNITY COMMITTEE
Are you Malay enough to be
Singapore's next president? That decision lies in the hands of the Community
Committee, a new feature of the presidential election.
Its first task is to assess
whether those hoping to stand in this month's polls are part of the Malay
community.
These hopefuls will be informed
of the result by Sept 12, after the five members of the Malay community
sub-committee deliberate on their applications.
Presidential hopefuls must
declare which of the three main communities they consider themselves a part of,
and will be issued a certificate if the respective sub-committee agrees.
This process may require the
person to provide further information and to be interviewed, among other
things.
The Community Committee will be
convened even during an open election, and candidates will still have to
declare their ethnicity as this will help determine when a reserved election
should be triggered.
D IS FOR DIVISIVE ELECTIONEERING
Campaign rules have been
changed to discourage divisive electioneering.
The authorities, for one, will
no longer designate election rally sites.
This is because rallies
"by their nature and format, may be divisive and not congruent with the
unifying role of the elected presidency", as Minister in the Prime
Minister's Office Chan Chun Sing put it.
Candidates can pick their
preferred sites, but must apply to the police for a rally permit.
Explaining the changes to
campaign rules in Parliament, Mr Chan said: "Campaign methods for the
presidential elections must not inflame emotions and must be in keeping with
the decorum and dignity of the Office of the President."
E IS FOR ELECTED PRESIDENCY
This was almost a decade in the
making.
The elected presidency was
first mooted by founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1984, but took effect
only seven years later, in 1991, after two White Papers were debated in
Parliament from 1988 to 1990.
Before that, presidents were
appointed by Parliament and served a largely ceremonial role, save for
discretionary powers over select matters, such as the appointment of the prime
minister.
The elected president, however,
is vested with custodial powers over the country's reserves, among other
things.
F IS FOR FARID KHAN
A school dropout who worked as
a grasscutter at age 13 after his father died, Mr Farid Khan now has his eye on
the presidency.
He is the chairman of Bourbon
Offshore Asia Pacific, a regional marine services company with a reported
shareholder equity of around US$300 million (S$407 million). He was the second
aspiring candidate to submit the required forms.
It was a long slog up the ranks
for Mr Farid, now 61, who spent years taking on a string of blue-collar jobs
that ranged from lorry attendant to janitor.
He attributes his success now
to Singapore's meritocratic system. For him, the presidency is a way to serve
and give back to the nation.
G IS FOR GOALKEEPER
This was the role the late Mr
Lee Kuan Yew saw the president playing: goalkepeer, the very last line of
defence against a rogue government bent on squandering the country's reserves
or installing cronies in key public positions.
"You need a wise person in
that job to play the goalkeeper, and your council of advisers are fullbacks to
prevent stupid people - your own players - from kicking into your own
goal," said founding prime minister, Mr Lee, in an interview.
This comparison resurfaced over
the past year as PM Lee told Parliament that the president is "neither the
government nor is he the opposition".
"He is a custodian. He's a
goalkeeper," he said, noting that while the Constitution gives the
president power to block certain actions of the government, it does not give
him the power to initiate policies.
H IS FOR HALIMAH YACOB
For months, she deflected
questions by reporters on persistent talk that she would run for election,
being one of the few publicly-known Malay candidates who would automatically
qualify for the contest.
Madam Halimah Yacob, 63,
finally put the flurry of speculation to rest when she announced at a National
Day dinner that she would be leaving her party and political posts to stand.
She said then: "It is a
heavy responsibility but I hope that with the support of Singaporeans, we can
do more good together."
Last Wednesday, she became the
last known hopeful to submit the necessary forms.
The former Speaker of
Parliament and veteran People's Action Party (PAP) MP - who, as a schoolgirl,
helped her mother hawk nasi padang to support the family - entered politics in
2001, after a decades-long career with the labour movement.
I IS FOR INDEPENDENT
The Constitution dictates that
the president be non-partisan and apolitical - and the three aspiring
candidates have taken pains to stress their independence.
Businessmen Farid Khan and
Salleh Marican point out that they have no ties to political parties, while
Madam Halimah Yacob - who has been out of politics for less than a month - says
she has always put "people before party colours", and has the track
record to prove that she does not always toe the government line.
An occasion she cited was when
she abstained from voting on amendments to the Human Organ Transplant Act in
Parliament in 2007 because she was concerned that this would lead to poor
people being persuaded to "sell" their organs.
"I know people have that
concern because of my past affiliation with the PAP," Madam Halimah said.
"But I just want to say that the President has a duty first and foremost
to Singapore and Singaporeans, and not to any party."
J IS FOR 'JUST DO AWAY WITH THE ELECTED PRESIDENCY'
Calls emerged during the
discussion on changes to the elected presidency to abolish the entire system
instead.
The Workers' Party was among
these voices, reiterating a stance it has held since the 1980s.
One reason it gave was that the
elected president could be an unnecessary alternative power centre.
It also worried that an elected
president could potentially "cripple" a non-PAP government, noting
that those who qualify to run come from an elite group, and many are
"senior officials appointed under the PAP Government".
The WP wanted a return to the
former system of appointed, ceremonial presidents, and said it was open to the
idea of additional parliamentary mechanisms - such as requiring a
super-majority vote - to safeguard the reserves instead.
A Constitutional Commission
reviewing aspects of the elected presidency also raised the possibility of a
return to an appointed president, and hiving off the president's custodial
powers to a body of experts.
The Government rejected this,
arguing that the holder of the second key needed a direct mandate from the
people to have the moral authority to veto a government action.
K IS FOR KEY
Two "keys" guard
Singapore's reserves and the integrity of its public service.
The Government holds the first
key, but the president wields the second. He must agree before the Government
can dip into past reserves or make key public service appointments.
The first president to turn the
second key and unlock past reserves was the late Mr S R Nathan.
During the 2009 financial
crisis, the Government sought and obtained his approval to withdraw $4.9
billion from the reserves to fund schemes to save jobs and stabilise the
economy.
L IS FOR LEGAL CHALLENGES
The elected presidency system
came into effect in 1991, part-way into Dr Wee Kim Wee's term as president.
This made him the first to be vested with the powers of the elected president -
even though he was appointed by Parliament.
The Government therefore
started its count of the five terms needed to trigger a reserved election from
Dr Wee's term, although it was his successor, Mr Ong Teng Cheong, who was the
first president to be elected directly by citizens in 1993.
This was a sticking point for
former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock, who this year mounted a legal
challenge on the basis of the upcoming election, which is reserved for Malay
candidates. Dr Tan believes it is unconstitutional for the Government to start
its count from Dr Wee's term.
The case was dismissed - as was
Dr Tan's subsequent appeal.
The reasoning was that
Parliament has the right to decide when to start the count, and it is a fact
that Dr Wee was the first president to exercise the powers of the elected
president.
A separate challenge brought by
non-practising lawyer M. Ravi was also dismissed.
M IS FOR MADAM PRESIDENT
It was the parliamentary gaffe
that caused a stir.
During the debate on changes to
the elected presidency, Mr Chan Chun Sing mistakenly addressed Madam Halimah
Yacob as "Madam President" instead of "Madam Speaker".
Madam Halimah, in an interview,
said: "I thought I heard it wrong the first time, so I didn't say
anything. Then it was mentioned the second time. I almost fell off the chair. I
felt very stressed out.
"After the sitting, he
told me it was unintended, it was a slip. I accepted his explanation."
N IS FOR NOMINATION DAY
PM Lee started the ball rolling
last Monday, when he issued the Writ of Election.
The next stage of the process
will be Nomination Day, on Sept 13. Singaporeans get to know then if they will
cast their vote or if the election is a walkover.
Nomination Day now has to come
at least 10 days after the prime minister issues the Writ of Election instead
of five, giving the Presidential Elections Committee more time to scrutinise
applications.
Aspiring candidates will be
told by Sept 12 whether they qualify, and those who do will have their
nomination papers, including their financial statements, made public on
Nomination Day. This aims to encourage transparency and discourage hopefuls
from exaggerating their credentials.
O IS FOR OUT-OF-OFFICE
Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam's time in
the Istana has come to an end. His last day as Singapore's seventh president
was Aug 31.
He was sworn into office on
Sept 1, 2011, following the country's most heated presidential contest yet,
beating out three other contenders to win by a narrow margin.
Dr Tan, 77, was a long-time PAP
MP before he left politics in 2006. He was first elected in 1979, and was made
deputy prime minister in 1995 - a position he held until he stepped down in
2005.
Until a new president is sworn
in, the chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers, Mr J.Y. Pillay, will
serve as acting president.
P IS FOR PROMISES
No more empty promises this
election.
Presidential hopefuls must now
make a statutory declaration that they understand the role of the president as
spelt out in the Constitution.
"It will then be
inexcusable if he deliberately chooses to disregard the limits of the
Constitution and makes promises or statements exceeding this role," said
Minister Chan Chun Sing.
This arose after several
candidates made claims and promises in the 2011 election that suggested they
may not have been clear about the powers and scope of the presidency.
Q IS FOR QUALIFIED OR NOT?
To qualify to contest the
presidency, candidates must be issued a certificate of eligibility by the
Presidential Elections Committee (PEC).
The barriers for those from the
private sector looking to make the cut have gone up to reflect the growth of
the economy: They must have helmed a company with at least $500 million in
shareholder equity to qualify, instead of $100 million in paid-up capital.
But raising the bar, said the
WP, may shrink the pool of candidates and limit it to senior public officers.
Criteria for those from the
public sector remain unchanged: They must have spent at least three years in a
key public office.
But those who do not
automatically make the cut can qualify under the "deliberative"
track, which gives the six-member PEC, chaired by Public Service Commission
chairman Eddie Teo, some leeway. Candidates will then have to convince the
committee that they have held an office which has given them the necessary experience
and ability for presidential duties.
R IS FOR REVIEW
Nine members - led by Chief
Justice Sundaresh Menon - made up the Constitutional Commission, which was
convened in February last year to review aspects of the elected presidency.
The discussion process saw more
than 100 individuals and groups sending in submissions, and four public
hearings held.
Two issues dominated: how to
ensure that the president has a baseline financial competency, and how to
ensure that members of Singapore's minority communities are elected president
from time to time.
The commission's 154-page
report, which included recommendations such as reserved elections and
tightening criteria for private-sector candidates, was released in September
last year.
The Government responded in a
White Paper that broadly accepted the recommendations.
S IS FOR SALLEH MARICAN
Second Chance Properties chief
executive Salleh Marican, 67, was the first to make known his intention to run
for election when applications opened on June 1 - and last month, was the first
to submit his forms.
His company was the first
Malay-owned one to be listed on the Singapore Exchange, and had shareholder
equity of between $254.3 million and $263.25 million in the past three
financial years.
Mr Salleh, whose textile merchant
father died when he was 15, saw his first four business ventures fail but
picked himself up each time. Now that he has done well in business, he feels it
is time to give back to society "in a much larger way" - through the
presidency.
T IS FOR TOKENISM
The reserved election - the
special arrangement to ensure minorities are elected president at intervals -
has drawn accusations of tokenism.
But political leaders have shot
this notion down, pointing out that the stringent criteria to qualify will not
be lowered for any race. Minister for Communications and Information and
Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim insisted: "We do not
want, and we cannot accept, tokenism."
And Deputy Prime Minister Teo
Chee Hean felt that multiracial representation could be achieved while ensuring
meritocracy was not compromised.
Madam Halimah Yacob herself
said in an interview last year, while still Speaker: "When you say it is
tokenism, it means that it is symbolic, it is perfunctory. The point is, all
candidates, regardless of an open or reserved election, will have to
qualify."
U IS FOR UNIFYING FIGURE
Before the president was armed
with custodial powers, his historical role was as a unifying figure
representing a multiracial Singapore.
The Constitutional Commission,
in describing this unique symbolic function, said: "No other public office
- not that of the prime minister, the chief justice or the Speaker of
Parliament - is intended to be a personification of the state and a symbol of
the nation's unity in the way that the presidency is."
This is why Singapore needs to
ensure that "no ethnic group is shut out of the presidency even as
progress is made towards that ideal, lest the office of president loses its
vitality as a symbol of the nation's unity".
It is vital, added the
commission, that minority candidates do not see the presidency as unattainable.
This was also noted by the
Government in its response to the commission's recommendations.
"Every Singaporean has to
be able to identify with the president, and to know that a member of his
community can and will become president from time to time," it said.
Former president Tony Tan Keng
Yam pointed out that Singapore's first four presidents - Encik Yusof Ishak, Dr
Benjamin Sheares, Mr Devan Nair and Dr Wee Kim Wee - represented, in turn, the
Malay, Eurasian, Indian and Chinese communities respectively.
But after the elected
presidency was instituted, all but one of the elected presidents have been
Chinese, including himself, he noted.
"Our long-term aspiration
should be for minorities to be elected into the office without the need for any
intervention," said Dr Tan, in a message that was read out at the start of
the debate on changes to the elected presidency. "But we also need to recognise
the current realities."
V IS FOR VOTE
Will Singaporeans get a chance
to vote in the country's first reserved election? Or will there be a walkover?
Three hopefuls have staked
their claim on the presidency - but only Madam Halimah Yacob - who was Speaker
of Parliament from 2013 until she stepped down this August - automatically
makes the cut so far.
Both Mr Farid Khan and Mr
Salleh Marican fall short of the financial threshold needed to qualify as a
private-sector candidate.
It is up to the PEC to decide
whether the two businessmen have the experience and ability needed to carry out
the functions and duties of a president.
But all three candidates are
raring to go, with campaign teams formed and plans drawn up.
Madam Halimah - the most
battle-hardened of the three, having stood in four general elections - said:
"We always go into a contest preparing for a contest."
Mr Salleh thinks "it will
be good for Singapore if there is a contest", while Mr Farid noted that a
walkover would leave him and many others disappointed.
As Mr Farid submitted his
application, along with five binders of documents on his company, he said:
"Whether two-cornered or three-cornered, I am ready for it."
W IS FOR WOMAN
Madam Halimah Yacob is
Singapore's first female presidential hopeful - and leaders across the Causeway
are paying attention.
Her presidential bid has won
support from Malaysian leaders, who have held her up as a role model for women.
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said many countries have had women
play leading roles, and Malaysia aims to do the same.
He cited former Bangladeshi
prime minister Khaleda Zia, former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri
and Madam Halimah as among those who have made it to the top on their own
merit.
Even before declaring her
intention to run, Madam Halimah had been a trailblazer: She is Singapore's
first female Malay MP since independence, the first female Speaker of
Parliament, and, in 1999, was the first Singaporean to be elected to the
governing body of the International Labour Organisation.
X IS FOR 'EXCUSE ME, ARE YOU MALAY?'
Mr Salleh Marican - whose
father is Indian - stumbled through a live interview conducted in Malay, Mr
Farid Khan's race on his identity card is Pakistani, and Madam Halimah Yacob
also has an Indian father.
All three presidential hopefuls
have had doubts expressed about their ethnicity, with naysayers branding them
"not Malay enough" and questioning whether they are "truly
Malay". This, despite the candidates identifying themselves as Malay, and
following Malay customs and traditions.
The Community Committee will
have the final say on whether these hopefuls are indeed Malay. Singapore's
Constitution provides that a person belonging to a Malay community is one
"whether of the Malay race or otherwise, who considers himself to be a
member of the Malay community, and who is generally accepted as a member of the
Malay community by that community".
Y IS FOR YUSOF ISHAK
He was Singapore's first
president, and its only Malay head of state - until now.
Encik Yusof Ishak, who died in
office in 1970, steered Singapore through formative moments of its nationhood.
He became Singapore's Yang
di-Pertuan Negara (head of state) in 1959 - the personal pick of the late Mr
Lee Kuan Yew, who wanted a distinguished Malay as the first head of state, to
show the federation that Singaporeans accepted Malays as their leaders, and to
forge good relations with Malaysia's Tunku Abdul Rahman and other Malay
leaders.
After Singapore gained
independence in 1965, Encik Yusof served two terms as president before his
death from heart failure.
He played a crucial part in
helping to restore the trust of Singaporeans who lived through events such as
the 1964 racial riots, and was a keen champion of meritocracy and multiracialism.
PM Lee Hsien Loong has several
times this year called on the memory of Encik Yusof.
"If all goes well, another
distinguished Malay Singaporean will become our next president," he said
most recently at the National Day Rally. "I hope he or she will bring as
much distinction and honour to the office, and be as well-loved and remembered
by Singaporeans, as Encik Yusof Ishak was."
Z IS FOR ZEITGEIST
The presidency must keep up
with the changing needs of the country. It must also continue to evolve to stay
in line with the zeitgeist - the spirit of the times.
As PM Lee put it, when he spoke
of plans to review the scheme last year: "We are doing this because any
adjustments that may be necessary for the future should be made in good time,
in order to give us time to think it over in a thoughtful, mature, unpressured
way, in order to keep the presidency a robust and effective institution in our
political system."
The criteria change for private
sector candidates, for one thing, is meant to keep pace with an economy that
has grown seven times since the elected presidency was introduced in 1991.
And the shareholder equity
threshold - which now stands at $500 million - will have to be reviewed at
least once every 12 years, or two presidential terms, by the PEC. The committee
can recommend that the sum be raised, but not lowered. Parliament will then
decide if the recommendation should be adopted.
President Tony Tan Keng Yam
called the changes passed last year "a milestone for Singapore in ensuring
that the elected presidency scheme stays relevant with time and in our local
context".
A-Z Guide to S'pore's Elected Presidency
By FLOP FB Page
Read more here: Presidential Election 2017
