Reform Party seeks to abolish GRCs, cites lack of minority SMC MPs

SINGAPORE — Trotting out an old chestnut, the Reform Party (RP) yesterday (Sept 6) pushed for the abolition of the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) system as they took issue with the lack of minority Members of Parliament in single seats.

In their third rally in this election, Mr Kumar Appavoo, who is running in Radin Mas SMC, said: “Why is the issue of minority coming up (again and) again? We need to look after the welfare of people regardless of race, because different cultures have different issues.”

The GRC system was created in 1988 as a way to ensure minority representation in Parliament.

In 2011, Mr Michael Palmer became the first minority candidate the People’s Action Party fielded in a Single-Member Constituency (SMC) — Punggol East. He won the seat but resigned the following year over an extramarital affair.

Yesterday, the RP urged voters to send more minority candidates into Parliament via SMCs. In this election, there are four challengers in SMCs who are from minority ethnic groups, including one independent candidate.

Mr Kumar said he would learn dialects such as Teochew and Hokkien to better connect with residents.

Meanwhile, RP secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaretnam, who is leading the team for West Coast GRC, also sought to defend his party’s proposal to give cash handouts to the young and the old, a day after Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam ridiculed the Opposition’s promise that they can dole out cash without having to raise taxes.

The RP wants to give a S$500 monthly pension for those aged 65 and above, and a S$300 monthly benefit to children up to the age of 18.

Estimating the total cost of these measures to be around S$6 billion a year, which would be “considerably lower ... if we could restrict this to the bottom 60 per cent of the income distribution”, Mr Jeyaretnam said: “We can easily finance our spending programmes if the Net Investment Returns Contribution are used for current spending.”

Under the Net Investment Returns framework, the Government can spend up to 50 per cent of the long-term expected real return from the net assets managed by sovereign wealth fund GIC and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and up to 50 per cent of the net investment income from Temasek and other assets.