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‘Vital to ensure minority President from time to time’, as race still matters

SINGAPORE — The Government must ensure that minorities get elected as President from time to time as the reality is that people do vote along racial lines despite the progress Singapore has made in terms of multiracialism, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally 2016 Photo: Jason Quah

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally 2016 Photo: Jason Quah

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SINGAPORE — The Government must ensure that minorities get elected as President from time to time as the reality is that people do vote along racial lines despite the progress Singapore has made in terms of multiracialism, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.  

While there are concerns that an explicit arrangement to ensure a minority-race President would compromise meritocracy, the Government “can and will” make sure that all candidates, including minority candidates, meet the qualifying criteria “with no compromise”, stressed Mr Lee.

Mr Lee, who had to take a break from speaking after feeling unwell during the National Day Rally on Sunday (Aug 21), did not deliver his English-language speech in full, but made these points in the text of his prepared speech, which was released to the media. 

On the review of aspects of the Elected Presidency (EP) scheme, Mr Lee said establishing such a mechanism will be politically sensitive and legally hard to draft, but noted that other countries, among them Switzerland and New Zealand, have similar mechanisms. It was also not the first time Singapore was introducing provisions for minorities in the Constitution — it was done in the form of the Group Representation Constituency scheme. 

The Government is currently studying the recommendations made by the Constitutional Commission tasked with the review, but it has accepted the main recommendations “in principle”, said Mr Lee. A White Paper will be published, outlining how these changes will be effected. Following that, a Constitutional Amendment Bill will be tabled in Parliament.

The review was announced by Mr Lee during the debate on the President’s Address in January. A nine-member commission, chaired by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, was appointed in February to study three aspects of the scheme: Update the criteria to be a presidential candidate; ensure minorities have a chance to become president regularly, and how the president can “give more weight” to the advice of the Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA).

On Sunday, Mr Lee did not share the specifics of the commission’s recommendations. Instead, he delved into the reasons for making the case for changes to be introduced.

Highlighting a recent Institute of Policy Studies and Channel NewsAsia poll on race relations, Mr Lee noted that the poll showed that each race prefers their own to be President, even if they would accept one of a different race.

Varying acceptance levels based on race

Source: IPS and CNA

He pointed to the historic 2008 presidential elections in the United States, in which Mr Barack Obama emerged the winner with 53 per cent of the vote. The victory was heralded as a sign that race was no longer a factor in the US elections, but Mr Lee noted that exit polls suggested otherwise. Only 43 per cent of white voters supported Mr Obama, compared with 67 per cent of Hispanic voters and 95 per cent of black voters. 

In an election, race is still a factor, and, other things being equal, a minority candidate is at a disadvantage, said Mr Lee. 

While Singapore has had one minority-race President — Mr S R Nathan —since the EP was introduced, Mr Lee noted he was elected unopposed for two terms. With elections becoming more hotly contested, it will be harder for a minority candidate to win, he said.

If the next few Presidents continue to be Chinese, the sense of “shared nationhood” would weaken across all communities, with minorities questioning their place in Singapore, and the Chinese becoming less attuned to the needs of other races, warned Mr Lee. 

In his Malay speech delivered earlier, he also warned that this issue could be “politicised and manipulated to provoke ill-feelings in minority communities”.

The problem was not easy to solve — with meritocracy part of Singaporeans’ “basic mindset”, there are fears that an explicit arrangement to ensure a minority-race President would compromise this principle. Neither do the non-Chinese want it to appear as if standards have been lowered for the sake of having a minority President, noted Mr Lee. “But it is a real problem, and we have to solve it,” he said. 

In his Mandarin speech delivered earlier, he called on the Chinese community to support the proposed constitutional changes “so that if we have a good minority presidential candidate, he can represent all Singaporeans”. 

On the qualifying criteria for candidates, Mr Lee pointed to the mandate granted to the President to decide on national reserves and public service appointments. 

Currently, candidates must either have held key appointments in the public service or have had private-sector experience running companies with S$100 million paid-up capital, but this criterion has become outdated — the Republic’s gross domestic product soared from S$71 billion in 1990 to S$402 billion last year, while the Central Provident Fund balances catapulted from S$41 billion to S$300 billion over the same period. 

He added that the President would have to make difficult economic and policy judgments, and cited the example of seeking then-President Nathan’s approval to draw about S$5 billion from the reserves during the global financial crisis in 2009.

A President would have to make such critical decisions “in the midst of uncertainty and crisis”, drawing on all his experience, ability and judgment. “That is why we need the best qualified person and the right qualifying criteria,” Mr Lee said. These decisions made by the President will be guided by the experience and judgment of the CPA, said Mr Lee, adding that the changes proposed by the commission to strengthen the CPA were “incremental and straightforward”.

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