SINGAPORE — During a visit to Tanjong Pagar after Mr Lee Kuan Yew died, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was asked by a resident: “PM, please send us a multilingual minister.” 

This was despite the fact that he was accompanied by Senior Minister of State (Law and Finance) Indranee Rajah, who had served in the constituency for many years and speaks Cantonese fluently. 

Recounting this incident on Sunday (Aug 21) as he delivered the Mandarin portion of his speech at the National Day Rally, Mr Lee said Singaporeans are “not yet completely race-blind”, despite years of the Government promoting religious and racial harmony. 

Emphasising that language and race play a role in elections here, Mr Lee called on the Chinese community to support proposed changes to the Elected President scheme that could ensure a minority-race President is elected from time to time. 

Since the proposal was mooted, questions have been raised, noted Mr Lee. Some questioned the need to make provisions for minorities instead of letting the elections run their natural course, while others felt that, since Singapore is a majority Chinese country, it is all right when a Chinese President is elected. 

But Singaporeans, he said, must be honest with themselves and “deal with this squarely”.

Under the current system for electing a President, the Republic may not have a non-Chinese president for a long time. 

If this were to happen, it would weaken the sense of national identity among minorities and affect unity. 

“The President, as Head of State, is the unifying symbol for all Singaporeans, and must be able to unite all Singaporeans,” said Mr Lee, citing former President S R Nathan as a “shining example of this”.