COMMENT: It’s definitely time to debate GRC system, consider alternatives

Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker, currently a Masters student at Cardiff University. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views expressed below are her own.

Human rights group Maruah called for an end to the Group Representative Constituency (GRC) system on Monday, proposing a return to Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) with a failsafe to ensure minority representation in Parliament.

Discussions over the GRC system have flared up and died down over the years – especially every time we have an election – and there has been no shortage of criticism. With the launch of Maruah’s report, is it time for us to really think about how we vote?

Some Singaporeans on Twitter felt that there was no longer a need for the GRC system as the electorate would not vote according to ethnicity, but the quality of the candidate.

Personally, I find minority representation to be very important in Singapore; the majority (often blind to its own privilege) already dominates the discourse way too much as it is. Minority representation in Parliament is one way to make sure that minority struggles and perspectives don't get left out of national policies.

Yet some also point out that political representation is not a sure-fire way to end discrimination in Singapore:

Other tweeps mentioned issues with the GRC system beyond minority representation: GRCs have also led to a situation where the ruling party won over 90 per cent of the seats with only about 60 per cent of the vote, which raises issues about whether the electorate has been properly represented.

Plenty of the criticism that has revolved around the GRC system has to do with the fact that many Singaporeans are skeptical of the claim that it's in place to ensure minority representation, believing that it has more to do with gerrymandering and giving the incumbent the upper hand.

It certainly seems the case: it can be very difficult for alternative parties to field teams to contest GRCs with their limited resources (just think about how expensive it is to put down the deposit for a candidate!), and the practice of sending a minister to anchor the PAP's teams can be seen as a way to win more seats by having inexperienced candidates ride into Parliament on the coat-tails of stronger politicians.

Furthermore, the GRC system requires voters to weigh entire teams and make trade-offs rather than vote for the actual candidate that they want to represent them. Instead of just considering the one person they want as their MP, voters have to think of the entire team and vote for the party slate.

So perhaps it's time for us to abandon the GRC system. But what can we have instead?

@BB_See on Twitter shared a video explaining the Alternative Vote (AV) system, and how it negates the spoiler effect that plagues the First Past The Post (FPTP) system.

Could Singapore adopt such a voting system? If we had the AV system, alternative parties would not need to come up with pacts to mark out turfs so as to avoid three-cornered fights, and Singaporeans would have a higher chance of seeing the candidate/party they want represented in Parliament. Yet how would this work in a way that would assure minority representation?

Other suggestions were made on Facebook, such as Singaporeans simply voting for the candidate they want without the electorate being divided up into constituencies. The idea of removing town council management from the duties of MPs was also mooted – a fair suggestion considering that the parliamentary duties of MPs are vastly different from the everyday work of maintaining housing estates, and a person might not be cut out to do both.

It's an interesting problem without a single answer. But one thing is clear to me: untested or incompetent candidates should not be able to get a free ride into Parliament on the merits of their GRC team-mates, and the GRC system has not brought us the political representation we should have in Parliament. Although it is true that other voting systems might have their own pitfalls, a conversation about alternatives to the GRC system can only be good for Singapore.