Changes to Elected Presidency are pretext to entrench PAP’s power: Alfian Sa’at
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Minorities are being used as a pretext to devise an Elected Presidency (EP) system that will allow the ruling People’s Action Party to entrench its power, said well-known Singaporean poet and playwright Alfian Sa’at.
In a Facebook note that has been shared more than 860 times since it was posted on Monday morning (22 August), Sa’at noted that the issue of having a minority president did not surface in the four Presidential elections that have been held since 1993.
“Not even when there were four Tans running for the post in the year 2011,” he added, pointing out that a presidential election is due in 2017, and that current incumbent Tony Tan won by a very slim margin of 0.35 per cent in 2011.
Referring to the Group Representation Constituency system, Sa’at noted that when it was first proposed, its key aim was to ensure minority representation. “But successive elections have shown how it’s been used to gerrymander… to dilute electors’ voting power, to usher in new faces riding on the coattails of popular incumbents at the helm of each GRC,” he claimed.
At the National Day Rally on Sunday (21 August), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that changes to the EP were needed in order to preserve Singapore’s multiracial ideal.
He also revealed that the government has accepted the main recommendations on the EP by the Constitutional Commission, such as ensuring that a minority candidate can become president from time to time. The government will publish a White Paper on how the changes will be made.
But Sa’at, a sometimes controversial figure who has often examined issues of race and religion in his plays, asked, “If minority representation was so important, why was this not factored in when the office of the Elected President was first introduced?”
He also dismissed arguments that having a Malay president would instill pride in the Malay community. “So I say now, as a member of the Malay community: I don’t need a symbol to elicit respect, what I need is respect for my rights…And most importantly, I don’t want us minorities to be used, once again, as a pretext to devise a system which will allow the PAP to entrench power.”
He concluded, “I would rather have a Chinese Elected President who can act as an effective check on the government than a puppet Malay President holding a golden rubber stamp.”
