First day of Elected Presidency hearings kicks off
The Constitutional Commission at the Elected Presidency (EP) public hearing. Photo: Nicholas Yong
Three individuals have spoken at the first of four public hearings on proposed changes to the Elected Presidency (EP) on Monday (18 April).
They are Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan, legal intern Brian Chang, and in-house legal counsel Edwin Yeo. All three were questioned by the nine-member Constitutional Commission on their proposals.
Three aspects of the EP are under review: Reassessing the qualifying criteria for presidential candidates, giving more weight to the Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA), and safeguarding minority representation in the presidency.
Tan, who was the first to speak, opposed constitutional changes that would ensure the election of a minority president. Instead, it should be left to the electorate to vote for their preferred candidate.
“If we design it that way, it takes away a tremendous amount of authority and legitimacy from the presidency. I’m not sure that engineering the outcome will help with nation building.”
He added, “Much as I do want the president to be a symbol of multiracialism, I’m not too sure that…that’s going to help the office of the president to be a unifying force.”
Chang also spoke about the possible constitutional changes to safeguard minority representation in the EP, noting that they may run contrary to a United Nations’ anti-racial discrimination treaty that Singapore is a party to.
Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) prohibits racial discrimination, particularly with regard to the right to stand for election.
Chang said, “If you have a system that discriminates exclusively on the basis of race, you will have a dominance of race-based politics and race-based parties.”
Yeo noted that Singapore had “outstanding presidents” of different races before the EP came into force.
He addressed the potential of a presidential campaign to create political divisiveness and said, “I don’t think that an election is necessarily the only way to get a good president.”
But he also acknowledged that the president’s custodial role requires the people’s mandate. Yeo therefore suggested that the government put forth its own candidate for election, for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote.
If the government’s candidate is rejected three times in a row, then parliament must be dissolved as it shows that the government is out of touch, Yeo said.
A total of 19 individuals and organisations will give their views on the EP. They were chosen from more than 100 written submissions to the Constitutional Commission. They include human rights group Maruah, and former Cabinet minister S. Dhanabalan.
