From ‘After Nathan’ and ‘Chances of a Malay President dimmer’, 3 Sept 2011, ST Forum
(MR RAJASEGARAN RAMASAMY): ‘Has the country seen the last of a racial minority as head of state with the exit of President S R Nathan on Thursday (‘One last goodbye at the Istana’; yesterday)? The multi-seat group representation constituency (GRC) was introduced to ensure that minorities are represented in Parliament with contesting political parties including non-Chinese Singaporeans in their GRC slates. The clincher to the GRC scheme is the argument that even if a minority candidate is incredibly deserving, he or she would lose against a Chinese-Singaporean rival; hence the reason for making it compulsory to include at least one non-Chinese Singaporean in a GRC slate. The Government should address the problem and perhaps consider a constitutional amendment that will help a non-Chinese candidate in a presidential election. One way is to rotate the presidency among the major races, including Eurasians.’
(Peter Yang): SINCE the government of Mr Goh Chok Tong changed the presidency to an elected post in 1991 and set up a vetting committee on eligibility, no Malay Singaporean has contested the post. Singapore has had only one Malay president – the late Yusof Ishak, our first head of state.
There is also a paucity of Malay Cabinet ministers. The present Cabinet has only one Malay minister – Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Yaacob Ibrahim.
On the other hand, Indian Singaporeans, whose population is about two-thirds that of Malay Singaporeans, have four Cabinet ministers, with one of them, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam – who holds the two portfolios of Finance and Manpower – doubling as Deputy Prime Minister.
In fact, Malays, who comprise 13.4 per cent of the population, are like a far smaller community – the Eurasians. Each has had only one president. The current trend suggests that Singapore may not have a Malay president in the near future unless an exceptionally outstanding candidate steps forward.
The question on both writers’ minds but afraid to ask directly is really ‘Why aren’t there more non-Chinese, Malay leaders especially, in the form of ministers or presidents?’. The argument based on minority numbers doesn’t hold since Indians, who make up a lower percentage of the population than Malays, have managed to secure key offices, which leaves other factors which we can only guess and murmur in whispers if we don’t want to be branded as racists. As much as it seems patronising to rotate the EP out of obligation and consideration for our four races, this was exactly the suggestion raised by then SM Lee Kuan Yew during an interview with ST in 1999 (Good to rotate EP among races, 11 Aug 1999, ST)
(Lee Kuan Yew):… It’s very difficult to find suitable minority candidates. Because the population is so small, when you reach the apex, the number of minority candidates who can fill the job becomes even smaller.
So when you have a good man from the minority race, I think it helps to remind Singaporeans that we are a multiracial society. Although this is elected presidency, had there been a contest against a populist Chinese, we would have gone all out to make sure that he’s elected.
It’d be a very sad day if a populist Chinese candidate were to turn up and Nathan were defeated. I would have gone all out for him. The Prime Minister and the ministers knew that, if there was a contest with a populist Chinese candidate, we have to throw in all our resources to help him get elected.
I think (this idea of rotating the presidency among the races) it will continue. I would be very sad if expediency made future governments just support Chinese candidates. I think that would be a very bad thing… it took several generations for the Americans to vote for a Catholic candidate as President. These are gut feelings, emotional prejudices which are very difficult to wear down.
LKY was probably spot on about the influence of ‘emotional prejudices’ on the choice of our leaders, whether it’s a matter of race, background, dialect group or religion. A Malay, non-’populist’ president elect would certainly garner massive endorsement both from the Malays on the ground and from the Government itself, not so much that he’s more capable than his nearest Chinese competitor, but rather along the lines of ‘Let’s give him a shot since we’ve had 2 Chinese presidents already’. Such thinking undermines the role of presidency as mere ‘window-dressing’, like a shopowner changing the display sample or colour of his mannequin in accordance to the season just to keep things ‘fresh’. After all, it doesn’t take much out of a mannequin to perform its limited duties anyway, since one thing in common between being a dummy in a showcase and a ceremonial task is simply showing up. Race aside, LKY’s understanding of the presidency back in 1999 is also applicable today, shedding light on how the EP can be readily engineered, or should I say ‘nudged’ in the direction that is in the best interests of the people, and the Government of course.
You don’t need a rotating EP to remind Singaporeans that we live in a multi-racial society. We see this on the streets, in the media and during the various festivals. We have learnt to accept the unspoken speculations about the dearth of minorities in politics, just like accepting the fact that all our Cabinet ministers, and presidents, are male. Putting a non-Chinese president elect up for grabs just for the sake of it is an insult to the minority community, who should understand that having leaders speaking their own language alone is just not sufficient for their mandate, though there may be a handful who would still consider racial solidarity over individual merit any day, worrying behaviour that calls into question optimistic assertions that we have ‘matured’ politically.
An interesting, though I would have to disclaim as frivolous, comparison of the impact of racial voting would be the now defunct Singapore Idol contests, where Malay males have won in three consecutive episodes. The presence of Chinese performers in the final rounds of the competition could have been a ‘freak result’ itself, or simply an outcome of ‘sympathy votes’. The difference though, is that Singapore Idol selection is a visible though dramatic process. Voters get to see what their idols are made of live and it’s somewhat obvious who would make a better performer regardless of race. What you get from president elects are just CVs, fancy talk, finger pointing, excessive blinking and empty promises. You also don’t need to manage a multi-million company (itself a possible factor behind the racial profiling of the candidates) before you join Idol, a strange prerequisite for the EP considering that from LKY’s description of the ideal president above, you basically just need to be a ‘good, quiet, dignified man’ in his eyes. In short, Singapore Idol voting is a fairer, more transparent, dare I say more ‘democratic’ process than choosing an EP if we were to heed LKY and suggestions above that the position should be racially rotated each term.
The voters of Singapore Idol are also likely to be people with some appreciation of the ‘duties’ (singing, dancing) of the winner, while most of us are clueless about custodial powers of the EP. Still, it’s hard to clearly separate rewarding one for his talent or out of racial affinities without conducting an in depth, demographic survey of how viewers chose their Idols, not to mention their Presidents or MPs. If there were another round of PE and we had one representative of each race in the running instead of a Tan orgy, I’ll probably hedge my bets on a Malay male to win because of 1. Support from the Malay community 2. Support from the non-Malay community tired of seeing another Chinese as president 3. Support from the Government keeping tabs on the invisible rotation timetable as an act of ‘comfort blanket’ appeasement.
Filed under: 1990s, 2011, Campaigns/Elections, Politicians, Racism Tagged: | Campaigns/Elections, discrimination, Lee Kuan Yew, muslims, Politicians, Racism
