I find that the Presidency and its powers are shrouded in so much confusion and deliberate misinformation that many people do not have a clear understanding of the role. Even opposition party leaders have been confused by it. The reasons for this are many fold, but does not in any way absolve the average Singaporean from finding out the real powers about this post.
What are some of this myths and misinformation?
1) The President guards the national reserves and prevents any govt. from stealing it or misusing it. This is the most popular and common explanation of the president’s role. There are several problems with this so called power. Exactly how much money is the president supposed to be safeguarding? Does anyone have a number? If someone told you to guard and protect this bank vault , but does not tell you how much money is in the vault, nor do they know., than how do you know whether the money is safe or not? If someone opens the vault, and there is $20 million in there, how do you know it’s not supposed to be $30 million and than $10 million has gone missing? So, you can see how ridiculous this so called power is.
The great irony is that the $billions are lost through Temasek and GIC and these monies are actually part of the reserves, yet, the President has no power over these monies or the investigation of their loss.
The President also is authorized to release part of the national reserves. But this happens only if the govt. of the day goes to him to ask for permission. Since the President is a long time friend and former party member of the PAP, any request from a PAP govt. to take money out will be automatically approved by the President. So, where is the safeguard here? The President is beholden to the PAP, because his approval and selection is done by the President Election Committee (PEC), and the PEC is entirely made up of PAP associates. In any case, this has happened only once in the era of the EP, and that was in 2009, when President Nathan authorize the PAP to draw down $4.9 billion from the reserves to bribe us with our own money, disguised as the Government resilience Package. Everyone should ask themselves why did the PAP go to the President and ask for $4.9 billion? After all Temasek claims that they are averaging 17% annual return on the reserves invested with them. If the PAP really needed $4.9 billion, why not issue bonds that pay less than 4% instead of taking out money that could have been earning 17%? Does not make sense right? It only makes sense if this is a wayang power, and for show. The PAP uses this power for propaganda.
2) The President has no powers, and is a ceremonial role.
Unfortunately, this is not true. The President does have some real powers, and has other powers that can make life very hard for the govt. of the day. Some of these powers are :
a) The President signs bills passed by the Parliament into power of law. If the President were to withold his signature, and not sign the bills, it would cause many problems for the govt. of the day. Some bills are patently questionable, but are signed by the President because of his close ties to the PAP. I believe that a truly independent President would not have sign into law legislature that would pay Ministers such high salaries. Imagine the inconvenience and the embarrassment to the PAP if their attempt to make themselves instant millionaires was thwarted by a President with a conscience and a sense of ethics. No doubt, there would be other ways to get the bills passed, and into law, but it’s a more arduous parliamentary process.
b) The president has the power to ask the CPIB to investigate any politician or other officials for corruption and graft. Imagine if a truly independent president requested an investigation into why so many HDB contracts were automatically given to Lee and Lee for conveyancing. Not to mention many other cases of conflicts of interest and what not.
c) The President appoints the key positions in govt. civil service, including the Police commissioner, Chief of defence forces, the Prime Minister, etc. Now all these positions in the civil service are obviously given to PAP lackeys and supporters, and some like the PM position is given on recommendation of the govt. of the day. That is why there is no possibility that the PAP will ever let an independent or opposition party member become the President, as they have the power to really sabotage the PAP’s agenda when it comes to appointing their key people.
d) the President also approves the budgets of certain stat boards, and can withhold assent to the budgets if he thinks it will draw down the “reserves”. HDB is a prime candidate for this to happen as they run a multi hundred million $ deficit every year. The president is well with his power to question whether the reserves are indirectly being used to prop up the HDB. If he does not approve HDB’s budget, or the budget of other stat boards, many functions would ground to a halt. There will be public backlash not on the President but on the PAP for trying to fob off irrational budgets and obscene bills on the people.
One can see from the above examples, the President does have some real power other than over the reserves and has the ability to make life very difficult for the govt. of the day. Herein lies the real role of the Presidency from viewpoint of the PAP. It is this: In the event that the PAP does lose an election, the President still belongs to them and his new role will be to stymy and block any reforms the opposition new govt. wants to make and to make it as difficult as possible for them to function effectively. The sooner that Singaporeans understand this, the better it will be for everyone. This will allow everyone to see why the Tony Tans of the world are just another branch of the PAP installment in the Presidential post , and why any other potential opposition candidates will never see their application to run be approved by the PEC. There is just too much at stake for the PAP not to rig it the way they want to.
What are some of this myths and misinformation?
1) The President guards the national reserves and prevents any govt. from stealing it or misusing it. This is the most popular and common explanation of the president’s role. There are several problems with this so called power. Exactly how much money is the president supposed to be safeguarding? Does anyone have a number? If someone told you to guard and protect this bank vault , but does not tell you how much money is in the vault, nor do they know., than how do you know whether the money is safe or not? If someone opens the vault, and there is $20 million in there, how do you know it’s not supposed to be $30 million and than $10 million has gone missing? So, you can see how ridiculous this so called power is.
The great irony is that the $billions are lost through Temasek and GIC and these monies are actually part of the reserves, yet, the President has no power over these monies or the investigation of their loss.
The President also is authorized to release part of the national reserves. But this happens only if the govt. of the day goes to him to ask for permission. Since the President is a long time friend and former party member of the PAP, any request from a PAP govt. to take money out will be automatically approved by the President. So, where is the safeguard here? The President is beholden to the PAP, because his approval and selection is done by the President Election Committee (PEC), and the PEC is entirely made up of PAP associates. In any case, this has happened only once in the era of the EP, and that was in 2009, when President Nathan authorize the PAP to draw down $4.9 billion from the reserves to bribe us with our own money, disguised as the Government resilience Package. Everyone should ask themselves why did the PAP go to the President and ask for $4.9 billion? After all Temasek claims that they are averaging 17% annual return on the reserves invested with them. If the PAP really needed $4.9 billion, why not issue bonds that pay less than 4% instead of taking out money that could have been earning 17%? Does not make sense right? It only makes sense if this is a wayang power, and for show. The PAP uses this power for propaganda.
2) The President has no powers, and is a ceremonial role.
Unfortunately, this is not true. The President does have some real powers, and has other powers that can make life very hard for the govt. of the day. Some of these powers are :
a) The President signs bills passed by the Parliament into power of law. If the President were to withold his signature, and not sign the bills, it would cause many problems for the govt. of the day. Some bills are patently questionable, but are signed by the President because of his close ties to the PAP. I believe that a truly independent President would not have sign into law legislature that would pay Ministers such high salaries. Imagine the inconvenience and the embarrassment to the PAP if their attempt to make themselves instant millionaires was thwarted by a President with a conscience and a sense of ethics. No doubt, there would be other ways to get the bills passed, and into law, but it’s a more arduous parliamentary process.
b) The president has the power to ask the CPIB to investigate any politician or other officials for corruption and graft. Imagine if a truly independent president requested an investigation into why so many HDB contracts were automatically given to Lee and Lee for conveyancing. Not to mention many other cases of conflicts of interest and what not.
c) The President appoints the key positions in govt. civil service, including the Police commissioner, Chief of defence forces, the Prime Minister, etc. Now all these positions in the civil service are obviously given to PAP lackeys and supporters, and some like the PM position is given on recommendation of the govt. of the day. That is why there is no possibility that the PAP will ever let an independent or opposition party member become the President, as they have the power to really sabotage the PAP’s agenda when it comes to appointing their key people.
d) the President also approves the budgets of certain stat boards, and can withhold assent to the budgets if he thinks it will draw down the “reserves”. HDB is a prime candidate for this to happen as they run a multi hundred million $ deficit every year. The president is well with his power to question whether the reserves are indirectly being used to prop up the HDB. If he does not approve HDB’s budget, or the budget of other stat boards, many functions would ground to a halt. There will be public backlash not on the President but on the PAP for trying to fob off irrational budgets and obscene bills on the people.
One can see from the above examples, the President does have some real power other than over the reserves and has the ability to make life very difficult for the govt. of the day. Herein lies the real role of the Presidency from viewpoint of the PAP. It is this: In the event that the PAP does lose an election, the President still belongs to them and his new role will be to stymy and block any reforms the opposition new govt. wants to make and to make it as difficult as possible for them to function effectively. The sooner that Singaporeans understand this, the better it will be for everyone. This will allow everyone to see why the Tony Tans of the world are just another branch of the PAP installment in the Presidential post , and why any other potential opposition candidates will never see their application to run be approved by the PEC. There is just too much at stake for the PAP not to rig it the way they want to.
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