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So, what is the objective of the PAP for the upcoming EP?
Answer: To ensure that one of the PAP’s own gets elected to the office of the Presidency, and hence make sure that no awkward questions are asked and no bills will get vetoed, and everything will be under control.
Isn’t this a foregone conclusion that the PAP candidate will win any EP?
Answer: Not really. The biggest person they fear is Tan Cheng Bok. He narrowly lost to Tony Tan by 0.35% of the votes in the last EP. He is a little big of a renegade, having voted against his own party when he was a PAP MP, as well as incurring the wrath of the Old Man, George Yeo and others with his comments. He is not one that can be controlled by the PAP and given the enhanced powers of the EP, he is the last person the PAP want in that office.
So then, how to block TCB from running in the next elections?
Answer: This is where the first screw up happened. The Presidential Elections Committee approved him to run in the last EP against Tony Tan. But how can they disallow him from running in the upcoming one? They can’t. They have to change the rules of the game, and “fix” the opposition so to speak. I am sure the PAP think tank examined many options, after all they control Parliament, the Judiciary and the current President Tony Tan (Lee Hsien Loong’s Uncle). One might say they have an overwhelming advantage and power to make any changes with the objective of hindering TCB.
Now all changes have to be done to through the law. This is where the first team of Law Minister Shan and AG VK Rajah earn their money. They are tasked to draft the new law, have the PAP majority Parliament approve it, have Uncle Tony sign it into law, and bob’s your uncle, and TCB is out. Of all the cockamimmy hare brained laws they could have dreamt up, these 2 geniuses decided to go with the Reserved Presidential Election, whereby candidates from only a certain racial group can run in the election if their group had not been represented before. Based on this new amendment to the Presidential election, their claim is that the next candidate must be from the Malay community, hence disqualifying TCB by virtue of his race. On paper, this sounds great and succeeds in the objective of excluding TCB.
However, our 2 geniuses forgot 2 things:
1) They forgot to clearly word the law in terms of exact racial lineage needed to qualify for people in their own group. They simply assumed that a Malay candidate means that both the candidate’s parents are Malays and they are of the Muslim faith. They did not take into account candidates who were a mix race, but still look like Malays. Nor did they build into the law any mechanism on how to ascertain and determine what the race is in the event there is a confusion.
2)They forgot to ask around to make sure the PAP truly has a 100% Malay candidate that meets all the criteria that they have just implemented.
As a result, you have what you have today. People openly questioning the ‘Malayness” of the prime candidates. Is Halimah a Malay? Not according to the records if you go with the father’s race. She would be Indian. Now the PAP has to direct the Presidential Selection Committee to rule on the suitability of the candidate based on whether they are accepted as Malays by their community, even though that is not what the law says. If Halimah is determined to be a Malay by virtue of her Mother’s side, is Vivian Balakrishnan a Chinese by virtue of his Mother’s side too? The international press has weight in on this too, with recent articles in SCMP. They are digging themselves into a bigger hole every day. Even other potential candidates controlled by the PAP, like Masagoes, are not 100% Malay. Masagoes being half arab himself.
What kind of stupid political party gerrymanders the law, in such a way to ensure their chosen candidate wins. But then did not bother to find out that their own chosen candidate cannot meet their own criteria 100%. That is outright incompetence. We have already seen their performance in the Terrex incident, as well as SCS comments, etc., all proving that they make international cock ups on a regular basis. But to screw up in your own backyard is ridiculous.
The simplest thing for Shan and Rajah to do, and it would be my preference, would be to repeal the Elected Presidency. Just go back to an appointed Presidency. Some of our best Presidents like Sheares were appointed by Parliament. If the PAP wants Halimah as President, its no problem at all for the Parliament to appoint their own former Speaker to the post. Some stupid excuse like the EP elections being too expensive and disruptive could be given. Once the law has reverted back to an Appointed Presidency, the PAP will be assured of appointing any candidate they want, given their majority in Parliament. I thought Shan and Rajah were smarter then this, or is it that LHL himself is too stupid to see the holes in the law they passed?
Answer: To ensure that one of the PAP’s own gets elected to the office of the Presidency, and hence make sure that no awkward questions are asked and no bills will get vetoed, and everything will be under control.
Isn’t this a foregone conclusion that the PAP candidate will win any EP?
Answer: Not really. The biggest person they fear is Tan Cheng Bok. He narrowly lost to Tony Tan by 0.35% of the votes in the last EP. He is a little big of a renegade, having voted against his own party when he was a PAP MP, as well as incurring the wrath of the Old Man, George Yeo and others with his comments. He is not one that can be controlled by the PAP and given the enhanced powers of the EP, he is the last person the PAP want in that office.
So then, how to block TCB from running in the next elections?
Answer: This is where the first screw up happened. The Presidential Elections Committee approved him to run in the last EP against Tony Tan. But how can they disallow him from running in the upcoming one? They can’t. They have to change the rules of the game, and “fix” the opposition so to speak. I am sure the PAP think tank examined many options, after all they control Parliament, the Judiciary and the current President Tony Tan (Lee Hsien Loong’s Uncle). One might say they have an overwhelming advantage and power to make any changes with the objective of hindering TCB.
Now all changes have to be done to through the law. This is where the first team of Law Minister Shan and AG VK Rajah earn their money. They are tasked to draft the new law, have the PAP majority Parliament approve it, have Uncle Tony sign it into law, and bob’s your uncle, and TCB is out. Of all the cockamimmy hare brained laws they could have dreamt up, these 2 geniuses decided to go with the Reserved Presidential Election, whereby candidates from only a certain racial group can run in the election if their group had not been represented before. Based on this new amendment to the Presidential election, their claim is that the next candidate must be from the Malay community, hence disqualifying TCB by virtue of his race. On paper, this sounds great and succeeds in the objective of excluding TCB.
However, our 2 geniuses forgot 2 things:
1) They forgot to clearly word the law in terms of exact racial lineage needed to qualify for people in their own group. They simply assumed that a Malay candidate means that both the candidate’s parents are Malays and they are of the Muslim faith. They did not take into account candidates who were a mix race, but still look like Malays. Nor did they build into the law any mechanism on how to ascertain and determine what the race is in the event there is a confusion.
2)They forgot to ask around to make sure the PAP truly has a 100% Malay candidate that meets all the criteria that they have just implemented.
As a result, you have what you have today. People openly questioning the ‘Malayness” of the prime candidates. Is Halimah a Malay? Not according to the records if you go with the father’s race. She would be Indian. Now the PAP has to direct the Presidential Selection Committee to rule on the suitability of the candidate based on whether they are accepted as Malays by their community, even though that is not what the law says. If Halimah is determined to be a Malay by virtue of her Mother’s side, is Vivian Balakrishnan a Chinese by virtue of his Mother’s side too? The international press has weight in on this too, with recent articles in SCMP. They are digging themselves into a bigger hole every day. Even other potential candidates controlled by the PAP, like Masagoes, are not 100% Malay. Masagoes being half arab himself.
What kind of stupid political party gerrymanders the law, in such a way to ensure their chosen candidate wins. But then did not bother to find out that their own chosen candidate cannot meet their own criteria 100%. That is outright incompetence. We have already seen their performance in the Terrex incident, as well as SCS comments, etc., all proving that they make international cock ups on a regular basis. But to screw up in your own backyard is ridiculous.
The simplest thing for Shan and Rajah to do, and it would be my preference, would be to repeal the Elected Presidency. Just go back to an appointed Presidency. Some of our best Presidents like Sheares were appointed by Parliament. If the PAP wants Halimah as President, its no problem at all for the Parliament to appoint their own former Speaker to the post. Some stupid excuse like the EP elections being too expensive and disruptive could be given. Once the law has reverted back to an Appointed Presidency, the PAP will be assured of appointing any candidate they want, given their majority in Parliament. I thought Shan and Rajah were smarter then this, or is it that LHL himself is too stupid to see the holes in the law they passed?
