I am personally curious about the special focus on Malay issues at this stage and the peculiar arrangements for its Malay members by NSP.
At the media conference, Sebastian Tan (NSP’s Chairman), mentioned that the party hopes to recruit up to 30 candidates for the coming GE. He stated that the party already has secured four confirmed Malay candidates and plans to recruit three to four more.
Numerically, this makes sense if NSP is targeting about 6-7 GRCs (with average of four seats each) and a few SMCs. The minority candidates are needed for the GRCs.
GMS mentioned the GRCs will become smaller based on the changes to the electoral system announced in April. He expects there to be a larger share of minority candidates.
GMS is wrong.
The overall “share” of seats for minority candidates at the GE will NOT change. It will still be pegged to the current proportion of minority residents in Singapore, which is about 26%. (In a previous study on minority representation in parliament vis-a-vis GRC implementation, I had verified that both ratios were very similar.)
In majority of the GRCs, PAP currently has two minority candidates in each of them. This is more than the stipulated requirement per GRC. But overall, such an “excess” allows PAP to meet the necessary percentage of minority representation at the national level. Once the GRCs are split at the coming GE, the overall number of places for minority candidates remains unchanged.
NSP’s requirement to recruit more minority candidates is NOT due to the electoral change. It is because it will be contesting the GRCs alone.
Previously, when NSP was part of SDA, it was able to contest the GRCs with minority candidates provided by other component parties, especially PKMS. Now that it is contesting outside the alliance, it is not surprising that NSP has to do some catching up in terms of recruitment of minority candidates.
There is another indirect hint that indicates this internal shortfall of minority candidates - tellingly, the two “confirmed” election candidates unveiled at the media conference were cross-overs from PKMS. If NSP had any suitable minority candidates all along, it would have proudly showcased them at this juncture. Failure to do so would cause an internal morale problem among its Malay members. In fact, an old-timer from NSP (Yadzeth Hairis), who is being appointed as an office-bearer of the Malay Bureau, was not even put forward as a candidate (yet).
As far as minority candidates are concerned, I suppose the bottom of NSP's barrel is bare. In view of the looming GE, it needs a top-up fast. Hence, the current emphasis.
So I also suspect that the Malay Bureau is to satisfy an internal demand by its new and prospective Malay members. It is probably not only a concession to its Malay members especially those who have migrated from PKMS. The bureau would serve as a means to further attract more PKMS members to defect. This is especially in view of the persistent infighting issues over at PKMS.
I postulate that Malay Bureau is to be positioned as a PKMS spin-off with a high level of autonomy. I call it a baby-PKMS.
This postulation is supported by the fact that the new organisation has its own set of bureau head, secretary, organising secretary, treasurer and assistant secretary. It almost looks like a standalone political party by itself, especially since it needs a treasurer to maintain separate funds!
The only thing this pseudo party needs right now is..... ordinary members! (...haha)
However, it still appears odd that NSP has to set up a “dedicated” Malay Bureau to exclusively accommodate a section of members. (GMS lamely justifies that if PAP has one, so can NSP. He forgets that the PAP numbers are "slightly" larger.)
If NSP is a multi-racial platform that champions the causes of all races, why is there a need to set up a platform-within-a-platform for “passionate and dedicated Malay Singaporeans to participate in Singapore’s electoral politics meaningfully”? Aren’t all NSP members, Malays and non-Malays, equally passionate and dedicated so that they can work together for Singapore as a whole?
The other justifications for the Malay Bureau are equally dubious.
It stated that the Malay Bureau will act a platform for Singaporeans to gather and discuss on issues important to the Malay community and allow issues pertinent to the Malay community to be heard in proper public discourses so as to achieve better understanding among Singaporeans and racial harmony.
If NSP is a multi-racial political party, then any outreach effort towards the local minorities should be led by the collective party leadership. As a principle, it should NOT devolve this function to one of its bureaus.
(Incidentally, I suspect that there aren’t any other bureaus except this Malay one. Another bureau for Indian members was however broached, for the future.)
Let me conclude by saying this: It is very weird for NSP to talk about its Malay Bureau acting as a platform to facilitate “proper public discourse” when to date, we have hardly seen NSP attempt to organise any public forums or seminars for the purpose of discussing pertinent socio-political matters for ALL Singaporeans.
I hope I will be proven wrong, but my expectation of this Malay Bureau is not high. The Malay Bureau looks like a PKMS spin-off, and the performance of PKMS since the day it broke off from UMNO has never been too stellar. So far, it’s only contribution to the political landscape has been its instrumental role in holding RP in check during the recent “alliance” RP-SDA episode. Otherwise, what we have remember has been its infighting farce.
We should observe this NSP Malay Bureau in the lead-up to the GE, but do not hold your breath.
by Bryan Ti
:(
The PAP inherited this dirty tactic from the colonial masters. The NSP seems to be only too happy to keep it going.
