The Elected Presidency Dilemma

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

As the deliberation of the Constitutional Commission on the EP is underway, I could not help notice that some of those who contributed their views had some novel ideas - 4 man GRC with one minority candidate, 2 man team with one 1 minority candidate to rotate half the term, etc. It just reflects the bind that we are in because old man felt that the country should have safety value in the event of freak election. The main issue stumping everyone is how to get a Malay candidate in without being considered a token as this is one of the 3 terms of references of the Commission.

The Commission is also hamstrung by the fact that their remit is limited to the 3 items to consider and nothing outside. So they cannot come out with the best possible model but only one that is framed by the PM.

To be frank, the only reason why we need to retain an Elected Presidential model is out of respect to the old man who obviously did not think this trough. It was not to be political office but an elected office, and there is a distinction here. The requirement is that candidate for EP must not be a member of a political party. Unfortunately Tan Jee Say carried over the GE campaigning of 2011 into the EP. And it became a farce and to be fair in a tight race, most candidates with a political background will do exactly that.

So what are the likely scenarios that will emerge from this hamstrung commission? I reckon the following possibilities;

1. A run-off provision will be introduced to ensure that any successful candidate has 51% of the votes cast. This is to avoid the embarrassing situation that Tony Tan is in and to make it attractive to future potential candidates of good standing. No sane person with good credentials is going to run for EP in its current form.

2. A race based formula to slate an minority only EP elections if 2 consecutive terms are won by a Chinese candidate or something similar

3. One thing is certain, the current powers will be significantly reduced for the ironical reason of a freak election.

None of the above is ideal but face is important as the son is not going to admit that old man got it so wrong. The ideal is to revert back to that of nominated President with nominal head of state role and functions. Yusof Ishak, Sheares and Wee Kim Wee did an excellent job and we all remembered them for it.


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