Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Our own Obama? Not so soon
Li Xueying opined in the Straits Times today about whether Singapore is ready to look beyond race when it comes to selecting her leader. I was thinking about the same thing when Barack Obama won the Iowa caucus.
A recent poll has shown that majority of Singaporeans are receptive towards a non-Chinese prime minister. Personally, I don’t really care about the race or gender of the PM. The best person should be given the job, period. Unfortunately, even if Singaporeans are ready for a non-Chinese PM, as long as SOME people are not ready, Singapore will never have a non-Chinese PM.
Perhaps the following paragraph from Li Xueying’s column will demonstrate more clearly what I mean in the preceding paragraph:
In 1988, when revealing how his successor was selected, then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said that then-National Development Minister S. Dhanabalan could have been considered if not for his race. Singapore was not ready for an Indian PM, said Mr Lee then.
Singapore’s system of governance is not the same as the USA. Our prime minister is not elected through a popular vote. The prime minister is picked from the party that wins the most number of seats in the legislature. Even if a non-Chinese person has overwhelming public support, as long as the party doesn’t think that person is suitable for the job (be it due to race, gender or capabilities), that person will never become PM. Public opinion does not matter.
If Singapore is to have its own Obama, it can only happen if either 1) The Prime Minister is elected through a popular vote or 2) SOME people change their opinion. Else, the glass ceiling will always remain.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Aaron Ng on 11/01/2008 at 10:06 am, and is filed under Perspective. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 4 years ago
That’s true. We are not prepared for anything that threaten the Nepotism family. Just look at our president for example. The president’s role as head of state is been exploited and degraded by LKY since the removal of the venerable ONG Teng Cheong. While we citizen ask for “Our own Obama”, the coffer government will ask for “Our own Nathan”. A case of Competence versus ineptness. In fact, we are not prepared for anything that speaks human right, equality, justice and democracy.
about 4 years ago
I always find it strange that they use the race reason for having GRCs. You know, how GRCs will ensure that minority races get representation in Parliament as opposed to single member constituencies. The implication is that the majority Chinese will always vote for a fellow Chinese.
Em… Didn’t JBJ win Anson ward previously? Wasn’t Anson ward a single member constituency? Isn’t JBJ a non-Chinese?
about 4 years ago
actually she was meaning to write about the political ‘change’ that obama meant to represent and to hope for the same thing to happen in sinkapore, but being a journalist and working under ISA agents she had to toe the line and write about race instead!
about 4 years ago
Race is not a matter as long as they are servant of the Lee’s family. Just look at our pathetic president, isn’t him a different race ? Feed him millions and the underdog will neither bark nor bite. It shows that race is irrelevant as long as subservient submission and obedience is ensured.
Come on, it is not race that matter, it is whether that person has integrity and competence to perform his intended task. How many presidents we have that is of different race in the past ? Why we can’t have a different race for prime minister then. We can have that but the coffers must make sure he do all the biddings that LKY ask him do. The late president ONG Teng Cheong unwilling to knee before the cunning LKY and instead berate the whole government for being so ‘corrupted’ instead and asking for accountability and responsibility to people, but what did he get ?
Since when the government ask the people for placing officials into government office other than ONG Teng Cheong ? It quite evident that when it fit into LKY’s political agenda and threaten his legacy and empire, it will just shift the blame to the people again quoting that people is unwilling to accept a prime minister of different race. No, it is not, it is just merely LKY not willing to accept it and then use the media to perpetuate the perception that people is the cause. We should know better by now.
about 4 years ago
David Tan:
Spot on about JBJ, and it’s also relevant that he won the seat despite being an opposition candidate, which means he overcame twice the odds.
It’s also relevant that our first prime minister, long before independence, was… wait for it… Jewish.
about 4 years ago
I WOULD RATHER THAT A Chinese be a P.M, cz if a non chi become a P.M, well they will expect too much and suppose something is not received upon expectation, the community is such that they will start commenting on the individual race, i suppose Indians have been fine Foreign Affairs Ministers dealing with external issues and the Law Ministries, so they should continue to do so in that circle and there should never be an Indian P.M to avoid any racial friction.
I belief Malays can be fitter for that post since they are the son of the soil and Malay being a national language, so a Malay being a Prime Minister , will be better acceptance.
Though our national pledge says
“regardless of race language or religion”
though our national song says”one people” one nation” one singapore”
that can never be put under practice, as for me, the true singaporean spirit was during the time of the Malaysia Cup and once a year when watching fire works, other than that, malays and indians are just surviving in this country . Malays no matter what will not be left out as for Indian they have to struggle out .
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