Reminding Singaproeans that it is important for our country to have a truly independent President, Dr Tan Cheng Bock commented in his Facebook that it is important for Singaporeans to give feedback to the Constitutional Commission studying changes to the Elected Presidency.
This is the first time Dr Tan, who was a whisker away from winning the Elected Presidency in 2011, has commented on the topic.
We republish Dr Tan’s post.
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Reviewing the last Presidential Election 2011
In the last Presidential election I lost narrowly to the current President Tony Tan by a mere 0.34%.
Last month the government appointed a Constitutional Commission to study and make recommendation on specific aspects of the Elected Presidency relating to the qualifying process for presidential candidates.
I strongly encourage Singaporeans to make submissions to the Commission to ensure that we have a Elected Presidency system that will enable us to elect a Truly Independent and Effective President. The Elected Presidency is created to provide some check on the use of our reserves and appointments of certain top civil servants.
Make your views known now on why the need to change..It is important for the future of Singapore.
There are three aspects the commission has been tasked to review.
- Whether the eligibility criteria for such candidates should be updated , and if so how?
- It will also study the framework governing the exercise of the President’s custodial powers, including whether the views of the council of Presidential Advisors can be given more weight and if so how.
- Ensuring that Minorities have the chance to be periodically elected to the Office of the President.
The 9 members are as follows: Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Tay Yong Kwang, Mr Eddie Teo, Chairman PSC, Abdullah Tarmugi, Member,Presidential Council on minority rights, Prof Chan Heng Chee , Mr Chua Tian Poh of Ho Bee Land, Mr Philip Ng of Far East organisation, Mr Peter Seah of DBS, and Mr Wong Ngit Liong of Venture Corporation.
The Commission is now inviting written submissions by Singaporeans. The deadline is 21 March 2016 and the submissions may be sent to the Constitutional Commission Secretariat via the following 2 methods:
Email: CCSecretariat@supcourt.gov.sg
Post: 1 Supreme Court Lane, Singapore 178879.