Uber driver Shirwin Eu has claimed that Malays can’t be Elected Presidents because they are not good in Maths and so won’t be able to scrutinise sovereign wealth fund. Shirwin made that claim when speaking to The Straits Times (ST) after picking up the application forms for the upcoming presidential election to be held in September.
The 34-year-old failed twice in trying to run for political office. The first was in the 2015 General Election, when he did not have assentors to back his candidacy for Bukit Panjang SMC. The second was in the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election, when he was disqualified to run as an independent candidate.
In responding to ST’s question what he thought his chances for presidency were after unsuccessfully running previously for previous elections, Shirwin said:
“Actually I haven’t been unsuccessfully, so to speak, because you are judging from the angle I wasn’t qualified. Let’s say I am allowed to be qualified on unconditional basis, I suppose my chance would be no different from other candidates because if you allow red carpet treatment, then there will always be a pool of people you are not able to reach.
Just like you like to open your pool of people to the whole population rather than maybe just one percent of the population. How do you know the rest of the 99 percent of the population do not have any better things to offer.
Just like if you only now restrict the Malay community, let’s say if you want to judge based on academics, let’s say PSLE, we understand that mathematics is the poorer subject for the Malay community, so let’s say if I were to argue from this angle, how are they able to scrutinise the SWF, the Temasek and GIC.
So is there a conspiracy whether you want such a talent pool of people limited by their academic to then later on take on the government as well as the judiciary power. Or would you like the Malay candidate to win on open basis then we can discount that they are not limited by their qualifications.”
Watch his full interview with ST here: