By: Abdul Salim Harun
As a resident and voter of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC and residing under the Marsiling Constituency helm by Mdm Halimah Yacob, I hope that she can be forthcoming and inform her residents of her intention on the upcoming Presidential Election.
If she intents to run for the Presidency, a By-Election should be called considering that a GRC should consist of a minority MP. Currently, all her other colleagues in the GRC are all Chinese.
Aside from that, it is only right that residents and voters of Marsiling Constituency should have their own MP and representative in Parliament, an MP they can called their own, and not MPs loan from other wards.
The next General Election will only be held 3 years down the road and it is not right for Marsiling Constituency to be left without their own MP.
Furthermore, the Government had already stated that the GRC scheme was implemented to enshrined minority representation in Parliament and at least one of the MPs in the GRC must be from the minority race.
As can be seen from the current Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, Mdm Halimah is the only minority MP in the GRC while the other 3 are of the Chinese race. If she intents to run for the Presidency, the GRC will be left without a minority MP.
So, Chan Chun Sing is totally wrong when he says that there’s not a need for any By-Election in regards of his “Mdm President” if she were to leave the GRC.
I hope Mdm Speaker will not leave her residents hanging and a By-Election should be called if she really leaves the GRC to contest the Presidential Election.