Singapore — Beginning Monday (Oct 26), members of the public are invited to submit nominations of individuals they deem fit to take on the role of a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP).
The general public is invited to submit names of persons to the Special Select Committee of Parliament for nomination by the Committee for appointment by the President as NMPs from Oct 26 onwards, according to a Parliament press release on Sunday (Oct 25).
“The persons to be nominated by the committee shall be persons who have rendered distinguished public service, or who have brought honour to the Republic, or who have distinguished themselves in the field of arts and letters, sports, culture, the sciences, business, industry, the professions, social or community service or the labour movement.”
The following are characteristics an eligible nominee should possess, under Article 44 (2) of the Constitution:
- Must be a citizen of Singapore;
- Must be 21 years old and above on the day of nomination;
- Their name appears in a current register of electors;
- Must be a Singapore resident at the date of his or her nomination and has been so resident for periods amounting in the aggregate to not less than 10 years before that date;
- Must be able, with a degree of proficiency sufficient to enable him/her to take an active part in the proceedings of Parliament, to speak and, unless incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause, to read and write at least one of the following languages, that is to say, English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil;
- Must not be disqualified from being a Member of Parliament under Article 45 of the Constitution.
A Special Select Committee of Parliament has been established to consider the submitted nominations of qualified candidates. The committee is chaired by Speaker of Parliament, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, and includes Mr Chan Chun Sing, Mr Gan Kim Yong, Ms Gan Siow Huang, Ms Indranee Rajah, Dr Mohamad Maliki bin Osman, Mr Leon Perera and Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.
Furthermore, the Speaker has appointed coordinators from the seven Functional Groups which include representatives from the following sectors: Mr Lim Ming Yan for business and industry; Dr Teo Eng Kiong for the professions; Ms Mary Liew for the labour movement; Ms Tan Li San for social service organisations, Mr Lim Hock Yu for the civic and people sector, Professor Tan Eng Chye for tertiary education institutions; and Ms Goh Swee Chen for media, arts and sports organisations.
The press release notes that any organisation wishing to nominate persons for consideration can submit nominations to the coordinators mentioned above. “The invitation for submission of names to the Special Select Committee is open to the general public. A person not selected by a Functional Group may be nominated by another proposer. The Special Select Committee will consider all applications.”
Those who wish to submit names could do so using the prescribed forms downloadable from the Parliament website. The forms are to be submitted online via FormSG. They should be in PDF format, not exceeding a file size of 7MB.
Completed forms and supporting documents may also be submitted at the Office of the Clerk of Parliament at Parliament House, 1 Parliament Place, Singapore 178880.
Deadline of submissions is on Nov 23 at 4.30 pm.
The NMP appointment was first introduced in 1990 to provide an alternative, non-partisan view in Parliament. NMPs hold various backgrounds and are appointed to represent and provide a voice for groups such as those in education, labour and the arts. In the previous Parliament, there were nine NMPs. During each term, which lasts two-and-a-half years, there can be up to nine NMPs. /TISG
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