SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party MP Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) said in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 4) that although her party voted in support of the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill despite having raised questions and concerns about the issue, it will not support the Constitution Amendment Bill. However, both bills were passed by the House.
Ms Lim, who is also the WP chair, said that the party’s main concerns involve the discretion given the elected President’s power to confirm, cancel, or vary a restraining order made by the minister if there is a difference between the Cabinet’s advice and the Presidential Council’s recommendation.
Ms Lim argued that the government, and not the President, should be responsible for maintaining racial harmony, law and order since it is publicly accountable to Singaporeans through Parliament. She added that it is not the President’s responsibility to maintain public peace and public order and that he is not answerable to Parliament in any way.
“In my view, the proposed mechanism for the President to review the minister’s orders carries several significant risks,” Ms Lim said, asking MPs to imagine a scenario where the minister issues a restraining order which the Presidential Council disagrees with — and which is then cancelled by the President.
She also expressed concern over the “grave implications” of bringing the President into decisions involving ethnicity.
“As our founding Prime Minister has said, the President is a symbol of unity and the personification of the State; indeed, that is the President’s central and defining role. To require him to make hard decisions on matters involving ethnicity will detract from his role as a unifying figure above politics.”
The MP added that if the President were to take a position on racial affairs, this could lead to a polarization of the presidency, something that should be avoided at all costs.
She mentioned that the reserved presidency already includes a “defined racial dimension” and asked: “Looking ahead, will the presidency then become an arena in which racial issues are fought over?”
Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam addressed the points Ms Lim raised. He said that while the government believes that Parliament and the public are checks on a minister’s power, “there is also considerable value in having an additional layer of checks through the Presidential Council and the President”.
“It is appropriate for the president, who is directly elected by the people, to act as a check on this power that can be exercised by the minister,” he added. /TISG