SINGAPORE: In the coming days, Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) Jamus Lim (Sengkang) will raise the matter of Nominated Members of Parliament (NMPs) running for elected office.
At the sittings, which resume on Tuesday (April 8), Assoc Prof Lim will bring up non-partisanship and the NMP scheme, which was, after all, introduced in 1990 to bring independent voices into Parliament. As such, NMPs are expected not to side with any particular party.
The Sengkang MP will ask the Prime Minister whether there are plans to further safeguard public confidence in the NMP scheme’s non-partisan nature and whether the government will consider a cooling-off period before NMPs can run for elected office, “especially on a partisan platform”.
Recently, two NMPs made the news after they stepped down; their resignations sparked speculation about their possible participation in the upcoming elections. Raj Joshua Thomas and Syed Harun Alhabsyi resigned on Feb 14 in an unprecedented move, as Mr Thomas and Dr Syed Arun were only midway into their terms.
On March 25, Mr Thomas, a lawyer, confirmed in a Mothership podcast that he had joined the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and said that he was “prepared” to contest in the upcoming election if called upon to do so, although he pointed out that the final say lies with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, PAP’s secretary-general.
Meanwhile, Dr Syed Harun, a psychiatrist, was spotted with the PAP team at Nee Soon GRC on March 27. As The Straits Times noted, this was the first time he had been seen in public since he tendered his resignation last month.
Reactions from the public to the possibility of Mr Thomas and Dr Syed Harun running for elected office have been mixed, with some Singaporeans expressing concerns about the NMP scheme becoming a ‘stepping stone’ into Parliament. Shortly after the resignations, academic Walid Jumblatt Abdullah, who is friends with both men, publicly said he would dissuade them from considering political office. Meanwhile, former WP MP Leon Perera suggested the imposition of a “cooling-off period” for resigning NMPs.
Mr Perera, who also advocated for a cooling-off period for civil servants entering politics in 2018, suggested a mandatory cooling-off period between leaving a political party and applying for an NMP position, as well as a similar period before joining a political party after stepping down as an NMP.
“More thought should also be given as to how to ensure that the selection process is seen to be directed by non-partisan actors,” he said.
The issue, of course, is not a new one. In 1992, then-PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock rejected the NMP scheme. In 2020, a video of Dr Tan rejecting the NMP scheme went viral. He left the PAP in 2011 and founded the Progress Singapore Party in 2019.
He voted against the PAP despite the Whip not having been lifted regarding the NMP scheme on the grounds that MPs had to be elected by the people and accountable to an electorate for their views. For this, he received a warning.
“My own feelings on this fundamental democratic principle of only having elected members of parliament in this House is too strong to be compromised. I cannot support this motion,” Dr Tan said at the time.
Last week, however, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam defended the right of NMPs to resign and join political parties to contest in elections. He said that while they should remain independent while in active NMP service, constitutional documents had “clearly envisaged” that they would join political parties and did not prohibit them from doing so. /TISG
Read also: NMPs joining the PAP: It’s constitutional but is it ethical?
