Singapore is a small country with a very high soft power index. The 2019 pre-pandemic Soft Power 30 Report ranked Singapore third in Asia, above China and 21st overall in the world. In this series, I would like to share some features that people all over the world would find attractive that has accounted for this high soft power index. I will also be discussing the weaknesses of the Singaporean socio-political make-up that could erode its economic and soft-power position if not adequately dealt with.
On independence in 1965, the Singaporean Constitution was modelled on the Malaysian constitution that it left, and included even the Malay rights provisions. In this article, I would like to discuss the unique constitutional provisions that the Singaporean government has developed to deal with very specific Singaporean problems.
This is the first article in the series.
Malay rights
Clause 160 in the Singaporean Constitution reads very much like Clause 153 in the Malaysian Constitution. Both speaks of Malay having special rights but the similarity ends with the wording of the clause. Both originated from very different worldviews and both have very different definitions of the word rights.
In both countries, there is a realisation that Malays hold economically disadvantage positions, largely due to historical reasons rooted in the British colonial administration. Both constitutions recognised the need to protect Malays from being overrun by the educationally and economically more advantaged Chinese.
Temporary nature
The Singapore government saw this clause as temporary and the role of the government is to bring Malays to a level where they could compete with the Chinese on a level playing ground. Healthy competition between people and peoples was considered the lifeblood of the Singaporean governance system and as a result the Singaporean government aimed to prepare Malays to compete in a modern economy. With its success, the clause is considered defunct today as it is no longer necessary to protect Malays against Chinese competition.
Definition of rights
In the original Malaysian constitution, the term Malay rights was understood to refer to four specific rights: Malay reserve land, Malay scholarship for higher education, Malay quota in the civil service and quotas in certain industries like transportation. These rights, however, were never legally defined and as a result in Malaysia, this term expanded to further the prevailing political agenda. In Singapore, however, the original definition likely persisted and this contributed to the understanding that this clause was temporary.
Language
Singapore, as a multi racial country with three major races each with its own strong identity, has been beset by racial riots in its history, in particular in the 50s culminating in a major riot in 1964 when it was still part of Malaysia. As a result, language and race have always been a particularly sensitive subject in the newly independent country.
The Constitution tried to provide an equal footing to all three races and the language of each of the three communities were made official languages of the country together with English. This means that Mandarin, Malay and Tamil as well as English were allowed to be used in court and in parliament. This enable all three races to see themselves in the identity of the nation.
To ensure the loyalty of its Malay minority after the 1965 separation from Malay-majority Malaysia, the Singaporean government acknowledged the indigenous nature of the Malay community by making the Malay language the national language. This means that the national anthem and the motto on the national coat of arms are in Malay. Lee, as a Malay-speaking Peranakan, a Chinese sub-community that has assimilated after being in the region for several centuries, would have liked Singaporeans to learn at least conversational Malay but today most Singaporeans know little of the national language beyond the national anthem.
In order to avoid the confusion and the cost of maintaining multiple official languages, English was designated the administrative language. This means that all government forms and government businesses were conducted in English. And not just English, the government of Singapore is clear that it uses only the Queen’s English, not any other variety and definitely not American English. English is considered a neutral language, not being a language of any of the three communities and was also expected to give Singapore a competitive edge internationally, being the default global language of commerce and technology.
The president
The Singaporean president’s role was initially largely ceremonial in line with that of the head of state in the Westminster model and was indirectly elected by Parliament. In 1991 however, the powers of the president was expanded with the office becoming directly elected by the electorate, for very specifically Singaporean reasons.
Protecting the national reserves
Since its separation from Malaysia, Lee and his team had carefully husbanded the finances of Singapore until by the time he stepped down as prime minister in 1990, the national reserves was equivalent to one year of the country’s Gross Domestic Product - and this was only the publicly known reserves and excludes another year of GDP in Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds. Not wanting a future generation of political leaders to fritter away his lifetime’s hard work by making populist spending for political reasons, the constitution was amended to give the President the sole authority to approve releases from the national reserves.
Lee also realised that in order for the president to be able to stand up to the government of the day when faced with such a request, the presidency has to have its own mandate independent of the Prime Minister. The direct election of the president was intended to provide such a legitimacy. Of course, this comes at a potential cost of elevating the presidency to be an alternative centre of power to the prime minister. It was a balancing act to get it right: giving the president enough power without being seen to challenge the prime minister’s electoral mandate. To my mind, Singaporean presidents have been too timid in challenging the prime minister and has always signed off releases from national reserves without much of a fuss.
Ensuring presidents with intelligence
Also to ensure that the president would have the intellectual capability to evaluate such a complex request, there are stringent qualifications to be a presidential candidate. In addition to citizenship and residency requirements common in other jurisdictions, they are also work experience requirements. The candidate must have achieved a senior rank in government such as a minister or a chief justice or had been a chief executive of a government board or agency or have run a profitable large private sector company of a specified minimum size.
Such requirements meant that candidates other than the one endorsed by the ruling party, were often disqualified. As a result, there had been only two contested presidential elections out of the five since the constitutional amendment was passed. Still, the stringent criteria was justified on the grounds that unlike members of parliament, there was no party vetting of candidates and such stringent requirements would then be the next best thing to a party’s filtering process.
Ensuring all races have a chance to be president
The first president of Singapore was a Malay but since then no Malay has been elected president. Two presidents have been Indian and the rest have been Chinese, no Malay other than the first. Recognising this, the constitution was amended in 2017 to provide for the reserving of the presidential elections for candidates from a particular community if that community have not had one of their members elected to the presidency for four consecutive presidential elections. As a result, the 2017 presidential election was reserved for the Malay community, and the former speaker of Parliament ascended to the position uncontested, there being no other qualified candidates to run against her.
Parliament
The People’s Action Party (‘PAP”), the ruling party of Singapore, has dominated elections to such an extent that only two elections have returned more than five opposition members of parliament. The first opposition member of parliament elected in an independent Singapore was elected only in 1981, 16 years after separation from Malaysia. The Singaporean electorate has always been so trustful of the PAP that they have consistently voted them in with such high majorities and at shares of the votes at 60-70% in elections that has generally been considered as free if not fully fair. The opposition has consistently failed to make inroads even on the four occasions when they seek to contest in less than half the seats, guaranteeing PAP victory in on election day in acknowledgement of the electorate’s desire for a PAP government. In the 13 elections of the independent Singapore, a grand total of 19 opposition members of parliament has been elected, of whom 11 are currently sitting.
Guaranteeing an opposition
The PAP leadership however realised that this was not a healthy state of affairs. For one thing, the electorate was denied an effective alternative voice in parliament, and more importantly a safety valve to let off the steam of political tensions. Not having an effective opposition would also deny their elected representatives, viable competition to sharpen their political skills and keep PAP representatives on their toes.
As a result, the constitution was amended in 1984 to guarantee at least three opposition members of parliament. If less than three opposition members were elected to parliament, the best performing losers will be Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (‘NMCP’). They would be accorded the same rights to speak as are the other parliamentarians except in no-confidence motion and that they do not represent any constituency. This amendment was controversial in that it assumes the PAP as the natural party of government but there has always been enough opposition members to take up the offer of the NCMP position for the quota to be filled. Today, the minimum number has been raised to nine but at the latest election in 2020, the elected opposition did exceed that number, thus no NCMP were appointed.
Guaranteeing minorities in Parliament
A first-past-the-post electoral system in a country with a 70% majority race could easily lead to minorities being unrepresented in parliament, as it would be difficult to find constituencies where the minorities could be in sufficient numbers to ensure election of someone of the minority community. On that basis a 1988 amendment to the Constitution provided the unique solution of the Group Representation Constituency (‘GRC’). A GRC would have anything from 3 to 6 members that would run and win or lose as a team. The minority protection clause lies in the fact that at least one member of the team must be from a minority community, guaranteeing minority representation in parliament.
As usual, this was a controversial amendment as small parties would find it hard to find sufficient talent to field a team in the GRC. And it should be remembered that all opposition parties in Singapore are small parties. The PAP has also been accused of using the GRC is as a means to introduce new candidates, who ride to victory on the coattails of a strong candidate, usually a minister. Controversially, the opposition has won only once in a GRC, rather unexpectedly, prior to the current parliament, only to find that GRC to be disbanded and broken up into other constituencies at the next redrawing of electoral boundaries.
The Singaporean constitution has been an interesting case study of how a constitution has been tinkered with to incorporate meaningful and very well thought through, if controversial, amendments to cater to very specific challenges and developments in a constantly changing world. While conveniently using those amendments to entrench its legislative domination, I would still commend the ruling party for thinking through the complex socio-political problems of the nation and responding with all means available including Singapore’s raft of unique constitutional provisions.
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