OPINION: "PAP's Lame Racial Politcs Justification", by Goh Meng Seng, 30 September 2017.

PAP's Lame Racial Politics Justification, by Goh Meng Seng, 30 September 2017.

ARTICLE: PAP's Supreme Leader PM Lee tried to explain and justify his (or his party's?) decision to amend the Constitution on the Reserved Elected Presidency amidst the big Hoohaa of whole Nation over this racially divisive end result.

Basically his logic is, if PAP ddin't carry out the Reserved Elected Presidency amendment, Singapore may not have a Malay President at all for the rest of Singapore's History.

Now, this is the most unconvincing and insulting reasoning for every Singaporean. He is basically implying that Singaporeans, especially the Majority Chinese, are RACIST when it comes to voting. Historical Empirical evidence has shown that Singaporeans, regardless of race, are NOT racist at all. JBJ was elected TWICE as MP as far back as 1981 until PAP used all means to keep him out of parliament. Michael Palmer was elected in the hotly contested GE 2011. Murali was elected in the 2016 BY-ELECTION in spite of the fact that PAP is supposed to suffer a handicap in by-elections! All these politicians, regardless of whether they are from opposition or PAP, had won against their Chinese opponents! Yet, PAP's Supreme Leader PM Lee wants to convince us that Singaporeans are incapable to vote independently of race?

The Truth is that PAP has NEVER felt race is a problem when they fielded Nathan, an Indian, as the candidate for TWO terms, not ONE, of Elected Presidency! In fact, if PAP really bothers about racial representation in our Nation's Presidency, then why didn't the Reserved Elected Presidency apply to Indians, Eurasians and even Chinese as well?

And the Blatant Truth is, PAP has selectively chosen to raise the entry barrier for candidates from Private sector while making candidates from their controlled field, aka civil service and political appointees, as easy as ever!

Well, before you think that PAP is racist, I must say I don't think so at all. They are just playing the race card as well as upping the stringent criteria to bar potential challengers from contesting against their PREFERRED candidate. This is a shameless move against Democracy and this is precisely the reason why Singaporeans are angry at them!

To insinuate Salleh Marican and Farid Khan as "opportunists" who didn't offer themselves as candidates in PE 2011 but only contest in this Reserved Elected Presidency, is the lamest reasoning ever. Did PAP ever offer their Malay Ministers as candidates for PE 2011? They didn't field any Malay Minister as PE candidate not because Singaporeans would vote according to race but basically it is because PAP doesn't have GOOD and STRONG Malay candidates for the Presidential contest in the very first place! And PAP knows that in a Presidential Elections, it is practically a NATION WIDE By-Election in which PAP's endorsed candidate will be heavily handicapped! Tony Tan's narrow win of 35% in PE 2011 was the warning shot to PAP.

In fact, I would think that if it is a one-to-one contest, an independent Malay or Indian or Eurasian Presidential Candidate would have better chance of winning against a PAP-endorsed Chinese candidate!

Such Kelong Politics is totally outdated and they shouldn't take Singaporeans as naive fools to believe in their lame excuses. Just admit it. PAP is just being Kiasu so much so that they have to Kelong the Presidential Elections by making use of the Race card.

[Goh Meng Seng is the former Secretary-General of National Solidarity Party (NSP) and the current Secretary-General of People's Power Party (PPP). This post is shared here with his kind permission.]