Shanmugam slams WP's arguments as 'half-baked'

THE SENATE

In its position paper, The Workers' Party (WP) proposed a Parliament-appointed ceremonial president and an elected senate of eight members to play the custodial role of the presidency.

WP said on Tuesday that the members of the senate would have to fit the tightened qualifying criteria set out in the Bill.

Mr K. Shanmugam pointed out that WP had argued that tightening the qualifying criteria would restrict the pool of possible candidates to the "super-elites".

"So, instead of one elected president, we will have eight elected presidents," he said.

"How does this deal with the objection of elitism? Of a narrow field? Of a super-elite field?"

WP’s Non-Constituency MP Daniel Goh

THE UPPER HOUSE

In response to a commentary suggesting that there should be two Houses of Parliament, WP's Non-Constituency MP Daniel Goh had commented in a Facebook post last December that this would add "complicated layers that will dilute popular sovereignty".

Mr Shanmugam, who read out excerpts from Associate Professor Goh's post several times, argued that the post clearly showed that Prof Goh opposed an Upper House, which was contradictory to WP's proposal for a senate.

In response, Prof Goh said the Government should face up to its own contradictions of an "unelected Council of Presidential Advisers" instead of dwelling on his Facebook post.

Mr Shanmugam then complained to Speaker of the House Halimah Yacob that Prof Goh was making a speech instead of a clarification.

Prof Goh added that his comments were in response to a specific article and he did not oppose an Upper House "on principle".

THE PRESIDENT

Mr Shanmugam called WP's argument - that having an elected president is dishonourable - an "unworthy" suggestion.

He named all of Singapore's elected presidents - Dr Wee Kim Wee, Mr Ong Teng Cheong, Mr S R Nathan and President Tony Tan Keng Yam - and challenged WP to say that they have been "dishonourable".

He also reminded WP chairman Sylvia Lim and WP member Pritam Singh that they had paid tribute to the late Mr Nathan.

In response, Ms Lim said their tributes were meant for Mr Nathan "as a man" and they were not referring to the design of the system and the potential problem.

"The two are quite distinct," she said.

Workers’ Party chairman Sylvia Lim

THE PROPOSAL

Mr Shanmugam criticised WP for presenting a "half-baked and absurd" proposal that could not withstand scrutiny in Parliament.

"But Parliament is a place for asking questions, (getting) your proposals thoroughly examined. As champions of parliamentary democracy, surely WP believes in that."

Ms Lim said it was "flattering" that Mr Shanmugam had spent time cross-examining WP's proposal.

She added that Singaporeans are still reeling from the announcement that the next presidential election will be reserved for a Malay candidate.

"How does this sudden announcement help unify the country?

"Shouldn't the Government be concentrating more on persuading Singaporeans on the merits of its proposal instead of spending all that time attacking us?" she said.

"I don't know who is politicising the process and is public interest being served by this?"

Mr Shanmugam concluded that WP was giving up on its proposal as it was not defending it.

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"Shouldn't the Government be concentrating more on persuading Singaporeans on the merits of its proposal (to reserve elections for a Malay presidential candidate in 2017) instead of spending all that time attacking us?"

- Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim