Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had to be in India to start "considering seriously if a by-election should be held for the Punggol East SMC, and if so, when to hold one." Lee reiterated that the Constitution does not require him to call a by-election within any fixed timeframe, based on his father's interpretation in 1965: "Since we are no longer a part of the Federal whole, for reasons which we find valid and valuable as a result of our own experience of elections and of government in Singapore, we have decided that this limitation should no longer apply".
Singapore's constitution draws upon the English Constitution tradition and the Malaysian Constitution (which drew heavily on the Indian Constitution), but has been sufficiently adapted to demonstrate some Westminster traits, while exhibiting many non-Westminster components. The general PAP view of institutional arrangements was summarised by then Minister of State for Law Ho Peng Kee:
"I look at democracy as a basket of rights and a list of freedoms, at the top of which you put the freedom to express your choice of the group of people you want to put into power, who will, after that, have the authority and the power to circumscribe the other freedoms that you have."
("Democracy East or West?" ST 25 May 1995)
This interpretation of a Westminster style constitution has been rejected by the Privy Council in one of its first cases involving Singapore constitutional law. (Anthony Lester QC, "Note on Constitutional Law", Singapore Association of Women Lawyers, 1989). In that case, the council found that an act of the Singapore parliament cannot override a citizen's fundamental human rights.
The Singapore constitution is essentially an instrument of "rule by law" rather "rule of law", which when combined with the complete dominance of the legislature by one party has produced a "rule of State law" regime. (Robert D. Cooter, "The Rule of State Law and the Rule-of-Law State", Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 1996).
Walter Woon said this in 1991 ("Stand up and be quoted", ST 6 July):
"We effectively don't have a Constitution. We have a law that can be easily changed by parliament, and by the party in power, because the party is the parliament.. it is unsettling how flexible the Constitution is..."
Thanks a lot, Michael Palmer, for sobering up our Christmas this year.
Posts
Yes, truly, we have a fair weather Prime Minister, you have my testimony,
ReplyDeleteit is my attestation. Head over to the PAP official propaganda site, XinMSN,
to verify the authenticity of my assertion.
And witness a totalitarian regime before yr eyes that perpetuate itself with a schizophrenic system of thought, lies, propaganda and distortion.
Discard the trash that calls itself the PAP.
(The Banning of Escape from Paradise)
http://www.escapefromparadise.com/NewFiles/bc.html
(The Escape from Paradise Body Count)
http://www.escapefromparadise.com/NewFiles/bc2.html
search google, The Straits Times of Singapore threat to sue the authors, John and May...
(Veritas Singapore asset inflation 1 PAP the wizards of bubbleland)
http://veritas-lux.blogspot.sg/2011/08/singapore-hyper-inflation-1-pap-wizards.html
(Veritas Inverse Robin Hood 1 How Singapore's rich pay 0% tax and poor pay 40%)
http://veritas-lux.blogspot.sg/2011/07/inverse-robin-hood-1-how-singapores.html
George Orwell The Prevention of Literature
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/prevention/english/e_plit
Joshua Chiang
And they even try to control our bathing time... :(
ReplyDeleteI thought that the PM was bound by the law to call for a by- election with the proviso that he had the sole prerogative to decide on the timing.
ReplyDeleteThe ruling party will win Punggol East easily albeit with a reduced majority. I dont understand PM's fear for not having a by-election. Could their internal polls be saying something different?
ahbuten
DeleteRegardless.
DeleteIts too soon and the memories of GE,PE and BE still raw in the voter's minds. It does not help too that there are too many cases involving their system.. from sex to corruption to unethical practices.
In other words, the ground is not sweet.
No doubt that they will retain Punggol.. I guarantee that. The will provoke ( behind the scenes) to get a 3 corner fight just like PE, dilute the opposition votes and win... no matter if its just 50.000001%
But most likely there will not be any BE at all. The world economic issues will be used to dominate news, and people's jobs will be used to instill fear.
People can say he is a coward etc. But sitting on the throne, he will just give a smirk and say: " Neh! neh! neh!.. I am still up here and you are still down there!"
Nothing you can do, N O T H I N G !!
THANKS to the recent GE..banner of BIG faced MPs greeting residents are part of Singapore's history
ReplyDeleteThis by election could be the last stand for PAP if it go very wrong for them, Worker Party has shown that they are capable of running a town council abated the trouble of an accounting software, there maybe other stuff that WP are not sharing. Next they need to shown that they are more than capable of generating ideas of where Singapore should be.
ReplyDeletePussy action party can play dirty very well. They have enough resources to feature another 2 or 3 or more parties so that eventually they will still win even with only 20% votes. They will always have the rich and civil servants voting for the pussy and they easily make up more than 20% of any SMC or GRC.
ReplyDeleteDr Steve Wu pointed out that MP Teo SL cannot constitutionally be taking care of the Punggol East SMC.
ReplyDeleteNow how is he going to discharged the duties of an MP in that stalled Shopping Mall case ?
The DPM & the PM need to ask the Minister for Law......
They say a face can launch a thousand ships. But here, an erection can launch an election. Jolly jolly Christmas to all.
ReplyDeleteThe more dirty tricks Pussy Action Party try to pull on the electorate, the bigger the graveyard they are digging for themselves. Just look at the old man now, being viewed every bit the sore loser when he threatened the voters @ Aljunied.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the Workers Party will slowly but surely gain the upper hand of being the ever gracious party even when they are the loser. Rome was not built in a day, so Workers Party can still take their time to build up their growing support to present a formidable challenge to Pussy Action Party.
Too many people are pinning their hopes on WP. This is a mistake. Scratch the surface and you will find that WP is no better than the PAP as far as morality and self-interest are concerned. LTK (and CST) accepts the Singapore system set up by the PAP, therefore if WP comes into power, they will perpetuate it. Other opposition parties, recognize the flaws in our system.
ReplyDeletewhat you say is some what true.........
DeleteIf thats what you think, nothing will change and let PAP perpetuate its power? The oppositions as a whole are only taking baby steps towards greater democracy for a better check and balance parliament representation and you are starting to pour cold water?
DeleteNothing ventured, nothing gained.Singapore would be better off with the PAP being made to be on their toes.
Walter Woon said this in 1991 ("Stand up and be quoted", ST 6 July):
ReplyDelete"We effectively don't have a Constitution. We have a law that can be easily changed by parliament, and by the party in power, because the party is the parliament.. it is unsettling how flexible the Constitution is..."
This is a very dangerous and sorry state of affairs many in Singapore don't understand the fragility of the above