\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: The elected presidency, Non-Constituency MP (NCMP) and Group Representation Constituency (GRC) schemes have stood the test of time and served Singapore well, said Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday (Aug 12).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe true test of these three institutions was how they would work out in practice over the years and decades, and across successive governments,\u201d said Mr Lee at the launch of a new book by former Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Tanglin.<\/p>\n
He said the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the country\u2019s second-generation leadership \u201cfaithfully subjected themselves to what they had created\u201d after introducing those major constitutional changes.<\/p>\n
Mr Lee Hsien Loong said the overriding concern in evaluating the three institutions must always be Singapore’s long-term interests, and what will maintain a stable, well-functioning political system.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that point of view, I am happy that all three have worked out well in practice. The institutions that Mr Lee and his team created have stood the test of time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The senior minister said the book highlights the trade-offs, intricacies and complications the leadership team had to consider, and sheds light on how they worked behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow open they were to radical, out-of-the-box ideas. How intensely but objectively they argued with one another. How Mr Lee Kuan Yew, as prime minister, put forth his views robustly, yet repeatedly and indeed obsessively sought alternative perspectives.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always willing to be persuaded to change his mind, and sometimes settled on a conclusion only after years of reflection and debate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book shows what it means for the prime minister to be primus inter pares, or first among equals, in the Cabinet, and how Cabinet collective responsibility is meant to work, said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
Since the inception of the elected presidency in 1991, successive governments and presidents have \u201cworked together to operate this system of checks and balances\u201d, said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
Its detailed workings have been continually refined through periodic constitutional amendments, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the core concept \u2013 that each elected government should spend within its means, and only draw on past reserves with the consent of the elected president \u2013 remains unchanged,\u201d said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
The mechanism of the \u201csecond key\u201d to the national reserves has also worked as intended, he said.<\/p>\n
Political parties advocating more generous social spending in normal times have been forced to explain how they will fund their schemes, or make the case for changing the rules to spend more from the reserves, said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn emergencies like the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of the day has been able, with the approval of the elected president, to draw on our past reserves to fund substantial emergency packages,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis signified both the gravity of the situation, and the government\u2019s capacity to do whatever it takes to tackle the crisis, backed by the substantial reserves that we have built up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the elected presidency has fostered more prudent and sustainable attitudes towards state spending among political parties and the public, it is not \u201ca complete panacea\u201d, said Mr Lee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The elected president must be equal to the heavy task, convinced that it is his proper role and responsibility, and also has to win popular support to get elected in the first place, said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as experience has shown, it is not a given that voters in a Presidential Election will judge candidates solely on who is best qualified for the task, or who is most committed to fulfilling his custodial role,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an election, especially one decided by a nationwide popular vote, many other factors and considerations can influence the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
He emphasised that Singaporeans need to understand the harm that a rogue government can do to the country, and be careful not to elect presidents who will exceed their roles and responsibilities and cause the system to malfunction.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut on the whole, Singapore\u2019s political system and long-term stability are much better served with the check and balance afforded by an elected president than without,\u201d said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
Mr Lee also touched on the impact of the NCMP and GRC schemes.<\/p>\n
Since the introduction of GRCs in 1988, the proportion of MPs elected from such blocs has gradually increased, while the proportion of single-member constituencies has been maintained, he said.<\/p>\n
Today, GRCs account for the majority of MPs in parliament, said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is no longer seriously doubted that GRCs have been necessary to ensure that minority races are always adequately represented in parliament,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There is also no question whether the minority member of a GRC team enjoys the same mandate and political standing as his teammates, said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cImportantly, the GRC scheme has also discouraged race-based politics. Parties that make overt racial appeals to one group risk losing support from other groups, as experience has shown,\u201d said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
The scheme has therefore contributed significantly to protecting and fostering multi-racial politics in Singapore, he said.<\/p>\n
On the NCMP scheme, Mr Lee said the primary motivation when it was first conceptualised was to prevent opposition voices from being completely shut out of parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that era, it was quite possible for the winning party to make a clean sweep at general elections,\u201d he said. \u201cFour decades on, this is no longer a plausible scenario. Opposition MPs are routinely elected in general elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
While public expectations for more alternative voices in the House have risen, the government has also found it useful for more such voices to be represented in parliament, to engage them in robust and open political debate, said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, we have gradually increased the minimum number of opposition members guaranteed by the NCMP scheme,\u201d he said, adding that the figure has risen from the original three to 12 today.<\/p>\n
Mr Lee noted that this is more than 10 per cent of all MPs, and more than the 10 opposition MPs directly elected in last year’s election.<\/p>\n
Two NCMPs currently top up the opposition presence in the House, and Mr Lee said opposition parties continue to claim to reject the scheme but in reality have never turned down an offer for the post since the 1984 election.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the contrary, they have made full use of the NCMP scheme to raise the public profiles of narrowly losing candidates, in the hope of improving their chances of winning outright in the next election, as has happened more than once. But this is par for the course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
SINGAPORE: The elected presidency, Non-Constituency MP (NCMP) and Group Representation Constituency (GRC) schemes have stood the test of time and served Singapore well, said Senior…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--1Uw6mQhb--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/08\/12\/img_7272.jpg?itok=cH6iKU5p","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1657,23250,1063,28112,15211,28113,1880,22],"class_list":["post-75990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-elected","tag-grc","tag-lee","tag-ncmp","tag-presidency","tag-schemes","tag-served","tag-singapore","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}