Supporting the motion would risk having no or inadequate multiracial representation in the highest legislative body of the land, said Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing.
SINGAPORE: Parliament on Wednesday voted against a motion tabled by the Progress Singapore Party to abolish the Group Representation Constituency system, with many Members of Parliament – including Nominated MPs and those from the Workers’ Party – saying the system should stay as there is still a risk of racially charged politics.
MP Murali Pillai was one of those who rose to speak in a debate that lasted almost four hours. He recounted his personal experience as a candidate in his Single Member Constituency in 2016 and 2020. “It would be difficult for any person to exploit matters along racial lines during elections when the political parties in the contest fielded minority candidates in their respective teams,” he added.No requirement for by-election in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC after Halimah Yacob resigned: Court of AppealIn tabling the motion, PSP’s non-constituency MP Hazel Poa said that the GRC system has generated several “sub-optimal” outcomes.
She also proposed a form of a proportional representation system, where a party that obtains 10 per cent of the national vote would, for example, be allocated about 10 per cent of the seats.While the aim of ensuring minority representation in Parliament through Group Representation Constituencies is laudable, the system has generated several “sub-optimal” outcomes, said NCMP Hazel Poa.
Adding that the councils could instead be formed by six adjoining SMCs or two three-member GRCs, he argued that “many Singaporeans believed that the PAP government expanded GRC sizes to hamper the opposition’s electoral chances”.One of which includes how the varying sizes of GRCs provide “maximum flexibility” for the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee “to redraw boundaries in a way that can be advantageous for the ruling party”.
He noted that a proportional representation system would result in “parties that are based on race and religion, or special interests”. Some parties would be incentivised to build their base around a particular interest in order to win seats, rather than to appeal to a broad majority of voters, he argued.
Adding that the NCMP scheme has also been criticised by various opposition MPs as a “second-class MP scheme”, he concluded that such a scheme would not solve the problems raised and could “complicate things even more”. Turning to PSP’s point about moving beyond the issue of race, Mr Chan drew a distinction between aspiration and reality.
“But are we there yet? So let us ... endeavour and commit to making progress continuously,” said Mr Chan.To support a motion calling for Group Representation Constituencies to be abolished goes against Singapore’s founding philosophy of ensuring that the interests of minority communities are accounted for. It risks having no or inadequate multiracial representation in the highest legislative body of the land.
The IPS survey also showed high levels of interracial and religious trust in Singapore, with most indicating an interest and willingness to interact with and get to know other cultures. He told the House that he did not hear defences from the NMPs or PAP MPs on the argument that the GRC system was “ridden on for gerrymandering purposes”.
“I just wanted to ask Mr Pritam Singh whether he knows where the term gerrymandering comes from and how far back it goes, and whether or not they have GRCs in those places.” “Gerrymandering goes back 200 years or more in the United States of America - what we consider the paragon of democracy today, and those accusations are still being made today.”
He noted that past reports contained up to 50 pages explaining why boundaries were redrawn, while the latest one was “in single digits”.
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