REVIEW OF THE ELECTED PRESIDENCY
PM Lee: We have a good political, parliamentary system inherited from the British. We have adapted it over time to fit our needs, and one major change we made was to make the President an elected office. The President is the Head of State and the symbol of the nation. Therefore instead of being chosen by Parliament, he has to be elected by the people of Singapore.
We have operated this two-key system for 25 years, and made many adjustments to it. But some aspects have not been revised and we need to bring them up to date.
In January I appointed a Constitutional Commission, chaired by the Chief Justice, to review 3 things:
- To consider how the President can give more weight to the advice of the Council of Presidential Advisors (CPA)
- To update the criteria for someone to be a candidate to be President
- To ensure that minorities regularly have a chance to become President
The Commission submitted its report to me last week and made recommendations for improvement in all 3 areas. We are still studying the report and will release it soon.
Tonight, I won’t talk about specific recommendations by the Commission. I want to explain why we are reviewing the Elected Presidency and to tell you why in these 3 areas we should make changes.
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