Inimitable Lee Confirms: GRC Benefits the PAP

• lotus999

  20 Feb 06, 19:17

  Inimitable Lee has confirmed our suspicion that GRC benefits PAP:
  
  Littlespeck.com
  Inimitable Lee
  Some things don't change
  His endearing quality is speaking his mind, but a bit of Qatar talk wasn't too helpful to younger ministers trying to justify group voting. By Seah Chiang Nee
  Jan 15, 2006
  
  During his leadership, Singaporeans were used to Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's outspoken way of articulating issues - whether domestic or foreign - that had gained him many admirers, and quite a few critics.
  
  Where others had feared to tread, Lee would wade in, raising subjects considered too sensitive to talk about. I have covered him for many years and had found this 'straight talk' a refreshing approach.
  
  It sometimes ruffled feathers abroad when he commented about foreign leaders or their countries.
  
  This had made him stand out among other leaders who hedged their remarks. In his inimitable frankness, he could talk for hours without boring his audience, sometimes saying things unhelpful to his own party.
  
  His Qatar press briefing was the latest example.
  
  Mr. Lee chose to be frank about group voting at a time when the policy of holding Group Representation Constituency (GRC) elections has come under attack as an instrument to help his ruling party perpetuate control.
  
  One of the opposition Workers Party's four manifesto points for the coming election calls for it's dismantling.
  
  The governing party, however, says this is dangerous talk because GRCs are necessary to ensure that Parliament represents enough minority members needed to maintain racial harmony in Singapore.
  
  (Under the system, 75 of the 84 MPs are voted in GRCs of three to six candidates standing as a team in which Malay and Indian candidates must be included according to their ethnic ratio).
  
  Critics say GRC benefits the PAP and works against the opposition parties, which lack its vast resources.
  
  At Qatar, however, Lee confirmed that slate voting is benefiting the PAP in another way.
  
  It has helped new or weak candidates to win by teaming up under a strong leader pulling them into Parliament when they might have lost.
  
  Mr Lee told reporters that he hoped to bring in new people with potential into his six-member Tanjong Pagar GRC - just like he had done with relative newcomer Mr. Khaw Boon Wan in the last poll.
  
  'He (Khaw) has established himself in the last four years,' said Mr Lee of the Health Minister.
  
  'I think he will lead a GRC. He doesn't need me now. He needed me then because he had no political exposure.'
  
  Mr Lee said the leadership was also looking for new more promising candidates like Mr Khaw, and he (Kuan Yew) will carry 'at least one of them' in his Tanjong Pagar GRC.
  
  What he said - that GRC helps him to protect inexperienced ones - will make it hard for his ministers to convince people that group voting is purely to ensure race stability.
  
  One web letter said that, despite the PAP explanation, many Singaporeans had "seen through the scam for what it is - a system to bring in dubious proteges who will never win enough votes to get into Parliament on their own record. Mr. Lee now confirmed this in Qatar."
  
  Another, mom teresa, said, "I had thought the inauguration of the GRC was all about proportional ethnic representation? Mr. Lee's statement suggests that it is "a political incubator" for the ruling party.
  
  Some Singaporeans also noted what someone said was Mr. Lee's Freudian slip.
  
  Over TV, he started saying that these were people "that I was" (pause) before changing it to "that the Prime Minister and his committee were looking for."
• gill_hfc

  20 Feb 06, 20:02

  If what MM Lee said is true then its sad to see how our very own government is taking us Singaporeans for a ride. The GRC concept started out to ensure more ethnic representations in parliment. However with the expansion of the GRC's and the increase in the number of MPs contesting large GRCs has only led to a number of weaker PAP MPs walking into parliment solely on the back of other heavy weight ministers. I never understood how the MP in my constituency could return during each GE. Weaker PAP MP's need to fight their own battles.
• iveco

  20 Feb 06, 20:06

  Originally posted by gill_hfc:

  If what MM Lee said is true then its sad to see how our very own government is taking us Singaporeans for a ride. The GRC concept started out to ensure more ethnic representations in parliment. However with the expansion of the GRC's and the increase in the number of MPs contesting large GRCs has only led to a number of weaker PAP MPs walking into parliment solely on the back of other heavy weight ministers. I never understood how the MP in my constituency could return during each GE. Weaker PAP MP's need to fight their own battles.

  The GRC system has certainly been abused by those in power. I suggest that all GRCs be broken up and a preferential system of voting put in place. It is better to have multi-cornered fights in each and every ward (in which there are SMCs only).
• pearlie27

  21 Feb 06, 20:30

  so the WP manifesto has one time bomb less!