A Suggestion to enhance Singaporean democracy (for the govt)
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PREAMBLE
I, in my most humble position as an active citizen
(Or one who wants to be in that position at least)
of our wonderful Republic from whom I have derived much benefit
from the provision of goods and services of which I have consumed gladly,
wish to offer to our most highly-regarded leaders,
as a suggestion to:
enhance the fairness of our fair electoral system,
and boost the effectiveness and trustworthiness of the feedback-gathering mechanism,
(- so as to:
elevate international opinion in light of the Summit in September,
and encourage active political participation from the general public -)
this, the Polls and Records Authority of Singapore Bill/Act
to be put under their most-esteemed consideration.
PART I - PRELIMINARY
Article 1: Citation
This article may be cited as the PARAS Act.
Article 2: Interpretation
For the purposes of this Act, the following applies -
(1) "Authority" refers to the Polls and Records Authority of SIngapore, as established under Part II of this Act;
(2) "Chief Elector" refers to the Chief Elector as established under this Act;
(3) "Elections Act" refers to the Parliamentary Elections Act (Cap. 21
;
(4) "political blocs" refers collectively to the People's Action Party, the Workers' Party and the Singapore Democratic Alliance.
(5) "CPIB" refers to the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau as established in the Prevention of Corruption Act.
(6) "President" refers to the President as established under the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore.
(7) "Unit" shall refer to the Feedback Unit;
( the interpretations provided under the Controlled Acts defined in Subsection 2 under Article 5 of this Act shall apply where necessary.
Article 3: Amendment of this Act only through public referendum
(1) -This Act may only be amended through public referendum by Weighted Majority, as is established in Article 11b of this Act. The accepted count shall be set at 50%.
(2)- Any unsolicited amendment of this Act by a public official or an elections official shall be deemed an offence punishable as under Article 19 of this Act. -
PART II - ESTABLISHMENT AND ORGANIZATION
[Section 1: The Chief Elector]
Article 4: Role and Responsibility of the Chief Elector
(1) - The Authority shall be headed by a Chief Elector, whose function shall be the overall supervision of the Authority and the management of General Elections and national by-elections.
(2) - The Chief Elector shall be appointed as set forth by Article 5 of this Act.
(3) - The Chief Elector shall manage the affairs of Directors of the departments, as set forth by Article 7 of this Act. This includes, unless the context so requires:
(a) the appointment of individuals to positions of Directorship
(b) the maintenance of director discipline
(c) the payment of Directors
(4) - The Chief Elector shall advise the President on the appointment of the Director of CPIB.
Article 5: Appointment of the Chief Elector
(1) - The Chief Elector shall be appointed by an eight-member panel comprising:-
(a) The Shadow Elector, as is established in Article 6 of this Act;
(b) The President;
(c) The Director of CPIB;
(d) The Chairman of the People's Action Party;
(e) The Chairman of the Worker's Party;
(f) The Head of the Singapore Democratic Alliance;
(g) The Director of the Feedback Unit, as established in Part IIIC of this Act; and
(h) The Prime Minister.
(2) - The Chief Elector shall be deemed as the Minister for the purposes of these Acts -
(a) The Elections Act;
(b) The Statistics Act (Cap. 317);
(c) The Societies Act (Cap. 311);
(d) The Prevention of Corruption Act (Cap. 241);
(e) The Political Donations Act (Cap. 236).
(3) - For the sake of brevity, the acts cited in the preceding subsection shall be referred to collectively as the Controlled Acts for the remainder of this Act.
(3a) - The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore shall be deemed as a Controlled Act for the purposes of this Act.
(4) - The Qualifications for the Chief Elector are to be as follows -
(a) A Singapore Citizen
(b) over 21 years of age;
(c) Has not been a member of any political party for at least 10 years.
Article 5A: Term of Office of Chief Elector
The Chief Elector shall serve for a term equivalent to the term of government, as stipulated under the Elections Act.
Article 5B: The Shadow Elector
(1) - There shall be a Shadow Elector appointed, with the advice of the President, by the Director of CPIB and the outgoing Chief Elector.
(1A) - The Director of CPIB and the outgoing Chief Elector may not be appointed into the office of Shadow Elector.
(2) - The identity of the Shadow Elector shall be protected under the Official Secrets Act.
(3) - The Shadow Elector shall assume the roles and responsiblities as outlined in Article 4 of this Act during the period of appointment of the Chief Elector.
Article 6: Independence of the Chief Elector
The Chief Elector shall be allowed to function without interference from the Political Blocs, the Judiciary, Parliament and the Executive. -
[Section 2: Structure of the Authority]
Article 7: Establishment
(1) - There shall be constructed a board made up of the Chief Elector, the Deputy Elector and and the Treasurer, both of latter of which are to be appointed by the Chief Elector.
(2) - There shall be established, under the board, an Authority comprising 5 Departments:-
(a) The Department of Public Polls
(b) The Registry of Societies
(c) The Registry of Civil Disorder
(d) The Feedback Unit
(e) The Department of Statistics
(3) - The establishment of the Department of Public Polls shall adhere to the guidelines set under Section I of the Elections Act.
(4) - The establishment of the Registry of Societies shall adhere to the Societies Act.
Article 8: The Registry of Civil Disobedience
(1) - The Chief Elector or the Deputy Chief Elector, on the advice of the Registrar of Societies, shall appoint a Chief Registrar of Civil Disorder, hereby referred to as the Chief Registrar in this Article and Article 8A.
(2) - There shall be under the Chief Registrar, established a department composed of Registration Officers employed by the Chief Registrar.
(3) - The Chief Registrar may, as he or she deems fit, assign a Registration Officer any of the following duties:-
(a) Maintaining the Schedule for Civil Disobedience;
(b) Hiring supervisory police forces to accompany mass rallies or protest marches;
(c) Licensing Officer as established under the Public Entertainment and Meetings Act.
(4) - The Chief Registrar, shall be deemed as the Minister for the purpose of the Public Entertainment and Meetings Act (Cap. 257).
Article 8A: The Schedule of Civil Disobedience
(1) - For the purpose of carrying out the functions stated in subsection (3) of Article 8, The Chief Registrar shall establish a Schedule of Civil Disobedience, in both written and electronic form.
(2) - The written form shall be a record book, of which the page format shall be as shown in the Schedule of the Act.
(3) - The electronic form shall be established in any manner approved by the Chief Registrar.
(4) - With regards to registration of Civil Disobedience -
(a) all Civil Disobediences shall be deemed as "Public Entertainment" as defined in The Schedule of the PEMA.
(b) A Licensing Officer may specify the duration of any Civil Disobedience as he or she thinks fit in maintaining national order and security.
(c) A Licensing Officer shall be granted all powers as conferred under the PEMA.
(d) A Licensing Officer shall assign a police attachment to any Civil Disobedience of a size he or she deems necessary.
(e) The Chief Registrar -
[Section 2A: The CPIB]
Article 12: Independence of Bureau to be guaranteed
(1) - The Bureau shall continue to function as an independent entity.
(2) - The Director of CPIB shall posess the authority to charge the Chief Elector and other staff of the Authority with Corruption.
Article 13: Autonomy of the Director of CPIB subject to monitoring of Chief Elector
The Chief Elector may, when is felt necessary, bring the Director of CPIB to court for misconduct under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Article 14: Organization and Functioning of Bureau to Adhere to Prevention of Corruption Act Unless Otherwise Stated
The Establishment and functioning of the Bureau shall adhere to the Prevention of Corruption Act, with the exceptions of provisions made in the preceding Articles under this Part.
[Section 2B: The Feedback Unit]
Article 15: Establishment
(1) - The Chief Elector shall appoint a Replies Inspector, whose role shall be the management of the Feedback Unit.
(2) - There shall be under the Replies Inspector established a Feedback Unit composed of Feedback Officers hired or appointed by the Replies Inspector.
(3) - The Replies Inspector may appoint an Assistant Inspector if it is deemed necessary for the tasks to be managed efficiently.
(4) - The Replies Inspector may, as it is deemed necessary, assign a Feedback Officer any one of the following tasks -
(a) Collecting feedback from the public;
(b) Conducting straw polls in cooperation with the Department of Polls;
(c) Maintaining communication channels, such as the website at http://www.feedback.gov.sg/;
(d) Organizing and managing feedback forums;
(e) Examining newspapers and other broadcast media for feedback so as to allow the exercise of powers granted under Article 16;
(f) evaluating quality of government replies to feedback;
(f) Any other task which the Replies Inspector deems is necessary, but is not covered in the above provisions.
(5) - Where a Feedback Officer finds the content of a government reply unsatisfactory for reasons listed under Subsection 5, the Feedback Officer shall -
(a) write out a memo to the relevant government department;
(b) append the rejected reply to the memo;
(c) send the memo;
(d) write out and send an apology to the feedback contributor.
Article 16: Powers over the Media
(1) - A Feedback Officer may, at any time, on the approval of the Replies Inspector or the Assistant Inspector, issue a requisition for the full, uneditted version of forum letters or newspaper commentaries.
(2) - A requisition shall -
(a) be in writing;
(b) be delivered directly to the office of the Chief Executive Officer of the parent media company of the particular print publication;
(c) specify the title of the letter or commentary to which the full version is requested.
(3) - The Unit shall, with the aid of a Newspaper Company, as defined under the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act (Cap. 206), publish a Periodical called SgVoices.
(4) - SgVoices shall include -
(a) Feedback;
(b) results of straw polls;
(c) approved replies to feedback;
(d) Where an election has just concluded, the results arranged by constitutency;
(e) Where an election has just commenced, the electoral boundaries;
(5) - SgVoices shall be published at an interval determined by the Replies Inspector. -
PART III - FINANCIAL MATTERS
Article 17: The Treasurer
(1) - The Chief Elector shall appoint a Treasurer, whose job function shall be to raise finance for the Authority.
(2) - The Treasurer may manage finance by -
(a) commercializing some aspects of some departments, such as the Department of Public Polls, so as to gain a constant source of revenue;
(b) issuing shares and bonds on the market;
(c) regulating salary cuts and increases;
(d) cutting costs;
(e) seeking for a portion of the Budget, not more than one cent out of every billion dollars.
(3) - For the purpose of carrying out the function described under subsection (2)(c), the Teasurer shall be present at every job interview.
(4) - For the purpose of carrying out the function described under subsection (2)(e), the Treasurer shall participate in all Budget Debates.
(5) - With regards to Subsection (3), payment of CPIB officers shall adhere to the regulations set out under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Treasurer's accounting calculations need not factor in the operational costs of CPIB.
(6) - With regards to subsection (2)(b), no shareholder shall be permitted to own more than 5% of the Authority.
PART IV - PENALTIES
Article 18: Abuse of Power by the Chief Elector
(1) The Chief Elector shall be liable for charges of abuse of power under -
(a) Article 55 of the Elections Act;
(b) Articles 60 and 61 of the Elections Act.
(2) - The penalty for such offences shall be -
(a) immediate removal from office;
(b) payment of a fine not less than $10 000; or
(c) a jail term decided by the Supreme Court.
Article 19: Unsolicited Amendments to Controlled Acts.
(1) - Amendments to the Controlled Acts which are made -
(a) without the knowledge of the Authority;
(b) without the permission of the Authority;
(c) without the Weighted Majority as required for the Elections Act under Article 9A;
shall be deemed as unsolicited amendments.
(2) - The Chief Elector or Minister who carries out such amendments shall be -
(a) suspended from office without delay;
(b) be barred from the subsequent Parliamentary Elections if he or she is a Minister;
since such Amendments shall be deemed as unconstitutional.
PART V - TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS
Article 20: Regarding Place of Operation
(1) - The Government shall provide or construct a suitable Office Building for the Authority.
(2) - During construction -
(a) The Chief Elector and Treasurer shall each possess an office in the Istana;
(b) The Feedback Unit, Registry of Societies and CPIB shall retain use of their former offices;
(c) The Chief Registrar shall have a temporary office provided by the Registrar.
Article 21: Regarding vote-counting in Parliamentary Elections
For the subsequent elections before the completion of construction or assignment of offices, the Standard Majority as established under Article 10A shall continue to be used. (i.e. the forms of 1965 continue to be used.)
Article 22: Regarding the Feedback Unit
Until the first election proceeding the completion of construction or assignment of offices, The Minister of Community Development, Youth and Sports shall co-preside with the Chief Elector over the Replies Inspector as appointed under Article 15 of this Act.
Article 23: Regarding the implementation of Article (5), Subsection (2)
Until the first election proceeding the completion of construction or assignment of offices, the provision in Subsection (2) of Article 5 shall not apply.
THE SCHEDULE: SCHEDULE OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE FORMAT -
Interesting. I suppose you are a lawyer?
There's one bit that bothers me, that is, the politcal party chairmen should not be a party to the appointment of any civil servant unless they have been elected into Parliament. -
As long as the Chief Elector or CPIB or PSC and Chief Justice etc are still appointed by the government, they are unlikely to be independent. Such key constitutional positions should be independent of the government and should always stay as watchdogs of the people.
The independence and objectivity or good corporate governance is the single most important factor to safeguard our vibrancy and competitiveness as a nation.
Yet such a crucial factor has not been appreciated by the current government no matter how excellent are their academic or other abilities. I suppose they are simply human and self-centred.
Given the fact the humans will finally serve their own vested interests, Citizens are finally the ones to safeguard the whole country and not the government in power or the current government who will not give up their vested interest to change for the better.
Citizens are the ones who should look after the whole country's interest and survival not the government. We need independent key people to be in charge and not just the government who has proven to be too narrow in their vision and who does not bother. -
Robert,Originally posted by robertteh:As long as the Chief Elector or CPIB or PSC and Chief Justice etc are still appointed by the government, they are unlikely to be independent. Such key constitutional positions should be independent of the government and should always stay as watchdogs of the people.
The independence and objectivity or good corporate governance is the single most important factor to safeguard our vibrancy and competitiveness as a nation.
Yet such a crucial factor has not been appreciated by the current government no matter how excellent are their academic or other abilities. I suppose they are simply human and self-centred.
Given the fact the humans will finally serve their own vested interests, Citizens are finally the ones to safeguard the whole country and not the government in power or the current government who will not give up their vested interest to change for the better.
Citizens are the ones who should look after the whole country's interest and survival not the government. We need independent key people to be in charge and not just the government who has proven to be too narrow in their vision and who does not bother.
1) I agree. But I also happen to notice that the provisions don't just provide for the government to appoint the Chief Elector, but include other people such as the opposition and the President. So I suppose there is more objectivity in that sense?
2) Are you mixing up economics with politics?
3) Guess so; or perhaps it is the Hierarchy itself. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
4) I concur fully here.
5) Actually, I think that wavist offers quite a good suggestion, except that perhaps some of the positions are not as autonomous as we - Me, Laserlordz, you, maybe some others - would wish them to be. But I do suppose we have to start somewhere.
aft) I wonder why this thread is being ignored... it seems pretty interesting to me...
the (puzzled) pikamaster -
Originally posted by pikamaster:Robert,
1) I agree. But I also happen to notice that the provisions don't just provide for the government to appoint the Chief Elector, but include other people such as the opposition and the President. So I suppose there is more objectivity in that sense?
2) Are you mixing up economics with politics?
3) Guess so; or perhaps it is the Hierarchy itself. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
4) I concur fully here.
5) Actually, I think that wavist offers quite a good suggestion, except that perhaps some of the positions are not as autonomous as we - Me, Laserlordz, you, maybe some others - would wish them to be. But I do suppose we have to start somewhere.
v long ba..lazy read...
haha...
just be transparent and kick out any corrupt officers enuf d la..
dont tax so high...
aft) I wonder why this thread is being ignored... it seems pretty interesting to me...
the (puzzled) pikamaster -
Originally posted by pikamaster:
Chief Elector is a good suggestion. Let there be a key constitutional position to help safeguard the election and take the government's hand off the whole dirty game of gerrymandering the election process.
[b]
Robert,
1) I agree. But I also happen to notice that the provisions don't just provide for the government to appoint the Chief Elector, but include other people such as the opposition and the President. So I suppose there is more objectivity in that sense?2) Are you mixing up economics with politics?
Politics and economics are intertwined and cannot be separated. Good corporate governance is good for good politics and good economics.3) Guess so; or perhaps it is the Hierarchy itself. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The American's and Western democracy has worked well so far on the basis of check and balance to prevent absolute power which has taken deep root in our Island.I wonder why this thread is being ignored... it seems pretty interesting to me...
Singaporeans have been brainwashed into believing almost anything the leaders have been assuming but were not working. That will take quite some time to change. -
the ruling party has everything under control and wont need any of our suggestions.
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mmm... n ur point is... ?Originally posted by contact: -
Sorry to say this, but I think you lose your audience with a thread consisting of 4 postings in the style of statutory drafting. You're better off spelling out the gist of your suggestion before translating it into legal jargon.
Anyway, it appears that there might be several problems to your proposal. Firstly, you are proposing a legislation, and legislation is always subject to the will of Parliament. Hence, it is inherently impossible to grant your Chief Elector immunity from interference from Parliament, which you have attempted to do.
Also, you appear to be suggesting that the Chief Elector usurp the role of Ministers for the "Controlled Acts". I do not believe that this is constitutionally permissible.
It seems to me that you are really suggesting that another pillar be built into our Constitution. Is this necessary? I think we are better off working on the existing loopholes in the Constitution and various legislation than to complicate the traditional structure of government. We already have a Judiciary and a President in place to check on the Executive (Parliament is unfortunately an absent concept in Singapore) - perhaps we can work on strengthening those areas first?
And of course a free press. -
I accept your point about spelling out the gist of my suggestion. I don't understand your second point though. For the third point, people "usurp" roles all the time in Acts; I read a good deal before writing this "Bill" out. And yes and no, I am suggesting and not suggesting that a new pillar be built into the Constitution. Yes, in the sense that there is are new roles established in the sense of the Chief Elector and the Chief Registrar, and no in the sense that most of the Act is basically a government reshuffling; the only new agency introduced is the RCD, which can hardly be considered a new branch of govt. RCD is more like an appendage or extension of ROS. PARAS is upposed to provide a means to ensure the integrity of the role of President and of elections and feedback in general.Originally posted by Rexdriver:Sorry to say this, but I think you lose your audience with a thread consisting of 4 postings in the style of statutory drafting. You're better off spelling out the gist of your suggestion before translating it into legal jargon.
Anyway, it appears that there might be several problems to your proposal. Firstly, you are proposing a legislation, and legislation is always subject to the will of Parliament. Hence, it is inherently impossible to grant your Chief Elector immunity from interference from Parliament, which you have attempted to do.
Also, you appear to be suggesting that the Chief Elector usurp the role of Ministers for the "Controlled Acts". I do not believe that this is constitutionally permissible.
It seems to me that you are really suggesting that another pillar be built into our Constitution. Is this necessary? I think we are better off working on the existing loopholes in the Constitution and various legislation than to complicate the traditional structure of government. We already have a Judiciary and a President in place to check on the Executive (Parliament is unfortunately an absent concept in Singapore) - perhaps we can work on strengthening those areas first?
And of course a free press.
At the same time, PARAS is constructed in a way to make it palatable to the authorities. In many areas where it could be more drastic in its measures, it isn't. We need to make incremental changes, since the nature of the govt is still very conservative. -
hahaOriginally posted by Rexdriver:Sorry to say this, but I think you lose your audience with a thread consisting of 4 postings in the style of statutory drafting. You're better off spelling out the gist of your suggestion before translating it into legal jargon.
Anyway, it appears that there might be several problems to your proposal. Firstly, you are proposing a legislation, and legislation is always subject to the will of Parliament. Hence, it is inherently impossible to grant your Chief Elector immunity from interference from Parliament, which you have attempted to do.
Also, you appear to be suggesting that the Chief Elector usurp the role of Ministers for the "Controlled Acts". I do not believe that this is constitutionally permissible.
It seems to me that you are really suggesting that another pillar be built into our Constitution. Is this necessary? I think we are better off working on the existing loopholes in the Constitution and various legislation than to complicate the traditional structure of government. We already have a Judiciary and a President in place to check on the Executive (Parliament is unfortunately an absent concept in Singapore) - perhaps we can work on strengthening those areas first?
And of course a free press.
I guess I'll help the_wavist summarize up the points of his/her proposal:-
1. Giving independence to the Elections Department, Registry of Societies and Statistics Bureau
2. Establishing an independent office of the chief elector to oversee these departments.
3. the establishment of a Registry of Civil Disobedience under the chief elector
4. Implementation of a new voting system for GE called vote by weighted majority.
cheers to wavist,
the pikamaster -
haha this thread is gone ...
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good summary
but when will them have a chance to be implemented?
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I guess if we had the will to start a petition or sth....Originally posted by abao:good summary
but when will them have a chance to be implemented? -
:mrgreen:
Sorry to come here so late.. started reading, half way zzzZZZZ. Bit too lenghtly. No offence.. -
Originally posted by king108:
haha
:[b]mrgreen: Sorry to come here so late.. started reading, half way zzzZZZZ. Bit too lenghtly. No offence..
[/b] I provided a neat little summary near the bottom of this page.... u can read tt instead if u want... -
Originally posted by pikamaster:haha I provided a neat little summary near the bottom of this page.... u can read tt instead if u want... read.. easy to put in words. They will give 1001 reasons to put it aside...sighed..
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Originally posted by king108:
tt many??
[b]read.. easy to put in words. They will give 1001 reasons to put it aside...sighed..
[/b]
u sure?? -
Originally posted by pikamaster:tt many?? u sure?? :mrgreen: You can tried, I won't waste more time on these. I only waiting for the right time right moment only....
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Originally posted by king108:
at least the_wavist is doing sth, although I concede, it's not exactly tt effective...
:mrgreen[b]: You can tried, I won't waste more time on these. I only waiting for the right time right moment only.... [/b] -
Originally posted by pikamaster:at least the_wavist is doing sth, although I concede, it's not exactly tt effective... May the force be with you. Amen