A first-world nation requires a first-world constitution
-
The Constitution is the single most important document which sets out the basic rights of citizens and defines the role of government and its component branches.
The constitution of Singapore however has been too brief and general in that it has not set out the specific rights of individual citizens thereby allowing the government of the day to interpret and supersedes such rights of citizens to suit its own convenience under the guise of leadership, pragmatism, racial representation, or maintaining law and order.
Such vagueness has led to circumventing of the basic rights of citizens and usurping the roles and powers of other equally compelling functional components of government i.e. the judiciary, the legislative, the members of parliament, opposition parties and citizens with too much concentration of power in one or a few men of the ruling party.
Under the constitution, citizens were provided with the right to elect their own representatives to work towards providing the greatest benefits of the great number of citizens and diverse social, economic and cultural needs and aspirations.
However the law of election has been amended by tweaking of electoral process of voting for the best individual candidates of their choice to that of requiring individual candidates to form themselves into a slate or block of candidates with certain minority racial candidates before they are eligible to offer themselves for election.
Group representations have prevented or hindered individual candidates to offer themselves to stand for election and many individuals are deprived of their right to offer themselves to stand for election in a one-man-one-vote process provided in the constitution.
In addition, the concentration of too much power in the hand of one or a few primary members of the executive has created a situation where such executives are able to supersede or suppress the right of other branches of government therefore depriving the citizens of their right of proper representation.
In view of the above-stated problems and shortcomings, it is urgent to revamp the current constitution to prevent any party in power from exploiting the loopholes in the existing constitution with clear and unambiguous definitions of government roles, authority and responsibilities of respective component branches of the government.
By defining the roles, and authority of component branches of government is is then possible to create or foster the necessary conditions for evolvement or development of social, cultural and moral character and vibrancy of its people essential to nationhood in the long-term interest of the nation.
Only when there is such a safeguard against abuse of power over the other equally desirable aspects of nation building will it bring about the necessary conditions supportive of development of active citizenship.
It has been argued that it is paramount for the government to maintain law and order but with concentration of too much power in the hand of one or a few members of the executive it is equally important to ensure that the executive does not exceed its role or power by superseding the equally or not more compelling exercise of roles and power of other component branches of government so as to ensure that the whole government will govern with accountability and transparency to prevent wrong doings which cause instability and breakdown of law and order.
Thus it is clear that the ultimate and most fundamental purpose and objective of government is not limited or restricted to maintaining law and order per se but it is to bring about social, cultural and moral fabric of citizens essential to maintaining of law and order and to facilitate mass participation of citizens in all endeavors of nation building.
A good government is one which will govern the country with a larger perspective and not governance for the sake of law and order but for greatest benefits of the greatest number as well as holistic progress and wellbeing of citizens and not governance for the sake of governance or law and order alone.
It is even more important to ensure good corporate governance based on clearly defined roles and responsibilities of all constituent parties of government to avoid doubts ambiguity and in order to be practised and seen to be practised according to the full intent and spirit of the constitution critical to such nation building.
By facilitating the holistic governance as stated in the foregoing it will offer practical solutions to providing relevant and pertinent check against potential abuse of power, corruptions or wrong doings for more competitive and creative social and economic development of the nation.
In the absence of such clear definition and safeguard, it will lead to legalistic wrangling or tweaking of laws and regulations resulting in control for the sake of control and eventually stifling the organic growth of nation building.
...to continue to next post -
....continued from previous post.
Concentration of power in the hand of one or a group of executive will also lead to over-controls, over-regulations, autocracy, tyranny to suit their own narrow agenda of staying in power using the excuse of meritocracy or pragmatism at the expense of larger aspect of nation building and stifling of creativity and enterprises of society.
In the larger long-term interest of the state or the people, it is therefore critical and urgent to revise the current constitution so as to bring about conducive conditions towards governing the country for the greatest good for the greatest number?
With such specific definition of rights and roles of government versus that of citizens it will bring about conditions for development of long-term stability of nation and maintenance of true law and order with correspondence protection against corruption, abuse of power and other malpractices.
To run a country competitively and successfully, it is essential that there government should be elected by the people through free election without affecting or usurping the unalienable and unencumbered right of citizens to elect the best individual candidates of their free choice like GRC block representation which has jeopardized the free and democratic election process.
The government is elected to carry out the following essential functions:-
(1) administration,
(2) legislation - passing of laws and regulations for fair and just administration,
(2) justice,
(3) maintaining a free election process to enable citizens to elect their representatives or offer themselves as candidates to stand for election,
(4) implementing policies and decisions in objectively defined work processes to ensure good corporate governance i.e. governance with accountability and responsibility essential to development of citizens' social, cultural and economic vibrancy and competitiveness.
Specifically the constitution should clearly define (a) An effective executive, (b) Independent legislature, (c ) An independent judiciary.
Each of the above-stated three component branches of government has its own critical roles and responsibilities to play. By spelling out such roles and responsibilities as well as power or authority it will then lead of development of good corporate governance to serve the greatest benefits of the greatest number.
When such a constitution is established, it is then possible to bring about condition for citizens and government to work with cooperations, coordination and efficiency. All government policies and decisions will then gain the fullest support and participation of its citizens in nation building ?
The current vagueness due to lack of clear definition of rights and privileges of citizens and component branches of government has created a situation where the executive has accumulated too much discretionary power to pass laws and regulations to suit its own narrow agendas avoiding accountability and curtailing people's right to speak up, and participate in governing policies, appointments of government etc.
Read more about the current problems and shortcomings of the government in "20 major policy errors of government" and "review of performance of government under PM Lee Hsien Loong" as posted to the forums and the feedback unit.
With such revision of the constitution, it will then be possible to work toward bringing about a cosmopolitan and inclusive society. Will it govern the nation for the greatest good of the greatest number?
It will also help the government of the day to better appreciate that the goal of nation building is larger than that of creating surpluses by taxing and recovering all costs possible from the citizens resulting in rising costs of living to the citizens and their loss of economic competitiveness or worse spending of surpluses on extravagant projects or foreign investments like suzhou or shin corp.
There is obviously against the spirit of the constitution to tweak the electoral process under the pretext of maintaining law and order or protecting the interest of racial minority.
The curtailing of individual's right to stand for election unless he forms himself into grouping with other candidates for whatever reason has caused serious set-back to the progress and wellbeing of citizens in nation building.
The revisions along the line as stated in the foregoing with help to motivate all citizens in nation building and bringing about conditions essential for on-going efforts to build a vibrant, open and competitive nationhood. -
most singaporeans either don't know what a constitution is or don't know that we have one or don't care.
-
i tot there is a similar thread somewhere ... no spamming pls ... keep the forums neat and tidy.
-
How good are you in keeping this forum neat and tidy by lighting so many flames all over the place.Originally posted by crazy monkey:i tot there is a similar thread somewhere ... no spamming pls ... keep the forums neat and tidy.
Do you have something good to post yourself like whether NKF is created by the government's own wrongful policies or conduct or whether the latest GST increase is justifiable while 80% of the citizens are still struggling for a living.
Other than monkeying around the forum and calling people whiners who are actually trying to contribute their diversity or views and opinions, do you have anything else worthwhile to say in the larger interest of the people or are you only interested to earn your own keeps without regard to what is right and what is wrong.
I thought I have told you earlier that I might get a bit of personal if provoked. -
spammer will be banned.Originally posted by robertteh:How good are you in keeping this forum neat and tidy by lighting so many flames all over the place.
Do you have something good to post yourself like whether NKF is created by the government's own wrongful policies or conduct or whether the latest GST increase is justifiable while 80% of the citizens are still struggling for a living.
Other than monkeying around the forum and calling people whiners who are actually trying to contribute their diversity or views and opinions, do you have anything else worthwhile to say in the larger interest of the people or are you only interested to earn your own keeps without regard to what is right and what is wrong.
I thought I have told you earlier that I might get a bit of personal if provoked. -
Ignorance of the constitution is a smaller issue. It is nevertheless no excuse for being ignorant or not being interested in what is going on.Originally posted by vito_corleone:most singaporeans either don't know what a constitution is or don't know that we have one or don't care.
It is important for all citizens to understand the importance of constitution as based on the constitutions and the loopholes found by expert many government actions like GRC have been taken and by then it is too late for the average joes to want to do anything expect to become unemployed or losing his last jobs with government being helpless and pushing all problems aside back to the people.
People need big crises like deep recessions and bird flu to wake up to the importance of posting their honest views and opinions on forums and help them flock closer together to stay stronger and survive.
It will be worse if knowing the loopholes, those in charge are left to use all the legalistic wrangling of laws and regulations relentlessly to exploit loopholes to further their own narrow interests at the expense of larger interests of the whole society or the majority of citizens,