State propaganda media ChannelNewsAsia today (Nov 21) published an article shortlisting 7 ruling party PAP cronies for the next Presidential position.
The 7 shortlisted are:
1) Current Speaker of Parliament, Halimah Yaacob
2) Former Minister and Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi
3) Minister Yaacob Ibrahim
4) Minister Masagos Zulkifli
5) Former PAP MP Zainul Abidin Rasheed
6) Bank of Singapore CEO Bahren Shaari
7) Public Service Commission member Po’ad Mattar
Following a landslide approval from all 77 PAP MPs to 6 against from the Opposition, the next Presidential election will be reserved exclusively for only the Malay race. The new racist clause to over-ride Meritocracy is proposed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his selected Elected Presidency committee members to stop non-PAP-endorsed former Presidential candidate Dr Tan Cheng Bock from contesting.
The new law is widely perceived as an insult to the Malay race, as the government is implying that the Malay race can only be President with special exclusion assistance. According to dictator Prime Minister, Singaporean voters are racist and there is a need for such special provision. There is however no mention of changing the Prime Minister position, where the 3 PMs of Singapore are Chinese and two of them are from father and son.
It is understood that a ruling-party-controlled President is important to the dictator so he could have free access to the country’s retirement funding CPF and national reserves. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also sits as the chairman of the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) company GIC, while his wife is CEO of the other SWF Temasek Hodlings.