Calling an open election “risky”, Minister for Communications and Information (MCI) Yaacob Ibrahim told students that Singaporeans are racist during election and that is why the next election has to be reserved for only the Malays:
“My preference would have been clearly an open election, where a Malay could actually win the EP on his or her own merit. But I think we also have to ask ourselves whether or not we are able to achieve that if we take that risk. Tribal tendencies are still very strong and run deep, not just among the minorities, but even among the majorities… The Malay community is concerned not just about the president, but also Malay permanent secretary, Malay general… because we want to see representation across the entire Singaporean life.”
There is however no mention of a Malay Prime Minister, despite having the position taken by Chinese and two times by the Lee father and son duo.
Speaking at the forum held by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, a student criticised the new racist election rule as “mere tokenism”. To which, Minister Yaacob fumbled in his response and spoke incoherently about “evolving the election”:
“Give the elected presidency (EP) a chance to develop and allow it to evolve. I think, let’s give it a chance and see how it works because no policy is cast in stone. One day, the Government might change its mind and decide that this reserved election doesn’t work. You never know. You’ve to sort of recognise the fact that we must continue to evolve and learn from the experiences on the ground.”
Minister Yaacob is in-charge of national propaganda under the Ministry of Information. The upcoming Presidential election was reserved for only the Malay race because dictator Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is worried about former presidential candidate Dr Tan Cheng Bock who initially announced that he will contest. The S$2 million-a-year Singapore President role is a puppet position to render free access to the national reserves and CPF retirement fund for the government and the two sovereign wealth fund companies to invest in stock market around the world. The two companies are headed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his wife Ho Ching, where one is chairman of GIC and the other is CEO of Temasek Holdings.