LAW Minister K Shanmugam has said that it is important for Singaporeans to understand what the country's president is 'elected and empowered to do' under the Constitution.
In a three-page statement issued to the press yesterday, Mr Shanmugam said that recent comments in the media suggested that there was 'some confusion' over what the President can and cannot do.
'Singapore has a parliamentary system of government, not a presidential one. The President is the head of state, not the head of government. The Prime Minister is the head of government and has the authority and responsibility to govern Singapore.'
Mr Shanmugam's statement came just days after two presidential hopefuls - retired People's Action Party member of parliament Tan Cheng Bock and former NTUC Income chief executive Tan Kin Lian - had outlined their individual plans on what they would do if elected.
RELATED STORIES
'Be very clear' on powers of President
The latter, for instance, said that, among other things, he would want to issue an annual report on the country's reserves.
Mr Shanmugam, who is also the Foreign Minister, said that the Constitution clearly defines the role and scope of the elected President.
'He has custodial powers, not executive powers. In other words, he can veto or block government actions in specified areas, but he has no role to advance his own policy agenda,' he said.
'National policies and running the government are the responsibility of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. This is so for all policies, whether they concern security and defence, immigration and population, or housing and social safety nets.'
The Prime Minister and his Cabinet, he explained, are accountable to Parliament, where policies are debated and endorsed, and ultimately to voters, who decide every five years who to elect to Parliament and to govern Singapore.
Mr Shanmugam said that the president's veto powers over the government are limited to specific areas, including the protection of past reserves accumulated during previous terms of office of the government; the appointment of key personnel; and Internal Security Act detentions and Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau investigations.
'On all other matters, under the Constitution, the President must act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet,' Mr Shanmugam said. 'The President is required to consult the council of presidential advisers when exercising his veto powers in connection with reserves and appointments.'
The minister said that the President's veto powers are an 'important check' against a profligate government squandering the nation's reserves, or undermining the integrity of the public service.
The President, said Mr Shanmugam, is 'directly elected by the people' to have the mandate to carry out his custodial role, and the moral authority to say no if necessary to the elected government.
Just two years ago, President SR Nathan - who holds the so-called 'second key' to the reserves' - gave the approval to fund $4.9 billion worth of relief measures from the reserves due to the severity of the global economic crisis. This was the first time that Singapore had dipped into its reserves.
On the issue of the reserves, which include physical assets such as land and buildings and financial assets such as cash, securities and bonds, Mr Shanmugam said that the government of the day can only spend past reserves with the President's approval.
The President, however, does not direct the operations of these statutory boards and government companies. He is also not empowered to direct the investment strategies of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and Temasek Holdings, said Mr Shanmugam.
'The President also receives the audited annual accounts of GIC and Temasek, and has access to any of the information available to their boards. This system of governance has allowed (them) to operate professionally and achieve good returns over time, comparable to other reputable global investors.'
This article was first published in The Business Times.
yellow fever :
On Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:02:58 +0800, "`" <`...@happy.com> wrote:
>kill alexx
>"AleXX"
>During my secondary school days, I often heard student saying or joking:
>"If there is an Indian and a cobra, which one would you kill if given the
>choice?"
>Can some wise people out there answer the question please?
Kill the Indian and eat the snake?
truth :
The President is elected by ALL Singaporeans, so why should the President be
subjected to so much constrains ?
No other politicians in Singapore is elected by all Singaporeans. So the
President should have more power than the PM.
Singaporeans should now pressure the papist Leegime to rectify this anomaly
created by the selfish Lee Kuan Yew.
When Lee Kuan Yew mooted the idea of the Elected President, he was thinking
of creating the position for himself. There was so much oppositions that the
idea was held back for many years. By then Lee Kuan Yew's idea has changed.
He no longer wanted to be the President as he realised that it is much
better for him to control the government from behind the scene like Deng of
China. So the role of the Elected President was watered down.
Now we must demand that the Elected President be accorded the power and
dignity it deserves.
No more crony sitting in the Presidential office. We want genuinely
independent Singaporeans to occupy this high office. We want this high
office to have all the powers to carry out the duties and responsibilities.
Zanzibar :
On Jun 10, 12:14 pm, "truth"
The law on president duties should be changed to enlarge them.
This so that the president has more works to do than now the current
president was said to be spending 3 hour of his daily morning time
walking in East coast park to reduce his weight.
The new law has to be changed to allow the presdient to be more
connected witth his job role as head of the country in representing
and defencing its people in the ocutnry.
The new law should be insituted to enable the president in
representing the people to check the Govt and to sack any minister or
al of them in the govt acting on the advice of the people of
Singapore.
THe people can use th president to vote them out by convenience way of
a safe and reliable internet voting system.
By this way the people can constntly review their performances every
six months or 1 year, to keeep them on their toes with their jobs tha
affect all Singaporean people.
The voting by the people in the voting system will enable the
president to sack or suspend or pay deduct any minster or MPs or
senior civil servants for their lapses and idleness in their jobs or
policies.
The voting system can be easily based on a 1 to 10 rating level
measurement standards to speed up the decision process of votings.
By this way the minsters and their elites will shape up their attitude
of work and by this way thye will respect the people as thier masters
and they are servants.
Singapore is very small and thus the president should be more than a
puppet president with limited discretionally poers. His powers should
be enlarge to work with the govt of the day for the people. The powers
of the people will be the utlimate decision makers of both of them.
If the constitution of the presidnet can be changed by the Govt of the
day on GRC and others, it should be able ot change the law to enlarge
the role of the president.
No comments:
Post a Comment