Quora Answer: Why is It That Not All Singaporeans Accept President Halimah binti Yacob, a Singaporean of Ethnic Malay Descent?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why is it that not all Singaporeans accept President Halimah binti Yacob, a Singaporean of ethnic Malay descent?”

We have to be cognisant of the fact that there are valid concerns among the electorate, even if we may not necessarily agree that they are pertinent.  That is what democracy is all about.  I would be surprised if there are politicians who are accepted by every person.  Even in the US, for example, close to 40% or more do not accept Donald John Trump.  Many millions of Americans did not accept Barack Hussein Obama II either.

In the case of Halimah binti Yacob, we have to remember that she is actually ethnic Tamil, and she studied Tamil in school.  She is designated “Malay” due to the nature of how a Malay is defined according to the Constitution.  The primary designator is to be Muslim, followed by being accepted by the Malay community as having adopted some of their cultural practices.  In fact, all the three prospective candidates were actually not Malay. Mohamed Salleh s/o Kadir Mohideen Saibu Maricar is obviously Indian. Farid Khan bin Kaim Khan was of Arab-Indian descent, specifically Pakistani.  There were no Malay “Malay” candidates.

Secondly, we have to consider the issue of the Reserve Presidency, where a specific candidate, in this case, of Malay “ethnicity”.  Personally, I think this flies in the face of what we want to achieve in Singapore – a post-racial nation that values us on our achievements and abilities, not the lottery of birth.  We should strive to be a meritocracy.

Thirdly, the fact that we actually had no voting because the contest was a walkover did not please many people.  The other two candidates were disqualified because they did not meet the stringent criteria.  These people, mainly Opposition supporters, hold the opinion that she is not “their” president because they did not vote for her.

Overall, we have to consider that the entire Reserve Presidency process, from proposal, to Constitutional Amendment, to electoral process, was rushed.  From a public relations perspective, it was clumsy, and we should expect the government to do better, and be more transparent about this.  We should not forget that Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam, the incumbent, served one term, and then stepped down.  That is very unusual.  The other one-term elected president, before that, was Ong Teng Chong, and he clashed with the ruling party on the issue of the Reserves.