But first, guess which PAPpy said this, “I think race informs culture, informs society, informs our world views.”? Answer at the end of this piece.
Back to Ah Mu. Referring to Ong Yee Kung and his comments that to ensure a minority president given that S’poreans vote along racial lines there must now and then be elections where only ‘minority” candidates can stand, someone posted on Facebook
This idiot should be sacked asap for inciting racial hatred.! How did Ah Mu ( Indian Singaporean) win the Bukit Batok recent by-election against Dr. Chee Soon Juan if the electorates are racially biased.??
My FB avatar posted in reply: PAP should get Ah Mu to come out and say without his Chinese comrades he wouldn’t have won.
To be fair to Murali (Ah Mu) if he opens his mouth, either way the PAP is put in a bad light, and he’ll be in trouble.
If he says he won because of the PAP machine (ie his Chinese comrades got out the Chinese vote), the Indian supremacists in that community would consider him a pariah (“Indians punch above their weight,” they would rightly say and “If S’pore is a meritocracy all the top jobs would be held by Indians: juz look at the judiciary and legal service.” They would also say rightly that Tharman would make a popular PM.).
And the PAP doesn’t look good because a Hard Truth is that it’s the “Song not the singer Stupid!” People vote for the PAP not its candidate. Ah Mu would be disciplined.
If he said he won his seat because he got the Chinese to vote for an Indian and whipped Dr Chee’s ass so hard that he had brain damage, he would be going against the Hard Truth that voters vote on racial lines, all things being equal. Again he’d be disciplined.
So silence is the better of valour.
All this reminds me of the following exchange:
Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”
Silver Blaze by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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*Well given the PAP’s Hard Truth that voters vote on racial lines and hence the need as Minister Ong Yee Kung put it
for proposed changes to the Elected Presidency that could safeguard minority representation, saying that the primary purpose of the President is to represent Singapore as head of state, and that it is as such important that all races have a chance to be elected.
it’s interesting that Trump’s Alt Right supporters share similar views on race
Richard Spencer invented the term and told me: “The Alt Right stands for a markedly right-wing orientation, and for us, race matters, and race is the foundation for identity.”
I asked him if he was racist.
“The word ‘racist’ is a kind of an insult,” he said.
“It’s like saying, ‘Are you evil?’
“I think race informs culture, informs society, informs our world views.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37431509
“I think race informs culture, informs society, informs our world views.”
Isn’t this emphasis on race so PAPpish?
But to be fair to the PAP read this: Dr Chee played up race in Bukit Batok.
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 
The Blackbox survey shows that Singaporeans are ready for an Indian PM. If that guy is Tharman. But it would not be right to extrapolate that to claim race will totally not matter.
Neither is Ah Mu’s win over Ah Chee. Ah Mu won simply because BB voters preferred anything PAP over Ah Chee, simple as that. Similarly, Tharman is a super minister.
But what if there is another chinese super minister vying with Tharman? What if when Nathan was President, there was another equally popular chinese candidate? All it needs is 5-10% of voters who vote along racial lines to swing the outcome.
Of course, this again doesn’t justify the PE rules tweaking. Because honestly, fixing the eligibility criteria is all you need to deny Tan Cheng Bock, even without going into race.
Hey what are yr tots about the Minister for Pets comments can for president to have real power, he must be elected in relation to the need for some elections to be restricted only to minoeity candidates. I mean limitec dhoice, so where got mandate. And what if walkover like Nathan’s case.
I guess if its a reserved year, and voting is compulsory, you’ll have to choose between 2 minority candidates anyway. So that’s the mandate that will be claimed. If it is a walkover, it will just be the same as a general election too. The chance was given for someone to stand, but no one did, so, its like you had the chance to contest but didn’t what. So silence means consent? Lol.
In any case, this whole exercise, I fail to see the point of most of it. We all know to some extent that excluding the likes of TCB, TJS and TKL was part of it. PM Lee admitted as much when he said that “some candidates did not understand the office of President.” But TJS and TKL are not going to win. Nor anyone like them. And allowing TCB to win would not have been a problem. They obviously do not want another OTC, but like Shanmugam said, there’s no way to predict that whoever contests will not have disagreements with the G. OTC himself is the perfect example. I voted for TCB, and I don’t see him as much of a problem. What has he done in the past 5 years, except to show face here and there? Shake hands with Chee Soon Juan at a rally? Lol. He’s got a facebook account. He could have started joining in debates and passing his own comments on plenty of things. But did he? I don’t think he has. So there’s no precedent to expect that if elected, he will start stirring problems right? Plus, there’s the council of President’s advisors that he has to work with, anyway.
I don’t see why the race thing has to be brought in too. I don’t think that the need for a minority president, or prime minister for that matter, is a high priority.