Politics of Singapore

Template:Politics of Singapore

The politics of Singapore is based on a unitary state with a Westminister system of parliamentary government. The legislature is the parliament, which consists of the president as its head and a single chamber whose members are elected by popular vote. The president is the head of state elected by popular vote and exercises reserve powers and powers over civil service appointments, government budgetary affairs and internal security matters. The executive is the cabinet or the government, which consists of ministers and is headed by a prime minister who is considered the head of government.

Contents

1 Voting system

2 Constitution

3 President

4 Parliament

4.1 Composition
4.2 Law making

5 Political parties

5.1 People's Action Party
5.2 The opposition

Voting system

Voting has been compulsory in Singapore since 1959 Template:Ref and there is universal suffrage. The legal voting age is 21. The Elections Department of Singapore is responsible for the planning, preparation and conduct of presidential and parliamentary elections and of any national referendum in Singapore. It is a department under the Prime Minister's Office.

Unlike the United States presidential elections of 2004 where electronic voting was used in several states, paper ballots are still used in Singapore. However, there is a concern that voting secrecy might be compromised as ballot papers have serial numbers on them. As stated in the Elections Department website Template:Ref:

"...ballot papers can be examined only under strict conditions, and there are safeguards that make it extremely difficult to find out how any particular voter voted. After the count, all ballot papers and their counterfoils have to be sealed in the Supreme Court vault for six months, after which all the ballot papers and other election documents are destroyed. During those six months, these documents can only be retrieved by court order. The court will issue such an order only if it is satisfied that a vote has been fraudulently cast and the result of the election may be affected as a result. Our courts have issued no such order since elections have been held here since 1948."

Constitution

Like the United States, Singapore has a codified constitution. The Singapore constitution guarantees the following Template:Ref:

liberty of a person
prohibition of slavery and forced labour
protection against retrospective criminal laws and repeated trials
equal protection
prohibition of banishment and freedom of movement
freedom of speech, assembly and association
freedom of religion
right to education

However, there has been criticisms on several occasions that the government has infringed upon the fundamental liberties guaranteed by the constitution (in particular, points 5 and 6) "in the interests of public safety, peace and good order". In 1966, Chia Thye Poh was detained under the Internal Security Act of Singapore and was imprisoned for 23 years without trial. He was subsequently placed under internal exile for another nine years when his movement was confined to the resort island of Sentosa.

The constitution is the supreme law of Singapore Template:Ref and it cannot be amended without the support of more than two-thirds of the members of parliament on the second and third readings Template:Ref. The president may seek opinion on constitutional issues from a tribunal consisting of not less than three judges of the Supreme Court. Singaporean courts, like the courts in Australia, cannot offer advisory opinion on the constitutionality of laws Template:Ref.

President

Prior to 1991, the President was the head of state appointed by Parliament and was largely a ceremonial role with some reserve powers. As a result of constitutional changes in 1991, the president is now directly elected to office for a six-year term by popular vote. The current president is Sellapan Rama Nathan.

The president exercises powers over the following Template:Ref:

appointment of public officers
government budgets
examine government's exercise of its powers under the Internal Security Act
examine government's exercise of its powers under religious harmony laws
investigations into cases of corruption

However, the president must consult the Council of Presidential Advisers before he takes a decision on some of these matters. The council comprises of:

two members appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister
one member appointed by the president on the advice of the chief justice
one member appointed by the president on the advice of the chairman of the Public Service Commission

A member of the council serves a six-year term and are eligible for re-appointment for further terms of four years each Template:Ref.

Similar to the Speech from the Throne given by the head of states in other parliamentary systems, the president delivers the an address written by the government at the opening of parliament about what kind of policies to expect in the coming year.

Parliament

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Singapore_Parliament_House.jpg

Parliament House

Composition

The unicameral Parliament is the legislature in Singapore with the President as its head. Template:Ref Before independence in 1965, it was known as the Legislative Assembly. It currently consists of 94 Members of Parliament. Based on the concept of parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, it is supreme to all other government institutions and may change or repeal any legislation passed by previous parliaments with a majority. The maximum term of any one parliament is five years, after which a general election must be held within three months of the dissolution of parliament, and is housed under the Singapore Parliament House.

84 of these members of parliament are elected into parliament at an election on a first-past-the-post basis and represent either single-member constituencies (or electoral divisions) or Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs). In GRCs, political parties field a team of between three to six candidates. At least one candidate in the team must belong to a minority race Template:Ref. This has led to complaints from opposition parties that they are often unable to field one, let alone three or more candidates. Out of the 84 members of parliament, 10 are female Template:Ref. In the last general election in 2001, the incumbent People's Action Party (PAP) won 82 of the 84 seats Template:Ref.

The constitution also provides for the appointment of other members of parliament not voted in at an election. Up to six Non-Constituency Members of Parliament from the opposition political parties can be appointed Template:Ref. Currently, there is one Non-Constituency Member of Parliament.

A constitutional provision for the appointment of up to nine Nominated Members of Parliament (NMPs) was made in 1990 Template:Ref. NMPs are appointed by the president for a term of two and a half years on the recommendation of a Select Committee chaired by the Speaker of Parliament and are not connected to any political parties. In 2005, nine NMPs were sworn in, out of which five were female.

Both non-constituency and nominated members of parliament cannot vote on the following issues:

amendment of the constitution
public funds
vote of no confidence in the government
removing the president from office

Law making

Before any law is passed, it is first introduced in parliament as a draft called a bill. Bills are usually introduced by a minister on behalf of the cabinet, known as Government Bill. However, any member of parliament can introduce a bill, known as a Private Member's Bill. All bills must go through three readings in parliament and receive the president's assent to become an Act of Parliament.

Each bill goes through several stages before it becomes a law. The first stage is a mere formality known as the first reading, where it is introduced without a debate. This is followed by the second reading, where members of parliament debate on the general principles of the bill. If parliament opposes the bill, it may vote to reject the bill.

If the bill goes through the second reading, the bill is sent to a Select Committee where every clause in the bill is examined. Members of parliament who support the bill in principle but do not agree with certain clauses can propose amendments to those clauses at this stage. Following its report back to parliament, the bill will go through its third reading where only minor amendments will be allowed before it is passed.

Most bills passed by parliament are scrutinised by the Presidential Council for Minority Rights which makes a report to the Speaker of Parliament stating whether there are clauses in a bill which affects any racial or religious community Template:Ref. If approved by the council, the bill will be presented for the president's assent.

The last stage involves the granting of assent by the president, before the bill officially becomes to become a law.

Political parties

People's Action Party

The PAP has been the dominant political party in Singapore, re-elected continuously since 1959. It is headed by Lee Hsien Loong, who succeeded Goh Chok Tong. Goh's predeceesor Lee Kuan Yew served as Singapore's prime minister from independence through 1990. Since stepping down as prime minister, Lee has remained influential first as Senior Minister, and now as Minister Mentor.

PAP has held the overwhelming majority of seats in parliament since 1966, when the opposition Barisan Sosialis Party resigned from parliament and left the PAP as the sole representative party. PAP won all of the seats in an expanding parliament in the general elections of 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980. PAP's share of the popular vote in contested seats declined from 78% in 1980 to 65% in 1997. However, the elections of 2001 saw the party's share of the popular vote climb to 75%, winning 82 of the 84 seats. Since the opposition has contested less than half the seats in the last two elections, overall voter support for the PAP cannot be accurately gauged Template:Ref.

The opposition

Since most Singaporeans are politically apathetic, the opposition parties are stereotypically associated with the truly passionate. J.B. Jeyaretnam of the Workers' Party became the first opposition party member of parliament in 15 years when he won a 1981 by-election. Opposition parties gained small numbers of seats in the general elections of 1984 (2 seats of 79), 1988 (1 seat of 81), 1991 (4 seats of 81), 1997 (2 seats of 83) and 2001 (2 seats of 84) Template:Ref.

Cabinet

The cabinet forms the executive or the government and it is answerable to parliament. It consists of sitting members of parliament and is headed by a prime minister, the head of government. The current prime minister is Lee Hsien Loong.

Neither the prime minister nor members of the cabinet are elected by parliament. Instead, the prime minister is appointed by the president, who in his/her view is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the parliament. Cabinet members, also known as ministers, are appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister Template:Ref.

Unlike the cabinet in the United States where it functions largely as an advisory council to the head of government, the cabinet in Singapore collectively decides the government's policies and has influence over lawmaking by introducing bills.

Judiciary

Judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court as well as surbodinate courts by the constitution. The Supreme Court consists of the Court of Appeal and the High Court. The Court of Appeal exercises appellate criminal and civil jurisdiction, while the High Court exercises both original and appellate criminal and civil jurisdiction Template:Ref. The chief justice, judges of appeal and high court judges are appointed by the president from candidates recommended by the prime minister. The prime minister must consult with the chief justice before recommending the judges. The current chief justice is Yong Pung How.

Jury trials were abolished in 1969 and the Criminal Procedure Code was amended in 1992 to allow for trials of capital offences to be heard before a single judge Template:Ref. The Court of Appeal is Singapore's final court of appeal after the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London was abolished in April 1994. The president has the right to grant pardons on the advice of the cabinet Template:Ref.

Singapore practices the common law legal system, where the decisions of higher courts constitute binding precedent upon courts of equal or lower status within their jurisdiction, as opposed to the civil law legal system in the continental Europe. The current criminal code was preceded by the Indian Penal Code which was adopted was Singapore was a crown colony, and some archaic laws still remain unchanged after independence, such as anal sex, oral sex and homosexual acts between men.

Critics have said that although the judicial system provides citizens with an efficient judicial process, the judiciary is largely compliant and the government often use defamation suits or the threat of such actions to discourage public criticism and intimidate the press Template:Ref.

Governance

Singapore has consistently been rated as one of the least corrupt countries in the world Template:Ref. The World Bank's governance indicators have also rated Singapore highly on rule of law, control of corruption and government effectiveness . However, it is widely perceived that some aspects of the political process, civil liberties, and political and human rights are lacking Template:Ref.

References

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