Nine new Nominated Member of Parliament are… well, nominated. They come from various backgrounds such as a president for the Society for the Physically Disabled (Ms Chia Yong Yong) and a Vice Provost of the National University of Singapore (Prof Tan Tai Yong), to name a few. While they are some didn’t get the nomination, we can look forward for their views and expertise that they will bring into parliament.
Having said that, the notion of Nominated Member of Parliaments has been a rather controversial issue, a issue that is tied to the state of politics in Singapore. I do believe that as a scheme it has been a success, and through they may be unelected members, the varied views they have and the unrepresented group they represent have beneficial to discourse within parliament, even with one NMP taking note that the house didn’t have a quorum to pass a bill several times.
What worries me is that the present systems has it’s faults and issues. faults that serious in nature and could undermine the whole scheme altogether, so what could be done? i propose some improvement:
- Expand the numbers of seats. One of the groups disappointed by the selection is the Arts community, which is probably one of the more vocal unrepresented groups in Singapore. It is a worry that some sections that are not represented are being unrepresented due to limited seats. Any improvement to the scheme should set for a minimum of Nine NMPs to enter parliament, but can select any more members that they deem important to be selected. This gives a wider scope for more views and groups to be represented into parliament.
- Neutrality, guarantee it. Remember Calvin Cheng? he was selected to be an NMP in 2009…. and they disclosed the fact that he was a Young PAP member. Oh dear. Even through it was not illegal nor did the constitution mention anything about it, it drew criticism as this could mean that NMP could have tied with any political parties/organization, which could undermine their position as a NMP. Any improvement to the NMP scheme would have to ensure that any NMP are sworn in as a independent member, disclose any ties during the nomination process and if they still have any involvement and ties, resign immediately after confirmation of their selection. This hopefully ensures that at least we would have NMPs that have current ties with any political parties.
- A radical approach – move them into a new legislative assembly. A different assembly would render the notion that the presence of unelected NMP would dilute the authority of the elected parliament moot. This new upper house, with the probable infusion of some seats to be for MP elected by propositional representation, can be an even better platform for NMPs to discuss issues and advocate for the groups that they represent. It is also worth noting that there is precedence from other countries for this upper house to be nominated (or mostly nominated/elected), as with many upper house do.
They would need a bigger place if they try improvement no.3
While there will always be dissenter and objection to the present scheme, there is no alternative that is better could be thought of, even if i myself find it a little unusual for unelected members to be present inside a Unicameral Legislature. Thus it is better that we continue to improve the NMP scheme to make it a more effective and better process to serve the people of Singapore.
SecondAmongEquals
*The writer blogs at http://secondamongequals.wordpress.com/