To reach the First-World - First, revamp the Constitution

The Constitution is the single most important document which spells out the basic rights of citizens such as freedom of speech or freedom to stand for election and defines the role. duties and powers of government and its component branches. The constitution of Singapore however has been too brief and general allowing the government of the day to interpret it to suit its own narrow-minded agendas and disregard such rights under the guise or excuses like pragmatism, racial representation, or maintaining law and order. Such vagueness has led to usurping the roles of other equally important roles of government i.e. the judiciary, the legislative, the members of parliament, opposition parties and citizens with too much concentration of power in one or a few men of the ruling party. Owing to the deprivation or non-provision of basic rights, the government is able to interpret the provisions such as to deny right of citizens to defend against state autocracy and wrongs with legal process like habeas corpus or demand right to stand for election under the principle of governance for the greatest benefits of the great number of citizens to meet diverse social, economic and cultural needs and aspirations. Hence the ruling party of the day has gone on with tweaking of the laws and regulations including hindering their right to stand for election by block representation system or GRC with the excuse of protecting the minority racial candidates. Group representations require single election candidates to form themselves into blocks or GRCs before they could stand for election hence hindering individual candidates of their right to offer themselves to stand for election in a one-man-one-vote process provided in the constitution. In addition, the vague provisions in the current constitution has created a situation where the executive branch and its narrowly based cabinet take power into their own hand by appointing their own elites into all other branches of government without independent confirming process with the participation of elected Members of Parliament. Thus we are making a charade of having election just to give all-in and unlimited power to a few within the eventual cabinet to do as they like without accountability in decision making or results based on producing the greatest benefits to the greatest number of people. In view of the above-stated problems and shortcomings, it is urgent to revamp the constitution and prevent a few self-imposing leaders from exploiting vagueness of provisions and existing loopholes and usurping of the entire government roles for their own benefits. Clearly due to many years of narrow-minded self-centred governing system we are suffering from lack of development of our own social, cultural and moral character and vibrancy as a people essential to nationhood in the long-term interest of the nation. It has been argued that the govern needs to maintain law and order but with concentration of too much power in few members of the self-imposing executives. What people want from all their feedbacks is for leadership to happen but not without processes which allow the whole government to be managed with accountability and transparency. There is a more critical need to check or prevent abuses of power which eventually with cause breakdown of law and order we seek to prevent in the first place. Thus to maintain law and order the government and its executive branch have to subject themselves to the same set of laws and their equitable and objective enforcement. It is only through empowering the people in granting them freedom of speech, association, exercise of voting right and right to stand for election, etc that the state is able to maintain law and order or bring about greater social, cultural and moral vibrancy and succeed in endeavors of nation building. A good government is one which will govern the whole country based on rule of law and order in the larger perspective as stated in the foregoing and not some wishy washy utterances to serve the narrow agendas of the power that be and excuse them of wrong doings. Obviously if a government is to achieve progress and wellbeing of citizens it will have to upgrade and change from a narrow-minded one called leadership or talent to one incorporating the above-stated larger goals and perspectives. It is even more important to ensure good corporate governance based on holistic and overall benefits of all. Concentration of power in the hand of the executive alone will lead to over-controls, over-regulations, narrow agenda of staying in power using meritocracy or pragmatism as tools to increase their own power while preventing participations of masses and stifling of creativity and enterprises of society. With revamping of the constitution, citizens could take a more active part in development of long-term stability of nation and maintenance of true law and order with correspondence protection against corruption, abuse of power and other malpractices. To run a country competitively and successfully, the ongoing political development process must be facilitated rather than hindered. The government is elected to carry out the following essential functions:- (1) administration, (2) legislation - passing of laws and regulations for fair and just administration, (2) justice, (3) maintaining a free election process to enable citizens to elect their representatives or offer themselves as candidates to stand for election, (4) implementing policies and decisions in objectively defined work processes to ensure good corporate governance i.e. governance with accountability and responsibility essential to development of citizens' social, cultural and economic vibrancy and competitiveness. Specifically the constitution should clearly define (a) An effective executive, (b) Independent legislature, (c ) An independent judiciary. Each of the above-stated three component branches of government has its own critical roles and responsibilities to play. By spelling out such roles and responsibilities as well as power or authority it will then lead of development of good corporate governance to serve the greatest benefits of the greatest number. When such a constitution is established, it is then possible to bring about condition for citizens and government to work with cooperations, coordination and efficiency. All government policies and decisions will then gain the fullest support and participation of its citizens in nation building ? The current vagueness due to lack of clear definition of rights and privileges of citizens and component branches of government has created a situation where the executive has accumulated too much discretionary power to pass laws and regulations to suit its own narrow agendas avoiding accountability and curtailing people's right to speak up, and participate in governing policies, appointments of government etc. Read more about the current problems and shortcomings of the government in "20 major policy errors of government" and "review of performance of government under PM Lee Hsien Loong" as posted to the forums and the feedback unit. With such revision of the constitution, it will then be possible to work toward bringing about a cosmopolitan and inclusive society. Will it govern the nation for the greatest good of the greatest number? It will also help the government of the day to better appreciate that the goal of nation building is larger than that of creating surpluses by taxing and recovering all costs possible from the citizens resulting in rising costs of living to the citizens and their loss of economic competitiveness or worse spending of surpluses on extravagant projects or foreign investments like suzhou or shin corp. There is obviously against the spirit of the constitution to tweak the electoral process under the pretext of maintaining law and order or protecting the interest of racial minority. The curtailing of individual's right to stand for election unless he forms himself into grouping with other candidates for whatever reason has caused serious set-back to the progress and wellbeing of citizens in nation building. The revisions along the line as stated in the foregoing with help to motivate all citizens in nation building and bringing about conditions essential for on-going efforts to build a vibrant, open and competitive nationhood.