Why The President Has To Be A Malay Always

When Joseph Schooling won the Gold Medal in Rio, all Singaporeans were so proud of him, and the supporters who went there to support, were all so proud of the Schooling and the National Anthem, they sang it loudly and proudly during the Medal Presentation Ceremony.

Most of those who were there at the ceremony were not Malays but nobody there bothered that they were singing a Malay song. That song represent Singapore on the world stage, and will always be that way.

It should have been the same for the Presidency. Like the National Anthem in Malay, the President of Singapore should always be a Malay. They were both just a symbol. I am saying this not because I am a Malay (No, I am not) but because it doesn't really matter which race the President belongs to. By having a single race as the Presidency, with agreement from all other races, simplifies a lot of things moving forward.

If there ever was a mistake made by Lee Kuan Yew in his life time, this had to be one of them. The Presidency is just a symbol, and LKY shouldn't have meddle with it by transferring executive powers to the President. It makes life so difficult now for the leaders that took over from him, and he should share the blame for PM Lee Hsien Loong's fainting spell during the National Day Rally, when he tried so hard to fix the screw-up made by his father.

I wish he could jump out of his grave now to tell us all that he had screwed up and get this team to right the wrong, so that we can all follow the rainbow dream he mentioned, without all his baggages holding us back.

There are many other advantages of having a Malay permanently as President, without executive powers.

First, the two countries that surround Singapore and gave us the most headaches, Indonesia and Malaysia will see us as a true South-east Asian country rather than a third China, if the Head of State is always going to be a Malay. It will be much easier to build on this kinship, with the President visiting these countries often.

Secondly, there will not be a costly and time-wasting Presidential Elections every few years.

Thirdly, if both the PM and President are Chinese, the rulers of China, will take for granted that Singapore is run by Chinese and should always give face or kowtow to China's actions and policies. With a Malay President, the impact will be different especially during face to face communication. They will always be reminded that Singapore is not that Chinese after all.

Fourthly, this will totally eliminate the problem of deciding on who will become President, base on racial or minority interest and representation.

Just like now, when nobody need to make the difficult decision on whether to play the Mandarin version, Malay version or the Tamil version of the National Anthem during the Olympic Medal presentation.