PROPOSED OVERHAUL OF CURRENT CONSTITUTION,
The current constitution (Singapore) is too general and vague.
There is no specific definition or protection of citizens' rights
and integrity of one-man-one-vote election process. In the hand of
rogue government, it can be easily twisted or tweaked to suit the
narrow interest of whoever the political parties in power.
Is it desirable to allow differing interpretations of the rights of
citizens or power of the government and differring branches of
government?
The answer is obvious: people and government is bigger than the
parties and parties should be elected as government to represent
people's collective views and interests.
Therefore upholding of citizens rights and checking of the
performances of government should be the desirable ends of the
constitution.
By virtue of the above-stated final goals and objectives of the
constitution, it should be a document that spell out the basic
rights of citizens, defining the duties and roles of government and
their responsibilities to safeguard social, cultural and economic
vibrancy particularly in the following areas:-
(1) To safeguard the One Man One Vote principle so that only the
best individuals are elected into political office and there will
be complete accountable and transparent check on power of
executives by the people.
(2) To ensure multi-racial representation, to provide that 20% of
seats of parliaments will go to the racial groups for allocation to
those receiving the highest percentage of votes counted in the
one-man-one-vote election return whenever the number of candidates
elected fall below any racial representation ratio passed and
reviewed by parliament every 10 years.
(3) To prohibit use of block- or group-representation voting system
to avoid impediment or shackling of the one-man-one-vote universal
electoral system.
(4) To safeguard the Basic rights of all citizens irespective of
race, culture, religion of tenets including freedoms of speech,
political beliefs, right to stand for election or right to make
criticisms of policies or practices of government in power.
(5) To refer all situations of conflicts of interests among the
government executives, legislature, judiary and civil service to
independent panel with representations from a cross section of
people so as to Establish Rule of law, justice, fairness and equity
in conduct of laws without fear or favor to the government in
power.
(6) To Establish a low-cost independent panel open to observers
from UN agencies to oversee election process and political
participation by citizens.
(7) To Establish powers and procedures for Investigation and
adjudication by an idependent sub-court of reported conflict of
interests
(Cool To safeguard the citizens against prosecution for defamation
by the government in power for speeches made in the course of
election campaigning or criticising policies or actions of
government in power.
(9) To fundamentally safeguard freedoms of speech, choice and
association as conditions essential to encourage further growth of
social, cultural and economic vibrancy, entrepreneurship and
creativity of citizens.
It is recommended that adequate safeguards be provided so that
citizens would be the masters of their destiny which they could
participate fully in all aspects of nation building. It should
uphold citizens' right to participate in all aspects of nation
building and protect them against any inquitable prosecution by any
govenrment in power.
Such a constitution will be proactive and open up the processes for
citizens to take part in social and cultural and economic
activities to contribute to creativity, entrepreneurship or
participations in election, giving feedbacks or gerrymandering of
election processes.
Singapore's democracy is still young and it has not fully developed
and matured into one which will motivate and encourage all to
participate in nation building. It will be too prematured to rely
on some bad experiences with democracies in less successful south
east asian democracies to stop its further evolvement. The final
objective of ensuring the constitution is to open up participation
in all aspects of nation building to citizens to bring about
entrepreneurship and creativity accountability and transparency in
the governing of the country irrespective of belief, cult, race,
religion or political views or inclinations.
http://www.managefranchise.blogspot.com
(amended on 4.9.2005)
http://www.imbuddy.net
