Why An Elected President?

Excerpt of speech by Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Singapore has been consistently rated as the most transparent government in Asia by Transparency International based in Berlin. PERC based in Hong Kong have corroborated this. However do not believe that Singapore does not have corruption. Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau annual reports show just how many cases of corruption or attempted corruption take place every year, many that have to be investigated and prosecuted.

There were 145 substantial cases last year, 2004 and 175 in 2003. Fortunately they have not involved the higher echelons of political office holders or civil service officers.

Singapore had an incipient problem under the British. But under Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock (1956-59), some ministers were corrupt and the rot looked like spreading.

When the present Singapore government took office in 1959, it had a deep sense of mission to establish a clean and ethical government. We made ethical and incorruptible leadership a core issue in our election campaign. It was our counter to the smears of pro Communist Barisan Socialis and their unions.

In office, we directed the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), set up by the British in 1952 to deal with corruption, go for the big takers in the upper echelons.

We also amended the law to put the burden of proof on the defendant or accused if he/she had more assets than his income as reported in his income tax returns, from his employment or business
could have given him. He has to disprove the presumption of guilt that they were gained by corrupt means.

It is a constant fight to keep the house clean. As long as the core leadership is clean, any back sliding can be brought under control and the house cleaned up.

What the PAP government cannot ensure is that if it loses an election, a non-PAP government will remain honest. Therefore we have installed constitutional safeguards to meet such an eventuality.
We amended the constitution to have the president popularly elected not by Parliament but by whole electorate and has a veto power on the spending of the country’s reserves by the Cabinet.

The president now also has the power to overrule any prime minister who stops or holds up an investigation for corruption against any of his ministers or senior officials or himself.

The Director of the CPIB (Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau) has two masters to back him, the elected prime minister, and if he refuses to move, the elected president, who can act independently of the elected prime minister, to order that investigations proceed.

The president also has the veto on appointments to important positions like the Chief Justice, Chief of Defence Force, Commissioner of Police, the Attorney General, Auditor General and other key positions that uphold the integrity of the institutions of government. They are key officers, essential for the government to function without being subverted.

During a PAP government, the two-key system will guard against any PAP prime minister and Cabinet who overspend for political ends or a PM unwilling to act against a political colleague. The president then steps in and acts.

If there is a non-PAP government and prime minister, the Director of the CPIB will be protected by the president from being subverted or undermined, otherwise the safeguards will not work. Then if in the next elections a PAP government were to be returned to office, it can clean up the system again.

If Singapore has the misfortune to elect a sharp but crooked group of politicians who can win two elections in a row, I fear they will be able to get their candidate elected as the successor president and thereby subvert the constitutional safeguards.

Corruption is incipient in every society and must be continuously purged. Once corruption has set in, it is not possible to wipe it out quickly. To kill it at one stroke you need a revolution, like when the CCP pushed out a corrupt and demoralised Nationalist government in October 1949. The old officials and their retinue were looting before they fled. The communists conducted widespread executions of officials who did not get away. They had show trials, with the masses acting as judges of those whom they accused of having exploited the farmers or workers. But within two decades, these zealous revolutionaries themselves became corrupt. It started with the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Because money could not buy them any goods, it was rank that they fought for, through corruption to gain promotions.

Once China opened up and started a free market, many decided that they had wasted their best years under the slogan of sacrifice for the people and hurried to make up for lost time. But now that it has become widespread, as in China and Vietnam, to clean up is an arduous battle.

However when the core leadership is clean, corruption can be gradually diminished. Both must be prepared to take on the big ones in the highest echelons of the government. This is most painful to do as I know from experience.

Full Speech here:  https://www.cpib.gov.sg/sites/default/files/publication-documents/5_Speech%20of%20Minister%20Mentor.pdf