Maintaining the resilience of Singapore's politics

At his Marine Parade constituency’s National Day Dinner, ESM Goh Chok Tong spoke about “maintaining the resilience” of Singapore’s politics.

“Our politics must be bold, forward looking and inclusive of all races and different political opinions. It must be resilient,” he said.

Singapore is stable because it has successively elected a strong government, enabling the government to plan for the long term and prepare for contingencies, he said.

“We adapted the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy to our local conditions,” he said.

Political Stabilisers

Mr Goh described the Group Representation Constituency, Non-constituency MPs, and Nominated MPs as “unique Singapore-style innovations to build political stabilisers to a free-wheeling democratic process”.

Similarly, the Elected Presidency serves as a check against a populist and profligate government, he reiterated.

Reserved Elected President another stabiliser

And the Constitutional amendments to set aside reserved elections for minorities was “another stabiliser to ensure our multi-racial society stays afloat”, Mr Goh said.

“If these stabilisers are not introduced to our political system, our democratic state risks being capsized when buffeted by internal differences and divisions, let alone external storms,” said Mr Goh.

The robustness of Singapore’s leadership pipeline, the resilience of its politics, and the cohesiveness of the country’s multi-racialism and social equity will determine how “a small boat like Singapore fare in its journey ahead” amid the turbulent external environment, Mr Goh said.