2011 Presidential Elections

I have thus far taken only a tangential interest in the positioning moves of the various potential candidates in the upcoming Presidential Elections, the reason being having other issues to deal with and also due to the fact that I think it's not particularly an important thing given Singapore's current constitutional arrangements.

Some of the potential candidates appear to believe that the office of the President has more power than are actually allowed for in the Constitution.  Such beliefs appear to pander to the desires of some segment of the electorate for another alternative voice to the PAP government.  Whether or not the President should have the powers that these people think ought to be invested in the office is another story, and should rightly be dealt with either through a referendum or through Parliamentary Elections.  It's a sign of the increasing irrationality of our politics that there are citizens and politicians who believe that they can and should push for things that are not allowed under current law, without going through the due process of changing those laws.  The people who harp on the rule of law somehow feels that they should be exempt from the same.

One of the things that the PAP government use to stress the importance of the Presidency is that this office holds the metaphorical '2nd key' to our country's financial reserves.  While there is some truth to that claim, I would argue that this is an inferior form of safeguarding the country's wealth.  There is no guarantee that the President will always be independent.  And even if he is, there is no guarantee that he will not share same similar ideological positions with the government of the day when the time comes for him to exercise his discretionary powers in respect of the reserves.

If we are really serious about protecting our national wealth, I would suggest amending the Constitution again to take away the relevant financial powers of the President and instituting instead a gold-back currency.  Using the financial markets as an external check on government financial policies is the best way to achieve our goal of protecting national wealth.  This is because markets express the collective views of the multitude of market participants and are less likely to be subjected to direct political influence.  Furthermore, many of those market participants will be overseas and thus cannot be influenced by domestic politics.

Given the financial mess that the world is in now, having a gold-backed SGD will help Singapore to navigate through the storm that will hit us in the coming years, as the developed world struggles to maintain the current unsustainable fiat currency system that has helped them live way beyond their means.  With a gold-backed SGD, Singapore will be able to secure its future after passing through the crisis, irrespective of what the likely future global financial architecture.

As we prepare to vote for the next President, let us keep our eyes on what's really important.  The current constitutional powers of the President are neither here nor there, and should be abolished in favour of a truly independent and objective mechanism for protecting our national wealth.  The Swiss are already looking at re-establishing a gold-backed currency.  If we want to be like them in terms of financial status, shouldn't we be doing the same?