CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS TO SAFEGUARD FINANCIAL ASSETS AND THE INTEGRITY OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE (White Paper)

Mr Goh Chok Tong: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government will today introduce a White Paper on "Constitutional Amendments to safeguard financial assets and the integrity of the public service". Members will receive their copies this morning. I wish to make a brief statement on this White Paper.

The White Paper sets out the proposal for a President to be elected directly by the people in elections separately from Parliamentary elections. The President will not be an Executive President. He will only have a custodial role in two areas - safeguarding of our financial reserves and of the integrity of our public service.

I do not propose to go into the details of the proposals or the rationale for the change as they are all set out in the document. However, I wish to draw the attention of Members to the following:

Firstly, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet will continue to govern the nation under the Parliamentary system. But in two areas, the Government will need to get the President's concurrence before it can proceed. These are: (i) spending from reserves which it itself has not accumulated, and (ii) appointments to important positions in the public service including important statutory boards. Our financial reserves and the integrity of our public service are two key assets which we cannot afford to have eroded. Hence, the investing of an additional safeguard in the elected President.

Secondly, while the President will have blocking powers in these two areas, he will not have any powers to initiate policies or to make executive decisions. Except for these two areas, he will have to act on the advice of the Cabinet, as is the case now. In other words, he will not be an Executive President.

Thirdly, the custodial role of the President does not mean that the Prime Minister and his Government are powerless to act if the President refuses to concur in these two areas. If the Prime Minister feels strongly that the President's non-concurrence is wrong, he can put the issue to the people and build up political pressure on the President, or he can campaign to get another person elected in the next election. In extremis, the Government can move to amend the Constitution to remove the blocking powers of the President, provided this is supported by the people in a referendum.

What the safeguards mean is that any decisions concerning assets can be proceeded with, even if the President does not concur, but only after it has been raised as a major public issue and debated and supported by the people.

The proposal means that no Government can surreptitiously dispose of the assets without the electorate being aware of it.

This is why we have described the safeguard as a two-key mechanism: the Prime Minister and his Cabinet possessing one key, and the elected President, the other key. Both keys must be used before the reserves can be unlocked or the integrity of the public service dismantled.

Members will remember that it was as long ago as April 1984 that the Prime Minister first referred to the need for such safeguards. He elaborated on it in his National Day Rally speech in August 1984. Cabinet Ministers had been discussing the proposals even earlier, since 1982.

It has taken considerable time to finalize the proposals.

It is an important change and we had to satisfy ourselves that the proposal was well balanced and workable. We also wanted to ensure that there would be minimum change to our existing parliamentary system where the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are in charge of the Government. The Auditor-General, Accountant-General, senior Permanent Secretaries and Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of statutory boards were all consulted to ensure that the proposal was practical and workable.

The objective of this White Paper is to set out the essential principles of the proposed constitutional changes, before a Bill (containing the details) is settled for First Reading. Members will have full opportunity to debate the proposal of an elected President with these withholding powers when the Bill is presented to Parliament.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Mr Deputy Speaker, may I be allowed to ask one question? Will this elected President come about before or after the general elections?

Mr Goh Chok Tong: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, it depends on when the general elections will be held. We have not yet decided on the date of the next general elections.

Dr Augustine H.H. Tan (Whampoa): May I, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, ask a few questions of clarification? Would the President be in charge of investing the reserves? Secondly, would the Government be free to incur a budget deficit without the approval of the President? Thirdly, would the Government be allowed to borrow from overseas without the approval of the President? Fourthly, in the event that there is an attack on the Singapore dollar and reserves are necessary to defend the dollar, and the President refuses to give his approval, would the dollar then have to be devalued?

Mr Goh Chok Tong: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the answers to the questions asked by the Member for Whampoa would be obvious when he reads the White Paper. I propose that we leave matters as they are now. With the White Paper which is now being circulated, we can have a fuller debate later on.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Sir, may I be allowed to ask another question? We assume a situation where the President and the Cabinet cannot concur in respect of the use of the reserves. Will Parliament have the power then, despite the non-concurrence, to vote for the use of the reserves? In other words, will Parliament still have its supremacy?

Mr Goh Chok Tong: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should not enter into a debate on this elected President at the moment because it is obviously unfair to Members of Parliament. They have not read the White Paper yet. The purpose of my Statement today is to alert the House that the White Paper which is being circulated deals with the principles of the proposal. We can have a full debate later on.