Analysts: Good awareness among Singaporeans about president’s roles but more public education needed on power dynamics

SINGAPORE, July 31 — Amid all the talk about independence by the presidential hopefuls, political analysts say there is a need to educate the public on the power dynamics between the elected President, Parliament and the Cabinet, and what influence the President has on policies.

The analysts were weighing in on the findings of a survey conducted by CNA and TODAY, which found that although Singaporeans voting for the first time in a Presidential Election have a good sense of the roles and functions of the highest office of the land, they have a relatively lower awareness of the relationship between the President and Government and policy-making.

Political analysts who spoke to TODAY attributed the public’s broad awareness of the President’s role to public discussions in recent years and education efforts in school.

Nevertheless, they said that a general political apathy and less frequent contestation for the elected presidency would result in the public’s lack of interest in having a deeper understanding of the relations between the President and the Government.

The CNA-TODAY Singapore Presidential Election Survey was conducted among 1,500 Singapore citizens aged 21 to 33, who could be voting for the first time in a Presidential Election this year.

The survey was conducted face to face between May 18 and June 23.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and subsequently Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced his intention to run for President on June 8, followed by Harvey Norman Ossia founder George Goh on June 12. Former GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song was the latest to throw his hat into the ring on July 19.

The Presidential Elections Committee will assess the eligibility of each candidate to stand for election.

The analysts who spoke to TODAY said they were not surprised that the survey respondents have a grasp of the roles and powers of the elected President, given their ages.

This is despite the fact that Singaporeans have had to vote for their President only twice — in 1993 and 2011 — since the elected presidency was introduced in 1991, as the rest of the terms were not contested.

Describing the survey results as “very encouraging”, Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan said: “It puts first-time Singaporean voters in a better position to forge a better understanding of what the elected presidency is, what it can do, and what are its limits.”

Assoc Prof Tan said that the drawdown on past reserves during Covid-19 had cast a spotlight on the President’s role in protecting it.

“This also contributed to a slightly better understanding of the broad powers of the presidency,” he said.

National University of Singapore sociologist Tan Ern Ser pointed to the age and educational profiles of the first-time voters, adding: “I believe their being exposed to social studies or national education (while in school) would have helped to raise their awareness.”

Still, Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore, said that while there appears to be “a high degree of awareness among the citizenry on the general understanding of the role of the president... such an awareness decreases when drilling down to the specificities of the role including the powers at the disposal of the president”.

When it came to questions on the President’s role in safeguarding national reserves or approving key public appointments, the respondents in the survey scored well, with the proportion picking the right answers ranging from 75 to over 90 per cent.

However, when quizzed on who takes instructions from whom between the President, Parliament or Cabinet, the proportion of people who answered correctly dropped to between 36 and 67 per cent.

Public education needed on ‘specificities’

Analysts generally agree that it is important to educate voters on these issues.

Political observer from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Felix Tan said it is “definitely a concern” that Singaporeans do not have a strong awareness about the relationship between the President, the Parliament and the Cabinet.

“This would affect the voting patterns as without a clear understanding, would these first-time voters know who and why they are voting for?” he said.

Disappointment over the limitations of the powers of the elected president due to a prolonged misconception may eventually lead to the electorate losing interest in the outcome of the vote, he added.

Agreeing, Gillian Koh from the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) said that greater public knowledge “can translate to greater legitimacy of the system”.

She said that in the run-up to the election, prospective candidates and their supporters may make claims that are not in line with how the system works.

“It is therefore important to have third parties or neutral people to state what the system is, to cut through what might otherwise be rather confusing,” said the senior research fellow in the governance and economy department at IPS.

Political scientist from NUS Chong Ja Ian said previous elections and the mainstream media “have a role in raising general awareness” of the elected presidency.

But the “inaccessible” language of relevant legislation may make it tough for the man on the street to further deepen his own understanding, he added.

“How many people have read the Constitution, for instance?” asked Chong.

Mustafa said given that presidential elections have not always been contested and that they are relatively “low key” compared to general elections, it is not surprising that while people have general awareness of the office of the President, “the understanding reduces when you get into the depth or the specificities”.

The analysts cited various possible factors to explain the lack of awareness on how the President relates to the Government and Parliament.

Political analyst from NTU Walid Jumblatt Abdullah believes that this stems from general political apathy, something he partly attributes to the “very comfortable” life here which does not motivate people to take a strong interest in politics.

He added that given how the elected President’s post has been occupied by ex-political office holders, it may result in some sort of “conflation” of the range of powers, in the eye of the laymen.

Three of the four former presidents who were elected were senior members of the People’s Action Party (PAP) — Madam Halimah Yacob, Dr Tony Tan and Mr Ong Teng Cheong — although Mr Ong’s tenure in the 1990s would mean that the current survey respondents were too young or not even born yet at the time.

Still, Koh noted that the office of the elected President is “a young institution” and a unique Singapore one, with changes having been made to it over time.

“So, with a small number of contested elections, there has been less occasion for the broader public to go deep into the system and how it works, the powers and the limits of the role of elected President, as they have not had to vote,” she said.

All the talk on ‘independence’

Though official campaigning has not yet started, the three presidential hopefuls have made public remarks on several occasions.

Analysts noted that the notion of independence — from past political party links or independence of minds — have been constantly played up.

Walid said that the electorate would use all elections to “maximise their own voices” and as “a referendum of some sort on the ruling party”.

“I think it’s fair to interpret the presidential elections that way. And obviously, Mr Ng and Mr Goh know that, which is why they will be playing up their independence,” he said.

Koh from IPS noted that the President is bestowed with restricted and specific custodial powers.

“So, if there is a vote to find a suitable person who will be that second key to the reserves, it stands to reason that the public will understand that this person must be able to assess, independently, if the Government’s policies will have an effect on the country’s reserves,” she said.

“It is from this that the notion of ‘independence’ arises.”

Still, Walid said that so far, the three aspiring candidates have not done “anything to better or worsen people’s understanding” of the role of the President, given that the institution has been created for two decades.

Assoc Prof Tan of SMU said that with the electorate having a basic understanding of the President’s roles and functions, voters will know if a hopeful is “grandstanding or seeking to politicise the presidency”.

“But the possibility that (such a behaviour) could win votes cannot be discounted, as was clearly demonstrated in the 2011 Presidential Election, where some of the candidates sought to outdo each other by deliberately ignoring the constitutional limits of the office,” he added.

Therefore, he said that the potential candidates have a “social responsibility” in not overplaying themes like independence, but instead focusing on how they would go about their duties as President.

“This Presidential Election will be severely wasted if Singaporeans go away with misinformation or even disinformation about the elected presidency,” he said. — TODAY