I have been following with interest the recent exchange of letters between Hri Kumar and Eugene Tan in the TODAY newspaper, regarding the issue of calling a by-election in Hougang.In this case, I think it is an unequivocal yes. However one interprets the constitution, Hougang is a Single Member Ward that has no other elected Member of Parliament serving its constituents. This is very different from a GRC where the loss of one member still means that other elected team members can serve the people that elected them.
Therefore, the Prime Minister ought to call a by-election as soon as possible.
But the most important fact that people are missing is that the PM never said that he will not call a by-election, just that the nation has other pressing issues that need attending to. And in case people have not noticed, the Yaw Shin Leong affair happened just before the Budget Debates and his seat was only declared vacated on the first day of the Budget Debates.
This was two days ago.
We should have more patience than to jump to conclusions that the PM is not going to call a by-election or he is delaying the calling of one. I re-iterate – the seat has only been officially vacant for TWO DAYS.
I am sure that once the Budget debates are over, the Prime Minister will make a decision to hold a by-election.
In the meantime, we should focus on a very important Budget debate, instead of getting carried away with the ‘shalls’, the ‘musts’ and the different shades of ‘mays’.
By Calvin Cheng, former Nominated Member of Parliament.
Calvin also blogs at: http://beyondtheemotive.blogspot.com
