Although the path towards it was more than rocky, Singapore made聽double history today by聽electing聽instituting its first female and first Malay聽president in 47 years: Halimah Yacob.
The 63-year-old was declared president-elect today after successfully filing her nomination papers 鈥 the only individual who did so 鈥 making her聽the sole candidate in聽a presidential election聽limited to the Malay community.
In November, Parliament passed a constitutional change, reserving elections for candidates of聽a particular racial group if none have been president for five continuous terms, in a bid to ensure multi-racial representation in Singapore.
The announcement of Yacob’s “election” was made today at the People鈥檚 Association headquarters along King George鈥檚 Avenue.
鈥淓ven though this is a reserved election, I am not a reserved president,鈥 she addressed the cheering supporters that gathered.
鈥淚 am a president for everyone,鈥 she says, pledging that she would serve without 鈥渉esitation or doubt鈥.
Halimah Yacob: Origins
Her path to the highest office in the land started in 2001, when she entered politics and was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC).
Before that, her childhood was described as a 鈥渢errible struggle鈥, as she was forced to work alongside聽her mother selling food on a pushcart after her father died. Halimah went on to study at the Singapore Chinese Girls鈥 School and Tanjong Katong Girl鈥檚 School before reading law at the University of Singapore.
Her first job after graduating with a law degree was with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), where she rose to positions including聽deputy secretary-general of NTUC and director of the NTUC Legal Department, as well as the Women鈥檚 Development Secretariat.
Other achievements throughout her career include being a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), where she was elected聽vice-chairwoman of the standards committee.
In 2001, she ran for聽the People鈥檚 Action Party (PAP) and became the first female Malay MP when she was elected MP in Jurong GRC, where she made workers鈥 rights and helping the needy her political focus.
Ten years later, she was appointed minister of state at聽the then-Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. In 2013, she became the first female to hold the post of聽speaker of Parliament, and was co-opted into the PAP鈥檚 Central Executive Committee 鈥 the party’s highest decision-making body. In 2015, she became an MP for the Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.
The rocky road to presidency
Halimah鈥檚 path towards the presidency, however, was fraught with controversy. On Aug. 6, the PAP stalwart announced聽she would run for president in an already controversial election in which聽only those of Malay descent were allowed to聽run.
Having the blessing of her party members and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, she stepped down from her other posts and entered the race, competing alongside Bourbon Offshore Asia Pacific chairman Farid Khan and Second Chance Properties founder and CEO Mohamed Salleh Marican.
Turns out, there wasn鈥檛 any competition at all. The Elections Department certified聽her as the only qualified candidate聽to run as president, as she fulfilled the public sector requirement of having served聽at least three years in office.
Meanwhile, Farid and Salleh, neither of whom have previously held public office,聽were deemed ineligible聽as they didn鈥檛 meet the private sector candidate requirement of helming a company with at least $500 million in shareholder equity.
Thus, today’s “vote”聽was a foregone conclusion. Halimah, who many deemed to be the ruling political party鈥檚 informal candidate of choice all along, was destined to win.
The news, unsurprisingly, didn鈥檛 sit well with Singaporeans, many of whom believed that going through the motions was聽nothing more than a charade and that it was always the government鈥檚 plan to install a close ally in聽the position. Citizens felt robbed of the ability to take part in a legitimate democratic process and actually choose Singapore鈥檚 next head of state.
Those feelings only compounded frustration created by the popular presumption that聽PAP had changed聽the playing ground less to ensure racial diversity than to聽prevent聽former presidential candidate Dr. Tan Cheng Bock from running again, especially since he very nearly beat PAP stalwart Dr. Tony Tan in 2011.
The hashtag #NotMyPresident started trending quickly on social media, and聽a silent sit-in protest聽at Hong Lim Park has been planned for this Saturday.
We highly doubt the protest will do anything much to change things. President-elect Halimah Yacob will be sworn in at the Istana tomorrow at 6pm, when she will officially kick off her term as聽the eighth聽president of Singapore.
