Photo courtesy of Bryan aka Numnumball
Amidst debates over the validity and appropriateness of our NMP scheme, a trend has emerged with regards to a potential role played by our NMPs in parliament – the harbinger of controversial and divisive issues such as race, religion and sexuality that any political party wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.
The most recent episode was NMP Viswa Sadasivan’s opinion that Singaporeans have become very race-conscious, and such a phenomenon pervades even the most formalized of procedures such as form-filling. Even our Identity cards bear the the racial groups we belong to. Viswa further alluded to the fact that the establishment of self-help groups along ethnic lines such as Mendaki (malay), SINDA (indian), CDAC (chinese) and Eurasian Association has exacerbated this problem. Viswa contended that such a conscious practice of racial segregation and categorization due to the nature of how the government collects data is inconsistent with the “regardless of race” tenet enshrined in our national pledge.
You will certainly not find Viswa’s views on race in any electoral manifesto or speeches. Mr Low Thia Khiang, an opposition MP, response was the most telling; the latter stated that he didn’t want to have anything to do with the debate.
The one other divisive issue raised by an NMP revolved around sexuality issues, particularly with the criminalization of gay sex. Mr Siew Kum Hong tabled a petition to the parliament in support of the repeal of section 377A on 22nd October 2007 when he was an NMP. What later transpired was a clash of ideals between the conservative and liberal camps on sexuality. A political party will never include such an issue in its agenda due to its divisive nature. Support the interest of the liberal camp, and there will be a backlash from the conservatives, and vice versa. Hence, one wouldn’t find it surprising if political parties refuse to take a stand on the issue. Miss Sylvia Lim, a non-constituency Member of the Parliament from the Workers’ Party refused to adopt a stand on the issue.
Hence, where the current political parties dare not go due to the inherent risks of a political fallout, it has emerged that the NMPs are left to pick up the pieces since they didn’t have an electorate to answer to. Circumstances has indeed resulted in making our NMPs the harbinger of controversial and divisive issues. One of the good things of having such harbingers is that these divisive issues will see the light of the day in public, instead of going unnoticed.
