The PAP government has introduced a bill to amend Singapore's Constitution that will allow the President to accept and hold an office in a foreign or international organisation in his/her private capacity if the Cabinet considers it to be in the national interest. [1]
The bill is intended to allow President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to continue with his roles as chairman of the board of trustees of the Group of Thirty, a member of the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, and co-chair of the Advisory Board for the UN Human Development Report [2] inasmuch as, when the bill is passed by Parliament, it will be deemed to have come into operation retroactively on 14 September 2023, the day on which Tharman was sworn into office as President.
Someone apparently had forgotten that Tharman would contravene the Constitution when he did not relinquish his roles in the international organisations when he was sworn in as President and would continue to contravene the Constitution barring changes (which the Bill intends to make).
Tharman should decide which is more important to him: President of the Republic of Singapore or his role in the international organisations.
If Tharman cannot operate within the Constitution, he should not have offered himself as a candidate for the Presidential Election and, having been elected and sworn in, should resign as President.
The PAP government will claim that Tharman's continued roles in the international organisations are in the national interest but they can only be in the national interest if Tharman is representing Singapore in an official capacity, not as a private individual.
Also, other members of the international organisations will view Tharman as President of Singapore, rather than a private individual.
Everything, good or bad, that Tharman does in the international organisations will reflect on Singapore.
The Constitution should not be amended to accommodate one individual.
Notes
1. Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment No. 3) Bill 35/2023.
2. Bill proposes to allow president, ministers to take on international roles in private capacities (The Straits Times, 8 Nov 2023 8:38 pm)
