Sir, the other twin pillar of the double-whammy is gerrymandering. The entire
electoral boundary re-drawing process is completely shrouded in secrecy, chaired
by the secretary to the Cabinet. There are no public hearings, no minutes of
meetings published. The revised boundaries are released weeks or even days
before Nomination Day. The report makes no attempts to explain why certain
single seats are retained, and others are dissolved, nor why new GRCs are
created or old ones re-shaped. Voters have changed constituencies at successive
elections without moving a single step. Adam Road is now Tanjong Pagar,
Serangoon Central is Marine Parade. Coincidentally, constituencies which showed
strong opposition support are broken up or merged with others. Today, we no
longer have Eunos GRC or Cheng San GRC.
Sir, a few days ago the Prime Minister appeared in a television interview
with American journalist, Charlie Rose, and spoke of the importance of the
moral right to govern. How does abusing the GRC system and gerrymandering square
with the moral right to govern?