The Elected Singapore President - TV Debate (1988) 1/5

INTRODUCTION

NARRATOR: This morning, a TV debate was recorded between the People's Action Party and Opposition parties on the proposal for an Elected President. Mr Goh Chok Tong and Brigadier-General Lee Hsien Loong represented the People's Action Party. Mr JB Jeyaratnam represented the Workers' Party, and Mr Chiam See Tong, the Singapore Democratic Party. The moderator was Professor KS Sandhu.

We bring you now the debate in English, unedited.

Rules of the TV debate: The duration of the debate will not exceed 60 minutes. 50% of the time will go to the People's Action Party and the other 50% to the Opposition parties as a group. Timekeepers will alert participants when their time is up. Format of the debate: The debate will start with opening statements. The People's Action Party will be given 6 minutes, and the Opposition parties as a group 6 minutes - 3 minutes for each Opposition party. This will be followed by a debate on positions. The People's Action Party will have 12 minutes to cross-examine the positions of the Opposition parties. Then, the Opposition parties will cross-examine the People's Action Party's position for 12 minutes. 6 minutes will be allotted for the moderator to seek clarifications. The debate will end with closing statements. The Opposition parties first. They will be given 6 minutes - 3 minutes for each party. The People's Action Party representatives will then have 6 minutes to make their closing statements. The moderator's ruling regarding duration, relevancy to the issue debated, and other related matters will be final.

MODERATOR (MOD): As all Singaporeans know, the government last month published a White Paper to provide for an Elected President to safeguard accumulated national financial assets and the integrity of the public services. Also, that this proposal has become an election issue. Indeed, there have been calls for a TV debate on this by Opposition parties. Responding to such calls and associated public interest, the SBC took the initiative to organise such a debate and approached the PAP and the main Opposition parties to participate in it.

Accordingly, to participate in this debate on the Elected President proposal are on the one hand the PAP, and on the other, the Opposition Workers' and Singapore Democratic Parties. Representing the PAP are Mr Goh Chok Tong and BG Lee Hsien Loong. While the Workers' and Singapore Democratic Parties are represented by Mr JB Jeyaratnam and Mr Chiam See Tong respectively.

The debate will comprise essentially of three parts: opening statements by the competing parties, followed by rebuttals and clarifications, and finally, closing statements. I'm the moderator, and my job is to enforce the rules agreed upon as well as to keep the debate on schedule. In this regard, the participants have been again reminded that time is of the essence and any unnecessary deviation from the topic under debate would be a golden opportunity missed. With these guidelines, it is time to get the debate underway. To do so, I have great pleasure now in inviting Mr Goh Chok Tong to make the opening statements on behalf of the PAP. Mr Goh....

Full transcript of the debate is available here: http://is.gd/4sfylH

Category:

News & Politics