With the hype around Donald Trump's victory, many Singaporeans probably missed out on the drama which unfolded in Parliament the past few days.

After three days of debate, Parliament voted on and approved the proposed changes recommended by the Constitutional Commission (CC) to the Elected Presidency (EP), including allowing reserved elections for minority candidates on Nov 9.

Amidst the debate on these changes, things got heated when the Workers' Party (WP) wanted to call for a referendum for Singaporeans to pick between CC's proposed changes and WP's suggestion of replacing the EP with an elected senate made up of eight senators to be custodian to Singapore's reserves and reverting the President to a ceremonial roles.

"Indecent haste" and "Responsible politics"

WP's Pritam Singh said, "The amendments to the Constitution that the Government has proposed are far-reaching and wide-ranging, and deserve much more airtime where the changes can be subjected to proper and thorough public debate. Any changes made with indecent haste will expose the Government to suspicions and accusations that it is seeking to shape the terms and outcome of the election, when the country is on the verge of the next Presidential Election."

Minister of State Janil Puthucheary talked about how the changes involved a year-long process when responding to WP's Leon Perera and in turn addressed the point about indecent haste: "We have an extended period of public scrutiny and public discussion, which is exactly what we have done. Nearly a year -- public hearings, a Constitutional Commission, debate in print, debate in person, engagements.

We have not rushed this. And I contrast that again with your (WP) proposal which you have come here to the House, the details have not been worked out. Fundamental details of whether this will actually, in any way, address your concerns have not been worked out and what you are asking to do is to immediately go out and put it to a referendum. How can that be seen as responsible politics?"

Depending on your political leanings, you could interpret the discussion as merely occurring during the three days of debate in parliament or a year of consultation that went beyond the parliament (Constitution Commission, community dialogue sessions, PM's National Day rally speech and his TV interview).

Law Minister Shanmugam's cha-cha with Low Thia Khiang

Sometimes, it looked like they were doing the cha-cha in the Parliament chambers:

This exchange occurred when the Law Minister was asking WP's NCMP Dennis Tan to clarify the eligibility criteria for the senators and its details.

Low had to step in to say that details would be further worked out.

Here's the full exchange:

In the final day, Minister Shanmugam questioned how WP's Senate proposal will work, given that there will be eight Senators who have to constantly compete with each other be re-elected.

He asked if this would instead increase the risks of politicisation and gridlock than the government's proposal - - WP's proposed senate was supposed to reduce politicisation and gridlock.

Bill passed, Constitution amended

After three days of debate and 38 MPs who rose to speak, the Bill to amend the Constitution to make changes to the EP was passed with 77 votes in favour and 6 votes of "no" from WP. No one abstained.

Singaporeans can expect an election to be reserved for a particular racial group if there has not been a president from that group for five continuous terms.

Top photo from Gov.sg Youtube.

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