Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that a non-Chinese person could become prime minister one day.
He was speaking to Malaysian newspaper Bernama in an interview involving Singapore’s hotly-debated upcoming presidential election, which has been reserved for Malay candidates only.
The presidential election must be held by August 2017.
Delving more into the prospect of a non-Chinese being elected as prime minister, PM Lee said that the process will be long, but it could happen and he hopes that it will happen one day.
The upcoming Presidential Election has been a sore point for Singaporeans who believe that meritocracy should trump race when it comes to voting for their next head of state.
Even amongst the Malay community, there’s frustration that reserving the election for Malay-only candidates is “one step forward, two-steps” in terms of acknowledging the capabilities of Singaporeans Malays.
On the other hand, a strong majority of Singaporeans are hoping that current deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam will take over the reins as Singapore’s Prime Minister.
