ok, by racy issues, I actually meant rac(e)y issues... ;p [since i'm not allowed to blog about racist issues, i thought rac(e)y issues would have been a more appropriate term]

So anyway, Barack Obama was elected the President of the US of A. I recall the day after Obama was elected, one of the headlines on our local tabloid "The New Paper" was "Is Singapore ready for a black PM?" or something like that. I remember at that time, my reaction was "WTF? Who the hell will care about that?".

Apparently, it was a big issue to some people, cos PM Lee was asked this question posted during a dialogue with 350 Malay grassroots and community leaders at the Grassroots Club. (The following is quoted from the Nov 9 issue of "The Sunday Times").

Mr Yang Razali asked if, in the light of Mr Barack Obama's win, Singapore was ready for a prime minister of a minority race, and specifically from the Malay-Muslim community.

Mr Lee said in reply: "It's possible. It depends on how people vote, on who has the confidence of the population"

But the idea that he gave was:

Singapore may have a non-Chinese PM one day, but that is unlikely to happen any time soon. ...Mr Lee said race is still a factor that determines voters' preferences here, although he noted that attitudes have shifted.

My response is, Really? Is that really true? I mean, we have a Indian president right? And our first president was Malay. Does race really play a part when we vote? If that is the case, does that mean a GRC with a non-Chinese MP is less likely to succeed (oh wait, but they're equally (un)likely to succeed since they all have to have a minority race represented in each GRC ward... hmm)

And then of course, I look to the current cabinet, and I think, hmm... if I was to choose a non-Chinese PM from the current cabinet, who would it be? (Maybe the above statement is just paving the day for a non-Chinese PM eh?).

Of course I didn't have to try very hard to find my candidate of choice:
Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam. He's currently the Minister of Finance. Guess who was the previous MoF? Surprise surprise, PM Lee! ;p

And actually, if you compared Mr Shanmugaratnam to Mr Obama, I think they actually look alike! (in some ways!)


So you see, this is my conspiracy theory - the election of Barack Obama is actually just paving the way for the election of Mr Shanmugaratnam as our next PM. :)

DISCLAIMER: This blog entry is based on baseless claims, and should be in no way taken seriously. :)

Labels: Muses