Cheng Bock played it all wrong. I know what he is trying to do here. He wants the Presidency for himself. he was close the last time and he thinks he can get it this time if not for the Malay requirement. And he knows too that they put this requirement in to stymie him and discourage him. Furthermore, once this Malay/ethnicty requirement is put in place, Cheng Bock will be too old to run. For him, this Presidential election coming up is his last kick at the can. The fact that the PAP is so threatened by him that they would enact a new law just to deny him the opportunity to run, tells you what a tenuous hold the PAP has on this supposedly ceremonial position and tells you that they think Cheng Bock is a formidable opponent.
But has Cheng Bock played his cards wrongly? I think he has. this application he has put in to the High Court to clarify when the reserved presidential term should be enacted is a minor one. He knows that he cannot win here. the Singapore kangaroo court will still rule that Wee Kim wee was an elected President, even though he was not. They will still rule that counting by the numbers, which included WKW's presidency, then we are due for a Malay candidates only reserved election. TCB knows that he cannot win in a Singapore High Court. He can only highlight what is a stupid decision to include WKW in the count. This is of minor importance to Singaporeans.
What he should do is to wait for the election to be over. The PAP will surely run Halimah Yacob as their candidate (even though she is supposed to be impartial). In fact Chan Chun Sing slipped his tongue several times already in Parliament and addressed her as Madam President. Once Halimah Yacob wins the Presidency, that is when Cheng Bock should file a high court challenge over her true ethnicity. Halimah Yacob's father was an Indian. he was a muslim, but more importantly, he was an indian and not a malay. the reserved Presidency is based on race, not religion. If it was based on religion, then HY as a muslim would be fine. But she is not a Malay. She is a half Malay, and on the wrong half too. In singapore, a person's supposed religion, race and dialect group follows the Father and not the mother. If your father is cantonese and your mother is hokkien, then you are considered a cantonese. At the very least, a new race group should be invented for offspring of Indians and Malays. Malaydian? After all, offspring of Chinese and Europeans are called Eurasians, and as a group, they are excluded from the Reserved Presidency. If mixed offspring as are not considered as belonging to any racial group, then HY cannot be considered a Malay, at best she is a Malaydian. Just like offsprings of Chinese and INdians are considered Chindians. SO, HY has a double count going against her. 1) If we go by her paternal lineage, then she is an Indian. Simple as that and means she cannot qualify for this reserved presidency. 2) If we go by mixed heritage, then she is completely excluded. this is so because the new law does not recognized mix heritage, otherwise, Eurasians will also be included as a candidate group for the RP. There are countless legal precedents where the offspring's lineage is determined based on the paternal side.
Cheng Bock should then challenge the results of the Presidential elections in court. he should seek to have HY prosecuted for falsifying her application when she put down she was malay, even though she was not. He should seek to have the elections run again, or seek a repeal of this section of the law after this cock up. Or else, have the runner up be the new President. In any case, this scenario of him waiting after the election to go to court on the result will be a much worse nightmare for the PAP then the trivial case he has now.
