Politics

I think this article:

NMP overstepped role in championing gay cause by Jenica Chua Chor Ping (Ms)

is a reflection of the sad state of affairs in Singapore politics. She considers the "homosexual agenda" a "political group".

Details about NMPs or Nominated Members of Parliament in Singapore may be found on this wikipedia article.

Anyway, according to Ms Chua, these individuals are supposed to be "non-partisan" and by that extension, are not supposed to represent any "political group". Which leads me to think ... so what does she expect these people to do? Fight for issues on behalf of all Singaporeans? What about the poor homosexual people who do not have rights equal to other Singaporeans? Should the NMPs then ignore issues that only affect groups/subgroups of people?

I'll admit, I do not know the precise definition of the "role" that NMPs are supposed to fulfill (rather, I cannot seem to find those details anywhere). Seems a tad restrictive if what Ms Chua believes is also what the government wants of NMPs. In any case, it's a moot issue since the ruling party basically has the right not to reappoint particularly annoying NMPs (in fact, it looks like over the last 5 years, only 1 NMP ever got reappointed).

What troubles me is people (well, actually I believe most people ... I think I'm in the minority here) would believe this. Kinda defeats the purpose of having NMPs if they are meant to just sit pretty. I missed the good old days of NMP Walter Woon who would fight for issues and now I see people dissing the efforts of another NMP who wishes to make a change he feels is for the improvement of overall justice and fairness in society.