Topic 1: The Issue of the relevance of the mandatory minority MP in Singapore’s elections

Every 5 years, when Singapore holds its General Elections, Group Representation Constituencies (GRC) are formed and allocated to different regions of the country to better serve the people. Within this mini-party representation, at least one candidate in the team must belong to a minority race. This requirement ensures that parties contesting the elections in GRCs are multi-racial so that minority races will be represented in Parliament.  However, this brings into question the effectiveness of these minority Members Of Parliament. Is it truly necessary to include a member from a minority race simply because the constitution states so? In which case, how effective exactly are they, if they are included simply to meet a quota? In a broader sense, how will this affect our government in the long term? Delegates will be expected to discuss thoroughly and come up to answers and consensus on some of these questions raised.

Topic 2: The issue of freedom of speech pertaining to racial aspects in Singapore

In Singapore, negative racial and religious comments are often censored in the media in the interests of maintaining racial and religious harmony as these comments tend to offend people. However, in other countries, especially Western nations, citizens are free to express themselves in any way as they wish, under the banner of “freedom of speech”. Nevertheless, there have been certain repercussions due to this, not least the Charlie Hebdo affair in France. Delegates will be expected to discuss the possible repercussions of allowing this to occur in Singapore and evaluate if it will ever be possible. Additionally, delegates are expected to conclude if whether controlling this aspect is considered an infringement on free speech, especially since other countries do not have such measures in place.