How many Malays qualify as President？

After writing “99.97% don’t qualify to stand as President?” (Sep 1) – Terry Xu, chief editor of theonlinecitizen pointed out to me that the number of private sector candidates who may qualify to stand as the President, may be less than 691.

I agree, as “To fulfil the private sector service requirement, a person must have served as the chief executive of a company, with his or her most recent period of service as chief executive being at least 3 years.

During this period of service, the company must, on average, have at least $500 million in shareholders’ equity, and have made profit after tax throughout the entire period.

Where the person has ceased to be chief executive of a company before the date of the writ of election, the company must also not have been subject to any insolvency event from the person’s last day of service as chief executive until (i) the date falling 3 days after that day; or (ii) the date of the writ of election, whichever is earlier”.

The reasons being that of the 691 companies that meet the $500 million requirement – some may not meet the “have made profit after tax throughout the entire period” and also the chief executive of a company may enter or leave a company such that he or she may not meet the three years with $500 million plus “have profits” requirements.     .

Moreover, the new eligibility requirements are much more restrictive than the old one, as the current requirement is only the chief executive, wheareas the old one was chief executive or chairman.

And of course the $100 million requirement has been raised to $500 million.

In this connection, you may also like to read the the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Leong Sze Hian