page_title: Presidential Council for Minority Rights
section_title: Appointment and term of office
hierarchical_section_title: Presidential Council for Minority Rights / Composition, appointment and term of office of members / Appointment and term of office
caption_attribution_description: English: Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, being escorted by United States Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld through an honour cordon and into the Pentagon. They met to discuss bilateral security issues including the war on terrorism: see DefenseLINK news photos.&#32;US Department of Defense&#32;(2002-05-02). Retrieved on 2009-05-05.
context_page_description: The Presidential Council for Minority Rights is a non-elected government body in Singapore established in 1970, the main function of which is to scrutinize most of the bills passed by Parliament to ensure that they do not discriminate against any racial or religious community. If the Council feels that any provision in a bill amounts to a differentiating measure, it will report its findings to Parliament and refer the bill back to Parliament for reconsideration. The Council also examines subsidiary legislation and statutes in force on 9 January 1970. One member of the PCMR is nominated by the Chairman to the Presidential Elections Committee, which is empowered to ensure that candidates for the office of President have the qualifications required by the Constitution. The President also appoints and dismisses the chairman and members of the Presidential Council for Religious Harmony, established by the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act, on the advice of the PCMR, and the PCMR is responsible for determining whether PCRH members who are not representatives of major religions in Singapore have distinguished themselves in public service or community relations in Singapore.
context_section_description: The members of the Presidential Council are not elected, but appointed by the President on advice of the Cabinet. No public nomination process or vote is stipulated in the Constitution. The President, if he does not concur with the Cabinet, may veto the appointment. However, he is required to consult the Council of Presidential Advisers ("CPA"), a constitutional body that advises the President on appointments of key public officials and matters relating to Singapore's financial reserves. If he exercises his veto without the CPA's concurrence, Parliament may overrule his decision with a resolution passed with a two-thirds majority vote. The President has no power to remove current members.
  Members of the Council must be Singapore citizens of at least 35 years of age residing in Singapore. Apart from these qualifications stated in the Constitution, there was an indication in the Parliamentary debates leading to the PCMR's introduction that permanent members of the PCMR are very likely to be drawn from "men of distinction" who hold or have held high public appointments, such as former prime ministers, the Chief Justice, former chief justices, judges, the Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore, the Chairman of the Public Service Commission, the Attorney-General and former permanent secretaries. Non-permanent members will probably be mature citizens who have rendered distinguished public service, or are prominent members of their professions.
  A member may be disqualified if he is found to be of unsound mind, if he becomes insolvent or is an undischarged bankrupt, if he is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment of not less than one year or a fine of not less than S$2,000, or if he has lost his Singaporean citizenship or declared himself allied to a foreign country. Any questions as to membership or disqualification are determined by a tribunal convened in secret that consists of a Supreme Court judge appointed by the Chief Justice and two members appointed by the Council. The Constitution does not stipulate any procedure for the removal of a member besides disqualification and the member's own resignation.
caption: One of the longest serving members of the PCMR, former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew was a permanent member of the Council at the time of his death on 23 March 2015
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