Independent Judicary? In Singapore?

Extracted from our Constitution

Article 94 Constitution of Supreme Court

(2) The office of a Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be abolished during his continuance in office.

(4) In order to facilitate the disposal of business in the Supreme Court, the President, if he, acting in his discretion, concurs with the advice of the Prime Minister, may appoint a person qualified for appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court to be a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court in accordance with Article 95 for such period or periods as the President thinks fit; and a Judicial Commissioner so appointed may, in respect of such class or classes of cases as the Chief Justice may specify, exercise the powers and perform the functions of a Judge of the High Court. Anything done by a Judicial Commissioner when acting in accordance with the terms of his appointment shall have the same validity and effect as if done by a Judge of that Court and, in respect thereof, he shall have the same powers and enjoy the same immunities as if he had been a Judge of that Court.

(5) For the purposes of Clause (4), the President may appoint a person qualified for appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court to be a Judicial Commissioner to hear and determine a specified case only.

So the PM has the power to appoint or rather, influence the appointment of Judicial Commissioners who have the full authority of Judges but the tenure is limited to the period that the President "deems fit". Hence also the giving power to the Executive to remove the Judicial Commissioner when he "deems fit" to do so.

Article 4 can easily be used to circumvent article 2, and put judges' appointments at the mercy of the PM. Maybe to ensure their obedience? Anyone knows for sure, how many of our judges are judicial commissioners at the moment? I heard the Chief Justice is or was a judicial commissioner, can anyone confirm this?