of votes cast approve the proposed amendment. The President is deemed to have assented to the amendment on the day immediately following the day when the results of the referendum have been published in the Government Gazette. This scheme prevents a gridlock that may arise if the Government calls for a new election to circumvent the President's veto. Thus, Article 5A provides a series of legal checks and balances between the President on the one hand, and the Prime Minister and Cabinet on the other. It increases the Constitution's rigidity as the power to amend the Constitution is no longer vested solely in Parliament. Articles 5(2A) and 5A have not yet been brought into force. In 1994, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this was because the complexity of the mechanism of both Articles surpassed what the Government had anticipated, and it was difficult to strike the fine balance between "the Government's need for operational flexibility" and the "President's duty to exercise effective oversight". On 21 October 2008, in response to a question by NMP Thio Li-ann about the status of Article 5(2A), Lee, now Prime Minister, said: The Government has adopted a piecemeal approach towards constitutional amendments to deal with changing political and social circumstances. Legislature's exercise of constituent power Article 4 of the Constitution states that any law enacted by the Legislature which is inconsistent with the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, void. Interpreted literally, this Article seems to render Article 5 otiose as any law enacted to amend the Constitution will naturally be inconsistent with the existing text of the Constitution. To get around this conundrum, L.R. Penna has observed that the Malaysian courts have distinguished between the exercise of "constituent power" and "legislative power" by Parliament. In Phang Chin Hock v. Public Prosecutor (1979), Lord President Tun Mohamed Suffian Mohamed Hashim held that: The position in Singapore is unclear since this issue has not been raised before the courts. However, it is arguable that they are likely to apply Phang Chin Hock as Articles 4 and 159 of the Constitution of Malaysia are in pari materia with Articles 4 and 5 of the Singapore Constitution. Essentially, this will involve interpreting Article 5 as vesting constituent power in the Legislature to amend the Constitution, and Article 4 as striking down only ordinary laws enacted by the Legislature in the exercise of legislative power.