How did Tharman win the Presidential Election?
September 5th, 2023 | 
Author: 
How did Tharman win the Presidential Election? I have three (rather obvious) pointers after the recent three-cornered contest.
1) Character.
This goes without saying, unless you live in a dictatorship. In that case, you need to desperately hold on tight to power, the more the merrier. An iron grip would ensure that your character is always well-burnished to the compliant electorate. In that case, even if you’re wearing nothing, parading nude to the crowd, you would still be seen as fully clothed and highly regale.
But I have sidetracked. I believe that we are currently living in a functional democracy. One that is robust and mature. And this means that character is what counts in a PE.
That 70.4% endorsement shows that Tharman won the day with his character shining through. He has sown the right seeds, over decades, and it’s time for the harvest.
People who know him, described him as a “humble man”, “friendly with everyone”, and “on the campaign…his wisdom and composure came through in the way he fielded questions.” He is also relatable and it helps that he is multilingual.
2) Credentials.
You can Google him. Tharman has a solid track record. His wide-ranging experiences are all displayed for verification and consideration. No need for blowing one’s own horn here.
While all of them have their sterling credentials, NKS was GIC investment chief and TKL was NTUC chief, Tharman’s credentials/experiences, especially on international stages, gives him that extra edge, if not by a mile away from the rest.
Even Singaporeans, mostly those on the middle-ground, who do not agree with the policies of the ruling party, compounded by the recent scandals, were willing to separate the issues, that is, Tharman and the Party, and vote with their hearts and minds on what truly counts when all the smoke and dust settles.
In any event, when you combine the two Cs together, what you get is a winning formula. I believe they are complementary of each other. You can’t have one without the other. Character and credentials are the horse and carriage of a person’s achievement in life. It is what a life of excellence in wisdom and virtue is all about. It’s the defining hallmark.
Of course, you can be a high achiever, hugely successful, but through questionable means; for example, a dictator going around kissing babies and cutting ribbons for a new hospital or orphanage. This however will not be the case in a PE that operates within a functional, robust democracy. In such a system, you can’t smoke the mature electorate. They will exercise their freedom to vote based on that dependable common sense. And that sense prevailed and pulled thru for a sensible outcome.
3) Creed.
This is the election slogan you embody. This calls for enduring authenticity. Tharman didn’t go for the lowest hanging fruit here. His compaign banner is: “Respect for All.” He called for voters not to bank on labels. Independence is not a binary choice, not black and white. It’s more than that – the discernible shades of nuances. It is about critically examining the candidate’s character and credentials, and use it to assess how one would respond when difficult situations, not just conflict of interests, arise.
Creed is the motto that one relies on, and it is important that one stays true to it. Tharman knew what he wanted in his race for the presidency. He spoke convincingly about an “optimistic future, building social solidarity around a sense of egalitarianism”. Big words…but it simply means “life is not just about surviving the storm, it’s about dancing in the rain (together).” (A quote from Taylor Swift that Tharman brought up in an interview with Taufik).
That is glowing optimism embodied in a nation fighting together against all odds. This uplifting harnesses strength in a crisis. It focuses us on what we can do together, what we can overcome as one people. For we must never forget that it is a unity that is no doubt hard fought and deeply cherished.
Tbh, as a side note, it is not an election that is difficult to forecast. Imho, choosing NKS is like choosing 1/2 of Tharman in terms of experience and trusted familiarity. And choosing TKL is more complicated, because he may be independent of the ruling party, but one cannot be too sure he will be independent of the other parties, elected or otherwise.
Alas, some have called Tharman the “total package”. Others called it the “Tharman effect”. They all refer to the same thing. It’s about the three Cs coming together, in a leader, whom many respect, and embraced by the people, so that trust is restored, and faith in a common future is reinforced.
Kudos to the electorate then. The discerning silent majority. Even those who had struggled to decide at the ballot boxes, who by choice formed the 70.4%. It has sent a signal out to the nation at large, a message that we should always have “Respect for all,” regardless of the colour of our skin and our political past.
Michael Han
* The author was a Director at Han & Lu Law Chambers and blogs on Facebook.
Posted in 
So basically, the perfect candidate. PAP won handsomely this time around whether they want to admit or not. But as a certain Eugene Tan pointed out, it would be awry to see the result as overwhelming endorsement for the party because it has been said countless times that this isn’t a GE. Again, whether PAP agrees or not is another thing altogether lah.
Anyway, like it or not botak is the president. Good thing that the internet remember everything so give him a few years and we will see if he has done anything different from his predecessors or he will just stay silent on the reserves and blindly sign off whenever his ex party wants to use them.
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70% could fall into the category of “fools seldom differ.” The nos. says it all and includes the writer.
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Better pray nothing screws up in the next 5 years or this thesis will end up as white trash inside a rubbish bin.
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NKS HELPED THARMAN to score high vote count.
Voters on the fence got swung over from oppo to PAP camp.
In a,way,Tharman strikes TOTO because sgs still remain BODOH!
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The virtue of this article is its ‘fusion of humanities’ with politics. Once the author understands this, he will have made a great leap forward (metaphorically).
BTW, i had a puppy (w/o tail) that was the closest-to-human-being animal I ever saw. He was almost a shrink! and he acted like with “human” elements: intuition, perception, joy, sadness, insomnia, premonitions, pride, nobility, patience, LOVE, etc, etc And he was “only” a puppy well taken care of… Imagine what a real human can be/do if granted in tender years the main stuff ( character, credential and creed) to “conform”.
Why has nobody addressed this dude’s crown? No answers, just asking.
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Yes character, credential and creed are important. But the most important factor is having the support of the Party which has its hands on all the levers of power in this country.
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Thaman as President somehow “inspired” me to put my Radio n TV set away into store room for 5 years at least.as a”newgetarian”.
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https://theindependent.sg/bbc-calls-tharman-a-president-who-couldve-been-much-more/
It is a waste for him to be a figurehead!
He is much more suited to be PM as shown by the PE landslide win indicating no issue with non-Chinese candidate!
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Many lawyers are conmen and many politicians are liars……proven over and over again.
If you think the electorate are smart, then you are the opposite.
Why? For so many years, with GRCs and even race based category for EP, they still have no intention to make changes to the systems……and then suddenly minority can easily be elected president….cute.
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Mr Han how about another article title How did Tan KL lose the PE?
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Interesting to find out why TS vote is so high and TKL vote is so low inspite of big gun Opposition leaders support…
Anyway TS results would not be GE results…for sure.
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He won because he was the Chosen Regime candidate.
Put it this way – if he was an independent candidate and Phua Chu Kang was the Regime candidate then we would have Phua in the Istana.
There is no need to go deeper than that.
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Pineapple is not recommended in large amounts because of Bromelain, this is why you feel like you’re being eaten inside out at the mouth area.
So it’s a choice fruit for the Indian Pineapple President who is on the WEF Board of Trustees eating inside out the country.
Bromelain, the enzyme present in pineapples that break down protein, including saliva:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJaVvE1s_yw
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We are paying $10 million for this pineapple, let’s see if it is juicy and sweet.
We can only blame the 70%, if it is rotten or can only be used as a bowl for Thai rice.
Just hope and pray this pineapple is better than Milo!!
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All your written articles are ass kissing. Why? You are a new IB? You like smelling and kissing other people’s backsides ? We have too many dogs in Sinkapor. We don’t need another one ,
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I try pineapple Milo, taste funny.
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”Corporate governance advocate and professor of accounting at the NUS Business School, Mak Yuen Teen, questioned if banking safeguards, which put the onus on banks to prevent money laundering, have been effective.
“If we want truly effective safeguards, we need to make sure there is accountability at the top of these organisations, including boards and senior management, and penalties must be severe enough,” he said.
He added that the crackdown is “long overdue” as there have been suspicions about the sources of funds of many wealthy foreigners from certain countries.
“The scale of this operation involving multiple agencies is impressive but one wonders why it took so long for the authorities to act,” he said. ”
So Fujian Gang have been Laundering Money in Sinkieland for more than 6 years.
MAS Chairman Tharman became Prez Tharman.
Ravi Menon resigned.
Prof Mak Yuen Teen ask the question on all Sporeans lips—Why took so long???
How many more gangs are there.
COE just kit $137,000—more money laundering???
Wake up MAS!
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Cancer deadly and hard to detect,up to the guy see the scan want to detect.Anyway, prepare for wake ok?No hope ready.Money will be trader to the run away brother.
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Umm,this is as good as a “WALK-OVER”.
How come?
Must be new $hittizens.
Or,blur sheeporeans.
Guess sheep can really produce cotton,at least the sheeporean breed.
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70.4% of Sinkies are knowing participants in high crimes and misdemeanors conducted by civil servants working in the government of their country.
Money laundering revelations were already in the open and published on the internet before the Presidential ‘eRection’.
Excerpt from Kenneth Jeyaratnam’s blog and reposted by TRE:
“In 2006 Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley’s star economist on the Asia-Pacific region, quit his job suddenly after an internal email he had written was leaked.
The email contained his disparaging observations on (current Singapore PM) Lee Hsien Loong whom he called a ‘princeling’ at the World Bank/IMF meeting in Singapore:
‘I thought the questioners were competing with each other to praise Singapore as the success story of globalisation.
These Western people didn’t know what they’re talking about.
Actually Singapore’s success came mostly from being the money laundering centre for corrupt Indonesian businessmen and government officials. Indonesia has no money.*
So Singapore isn’t doing well. To sustain its economy, Singapore is building casinos to attract corrupt money from China.’- Andy Xie
[*according to Reuters in 2016 around $200 billion of Indonesian money has been squirreled away in Singapore to hide it from the tax authorities in Jakarta.]”
- Kenneth Jeyaratnam, Queen’s College, Cambridge University graduate with a double First Class Honors in Economics
Sinkieland nominal GDP in 2023 estimated by Wikipedia, US$644 billion
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There is no such thing as a “messianic figure” who comes and “respect all” or shall be the answer to world peace under his rulership or dictatorship. He who comes and offer to bring prosperity and “peace”, via the law, is
unreal or untruthful(because he is seeing through the eyes of gain – and many identify with his education/narration).
The leadership is a product of a system predicated on the charisma and cleverness of his higher or good self.
If you believe that, you are part of the 70% or even 100% who look towards a “messianic figure” to rule over them.
How can you see your dumbness in your lusts?
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How TS garnered such high votes is the samw as how PAP keeps winning 80 PLUS SEATS GE AFTER GE despite oppo parties receiving about 35-40 pct of all votes count.
Why?
The UNFAIR BARRIERS TO ENTRY.
In PE,the $500M SYSTEMATICALLY EXCLUDE some otherwise good and worthy candidates.
Also,and more important,is the way daft sgs vote.
In recent PE,many among the 40 pct became daft again thinking they had been savvy.
LKY was right when he said at Charlie Rose,sgs(referring to majority) of sgs are daft with no spikes in their hides.
Imagine young educated voters could get swept off by high-sounding pledges like “Respect for all” and teaching investment knowhow and good public speaking?
Maybe sgs should really learn how to “meditate” on how to vote wisely.
How to bring about respect for all when EP Tharman was part of the sgs who are the PROPONENTS OF POFMA?
STUPID,right,and educated?
How motivated or enabled for sgs to dive into highly risky “INVESTMENTS” when they are not even able to find stable and good jobs in order to have excess savings to invest?
GO ASK GIC OR TH FOR MONEY?
SURE,IF YOU ARE KOK SONG!
STUPID SGS WILL CONTINUE TO BE SIDELINED ANS BECOME OUTCASTS.
RESPECT FOR ALL?!
LUCKY IF YOU DON’T GET POFMA for KPKB about FTs and HDBs.
Young sinkies ,go screw your own backsides,stop blaming older sgs.
What a herd of daft sheep.
Better for us all if you,youngsters,can really produce COTTON.
NEXT GE,JUST VOTE YOUR PAP.
OPPO,FORGET ABOUT SACRIFICING,IT IS NOT EORTH IT UNLESS you are good at WAYANG PARTY-ing.
Even then,a 70 pct or more win for PAP is not impossible.
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@Spec Ops:…Money laundering revelations were already in the open and published on the internet before the Presidential ‘eRection’.
So CEO of MAS Ravi removed.
MAS Chairman became Prez.
Now Lawrence Wong, future PM, is MAS Chairman.
This new broom better sweep clean.
LW have very little time to clean up this Money Laundering/Terrorism Financing mess.
His reputation depends on it.
”Singapore: strong AML laws, weak enforcement
Singapore demonstrates a strong anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) legislative framework but despite this, it shows significant weaknesses in its effective implementation, according to a recent review by the Financial Action Task Force.
..https://baselgovernance.org/blog/singapore-strong-aml-laws-weak-enforcement
How many GANGS are operating in this little red dot.
WHY do they choose to come here.
We do not have drug lords living here because we really hang drug traffickers.
We do not enforce AML/CFT laws—that is why so many gangs are here for many years. OBVIOUS reason.
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As long as we have double standards for judging a person based on their wealth, influence and power. We will live in an unequal and in-just society.
The saddest part is that the daft ones are the forgiving and undemanding ones who will close both eyes when rich and powerful say or do the wrong things. No one ask them to. It is their own doing that they have to struggle like dogs their entire life but never see $2m in their net worth while someone who don’t care about them earns it easily without doing anything.
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Interesting:
September 6, 2023 at 12:46 am (Quote)
Interesting to find out why TS vote is so high and TKL vote is so low inspite of big gun Opposition leaders support…
Anyway TS results would not be GE results…for sure.
Response: Very INTERESTING indeed! Anyway, since BOTAK already has his 2 farking legs inside the I$tana aka House of Card$ for the next 6 years, it’s NO LOONGER or NIL POSSIBILITY of him becoming the NEXT PeeM, period! Wow, GREAT Maneuver by the Hidden Hands aka MM(MasterMind)! Great credit goes to the MIND behind the MM!
So we can 101% EXPECT the MIND behind the MM quietly and METICULOUSLY PLOTTING another Great maneuver and Holee Plan to WIN MORE THAN 70.4% in GE2024! Also we can Expect Son of Wangsa to be the ERECTED Seatwarmer cum 4th PeeM to squat on the FamiLEE Imperial Throne in GE2024! Also in GE2024, we can EXPECT Li Horny to be fielded as a PAPIGS candidate and ensuring 101% WINNING in an extra SAFE GRC and thereafter being kicked upstairs to become a World Class Minister in one of the Impotent oops Important Ministry paving the Holee Route to become the 5th PeeM subsequently!
Heaven is watching. MAN PROPOSES GOD DISPOSES!
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”Chinese national buys 20 units at CanningHill Piers for around $85m
..The deal was brokered by ERA Realty Network, which declined to comment on the deal, according to Lianhe Zaobao.
..The buyer, who is from Fujian, China, is also said to be considering 10 more units,
..As part of the measures introduced last year to cool the property market, foreign buyers have to pay a 30 per cent Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty,
The money used to pay for the units was transferred from Indonesia into Singapore,”ST 2Jun 20222
….”“The scale of this operation involving multiple agencies is impressive but one wonders why it took so long for the authorities to act,” Prof Mak Yuen Teen, NUS
CanningHill Piers developer—CDL + Capitaland
ERA brokered the deal.
And nobody asked any question in June 2022.
You can increase ABSD to 100% or more, dirty money will still come for washing.
ElectroluxPore the best washing machine in the Universe.
New MAS Chairman Lawrence Wong—you need to get rid of this washing machine to clean up the country.
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He won because the Chinese votes were split.
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”Richard Hu, S’pore’s longest-serving finance minister, dies aged 96”
I think Hu cannot take it any more.
The amount of scandals in MAS and MOF who are supposed to be at the battlefront to prevent ML/TF is now total FAIL.
Imagine–your major life work—all gone to waste.
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