TR EMERITUS

Mr Tan Kin Lian I am very happy and grateful that Tan Kin Lian has decided to enter the race to become the next President of Singapore. I ask Singaporeans to coalesce around Kin Lian so that we make him the next President of Singapore in September! Kin Lian is truly an independent candidate without any ties to the PAP, GIC or Temasek. His record speaks for itself. So has his many public speeches made at Hong Lim park and other events. He is a patriot who is always bursting with ideas of how to make life better for the ordinary Singaporean. Despite being a person of means, he eats at hawker centres and takes public transport like most of us. He does not live in the ivory tower but he understands the everyday struggles of the common man. Kin Lian qualifies easily for the Presidential Election and does not need any dispensation from the President Election Committee to contest the election. He built NTUC income from a business with $28 million in assets to a business with $17 Billion in assets when he left. He was a Board Member of POSB before it merged with DBS. He always had very innovative ideas of how to improve the services of the bank for Singaporeans. And every Singaporean has had a POSB account at some point in their life. I am confident that with Kin Lian’s entry into the contest, it will quickly turn into a 2 horse race between him and Tharman. I am also confident that with your support, Kin Lian will beat Tharman and Singapore will have the independent People’s President we crave. One thing is for sure- No More PAP President!   Lim Tean      Read More →

Mr Tan Kin Lian I submitted my application for a certificate of eligibility for the presidential election on 11 July 2023 through a proxy. I did not collect the form from the election department because I was able to download the form earlier from the website of the election department. I had also submitted my community declaration earlier through the website. Among the four potential candidates, I believe that Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam and I meet the full requirements as set out in the constitution. I am not sure if the other two potential candidates, Mr. George Goh and Mr. Ng Kok Song, meet the full requirements. However, I am aware that the Presidential Election Committee has the power to grant waiver for some of the shortfalls. I will wait for the decision of the Presidential Election Committee on the final slate of approved candidates before I decide on submitting the nomination paper. 今日，我站在您面前作为新加坡总统的候选人，怀着给人民提供真正选择的愿望参加即将到来的选举。我作为NTUC Income Insurance Cooperative的首席执行官三十年的经验，加上我的资格和品质，使我成为一个真正能代表和服务新加坡人民的候选人。   Tan Kin Lian      Read More →

Mdm President “My role is not to checkmate the Government. No, my role is not that. My role is to make sure that our reserves that are released are used in a manner that is meant for our national interests.” This will be her last NDP 23. She is not running for another term. Six years brings her to 70 years old. There is a season to be president; and a season to be a distinguished commoner. President Halimah (“Halimah”) said: “When a people retire, the first thing that they do is they try to catch up with the time that they have lost with the family.” She has five children, all grown up, and 2 grandchildren. I guess she is the most controversial president after Ong Teng Cheong (OTC). Unlike OTC, our de facto first elected president, Halimah walked into Istana, unchallenged. Two man-made hurdles seemed to pave the presidential path for her. First, it was the hard-to-swallow reserved election. It felt like a late delivery, and it was served cold, leaving many wondering whether the power-that-be had too much of a hand in it. And it came at a bad time too, when Tan Cheng Bock (TCB) was all armored up for the second bite of the electoral cherry. TCB lost just a nose tip to Tony Tan (between 35.2 and 34.8, that’s just 0.4). That was 2011, and TCB was the hot candidate in 2017, if not for the reserved presidency. Well, as a point of contention, and even giving it a benefit of a doubt, the EP could be necessary for racial fairness and harmony. But one has to question its timing, coming at the heels of a candidate who had the trade wind under his presidential sail. The other hurdle was about raising the shareholders’ equity bar from 100m to 500m in value. The first hurdle held back the indefatigable TCB, and the second swept away the other two Malay presidential candidates, Salleh Marican and Farid Khan. They ran short and was disqualified before their shoe-laces could be tied. Emerging from this controversial haze is Halimah. It’s ironic that she recently remarked: “Public office is never a walk in the park, is it? You have to expect to be scrutinised, to be criticised, to be questioned.” That’s true. And she took all the critiques about her being “selected” instead of being elected in her stride. But, despite a flat-footed start at the race, Halimah earned some brownie points identifying with the majority of Singaporeans when she insisted that her dwelling place remained as it was. In the initial months, she was known as the HDB president hailing from Yishun. She had lived there for more than 30 years. That humble optic was both democratic and meritocratic. But it soon became quixotic, if not unrealistic, due to security reasons. And off went the president and the president’s men to a much more exclusive estate where heads of state belong. She may have a jumbo-sized heart for the people, but her jumbo-size government subsidised flat at Block 633 had become a PT Barnum’s tourist attraction. And the corridor of the estate was just too narrow to accommodate the safety and regality of the presidential personality. Now, after six long years, Halimah is done. She has run the best she could. And it was not the best of times for her, considering the Covid pandemic. Coming 70, she is back to the race for family, friends and worthy causes, and in my book, they are equally presidential. She is no less grateful for the opportunity to make an enduring difference. But she had had a fair share of taking up the “tremendous responsibilities” of the presidency, and it’s time to pass the baton to a relatively younger candidate (I guess you can put your bottom dollar on another minority-race president, since he’s all strapped up at the starting lineup, standing all alone, whistling to himself, while the other two struggle to qualify). Let me end with the demonstrated fortitude of Halimah. She answered the call. She made the sacrifice. She may be paid well, but like she said, “it’s never a walk in the park”; though incidentally, Pinic@Istana and Garden@Istana programmes were her brainchild. As an aside, she made Istana a wheelchair-friendly space, to make the “national asset” accessible to all. While SR Nathan approved the withdrawal of $4.9b of the nation’s reserves in 2009, Halimah drew down close to 10x of that, nearly $40b. That was a furnace moment for her. She did her job to safeguard the people’s savings and the future of Singapore the best she knew how. In a recent interview, she recounted that she and her prominent advisers attended 50 meetings with ministers of Finance, Trade and Industry, and Health, and was briefed frequently about fiscal matters, public health and the economic crisis Singaporeans are facing. It was a time she had sleepless nights. It was clearly unprecedented. No one had the benefit of hindsight at that time. Halimah could very well go down in history as a prodigal president rather than a prudent one. It is no doubt an honour and privilege to be the president of a wealthy independent state, which most of us can only dream of. But, the challenges are immense and real. It takes a mind and heart that are decades in the making thru industry and character to steer from that commanding height. Notwithstanding the controversial start, Halimah has proven her mettle. She had run another race for the last six years, and had run it well. Strictly speaking, she may not be the people’s choice, but she has won the people’s heart. For a brief human life, when spent, will have to look back, not so much at his/her accomplishments, but at whether they were done to the best that one could ever give, and with a clear conscience. That takes stamina, integrity and a good heart. Halimah embodies all that, and I say it’s time to give credit when credit is due.   Michael Han * The author is a Director at Hoh Law Corporation and blogs on Facebook.      Read More →