Nov 23, 2008
Remember this person called Andrew Kuan. He was a unknown Singaporean
until the day he decided to run for president. Within a few days, his
former employers had plenty of things to say about him. His former
company JTC (which is linked to the government) even gave a press
conference to give an account of his performance or rather lack of
performance....never mind staff confidentiality, national interests
come first. It was all very humiliating for Andrew and he didn't even
get to run because the selection committee concluded that his work
experience did not meet the criteria required to run for president.
In an interview in today's Sunday Times, Tan Kin Lian's said he will
run for presidency if there is enough support from the ground i.e. if
the people want him to, he will do it. This must have triggered many
alarm bells in the regime. The PAP govt would really love to keep
President Nathan in the post for another 10 years. Unfortunately,
President Nathan is already 84 years old. For the PAP, President
Nathan's performance is excellent compared with the previous President
Ong Teng Cheong. Unlike Nathan, Ong Teng Cheong took his job too
seriously. He tried to do the impossible - check the govt's accounts
with a staff of two people. His former PAP associates tried their best
to help him to enjoy his job by not burdening him with too much
information....a president's job is to smile, carry babies and host
parties at the Istana. President Nathan does his job well. That is why
the PAP is looking for another Nathan....not another Ong Teng Cheong.
Given his behavior in the minibonds saga, I'm afraid that Tan Kin Lian
will be worse than Ong Teng Cheong. He looks like one person who will
treat the issues of justice, accountability and transparency very
seriously. If he does that how will he find time to carry babies and
go for morning exercise like President Nathan at the East Coast Park.
If he asks the PAP govt for more accountability and transparency, the
PAP govt will want to get paid even more. They will hike their pay
again saying their jobs are now more challenging because they have to
be accountable. The other major problem with Tan Kin Lian is he stands
up for the ordinary people of Singapore and he listens to them. For
the PAP, a good president is one that listens to the PAP so that a
consistent picture is painted for Singaporeans. See, if everyone
consistently tell those who lost in money the Lehman Minibonds saga,
they would have accepted it and suffered in pain quietly....all the
PAP leaders kept quiet, it would have worked if not for Tan Kin Lian.
Now the banks have to spend money to compensate at least the old and
uneducated, this is not ideal for the PAP govt ...PAP is a caring govt
who cares about the profits of our banks.
I expect the PAP to now start mining for information on Mr. Tan. Does
he smoke? I heard he takes the MRT, maybe someone saw him not giving a
seat to the old....? Did he make any careless mistakes in one of his
2000 transport claims in NTUC? Gee....the guy is not perfect.....there
has to be something. Don't worry knowing the PAP there are people
assigned to the task already. The PAP is thinking about Singaporeans,
they want the Presidential elections to be a national holiday for
Singaporeans - if there is only one candidate, we can all spend the
whole day shopping and give this sick economy a boost.
