The Presidential Election

Tan Kin Lian , Tony Tan and Tan Cheng Bock, my dear readers these are your leading presidential candidate as of today, there may be some lurking with their nomination certificate . But it is these 3 Tans ,  that have attracted and gain the public attention and is most likely to be your next president.

Stereo-typically these 3 candidate fulfill what every president election needs ,  Tony Tan , the unofficial government choice   , Tan Kin Lian representing the opposition choice and Tan Cheng Bock the one standing in the middle. Beside the different tags given to them , they are also alike in a certain sense. As all of them at one point or another have been a member of the ruling action party and is involved with them one way or another.

Tony Tan is a former DPM and cabinet minister , who was Lee Kuan Yew Choice to succeed him as prime minister and there is without doubt that he is part of the PAP inner circle. Amongst the 3 he is also the last to declare his intention to run for the presidency. That being said if a snap election is to be held right now , there is no doubt he currently occupy the largest mind share and would win the presidency .

Next we have Tan Kin Lian , who was the former chairman of NTUC income , who step down in 2007 . His claim to fame was the lehmen brother saga , where he step up and help those involved to seek redress , After which he set up an advocacy group FISCA  , to educate retail investor. He is also the earliest to declare his interest to run for presidency and is considered by some to be the opposition choice , attracting endorsement from opposition figure such as Goh Meng Seng , former NSP secretary General

Finally we have Tan Cheng Bock , who was a former Member of Parliament under the PAP banner for 26 years and is apparently the only non cabinet minster elected to PAP CEC. He has been posturing himself as an independent candidate with a view of his own , despite being a PAP MP for 26 years . To his credit he often speaks out against the party line and has on certain occasion took a stand when needed , Yet he is also tainted by some as being involved in the “Marxist round up” and also rumours as the alternative PAP choice. His biggest difficult is to convince the electorate that he is not a PAP man , yet maintaining his PAP leaning supporter.

Despite the President election being Non-Partisan , where party politics should not be involved , there is without doubt the stakes for the political parties is high. As an opposition leaning president could easily be a stumbling block for the PAP held parliament , shining the spotlight on issue often forgotten.  Even though he does not have the power to create bills and policy , he does have the power to deny/delay bills he find un-productive for Singaporean. Afterall one man meats is another man poison.

Even thou Tony Tan seems to be the likely choice to win this election , this is far from a forgone conclusion . Depending on how the other plays its cards the outcome would differ greatly. The strength of Tony Tan lies in his reputation and him being part of Singapore “golden years” where everything was warm and fuzzy. However as he has been in politics for a long time , there is certain policy that he is part of that is currently unpopular. Most notable of all was his stance on foreigners in Singapore. If enough publicity is shown on it in a bad light , the tide could easily turn on him , Pro-PAP voters could easily sway to Tan Cheng Bock, while the moderates would split between the other 2 candidate

While Tony Tan seem to held the votes of PAP voters , Tan Kin Lian Strength is in the opposition voters . As amongst the 3 he is often seen as the one furthest away from the PAP inner circle and is shown to be more on the side of the people rather than the Government . His biggest issue lies in the spitting of moderates votes between him and Tan Cheng Bock , which could potentially dilute his share of voters. Yet he also does have the greatest advantage if he can portray both Tan Cheng Bock and Tony Tan as the PAP voice , spitting the PAP voters while consolidating  his own voters. He would also need to campaign harder to gain mindshare in the general electorate as most Singaporean does not know who he is.

Finally Tan Cheng Bock is in a unique position , Like Germany he is stuck in the middle with many opportunity , but a single wrong move would effectively blow his campaign. He could easily sway either side of the voters , but it would be foolish of him to try to attract both side , as it would make him politically wrong and unconvincing to both the ruling party and the opposition leaning supporters. Personally it would make more sense to attract PAP voters as the share of the pie is larger. Also naturally he would be able to attract the moderates voters , However if he is to win it would be by a small margin , as the share of votes would be effectively split evenly amongst the 3 of them.

It is of my opinion if Tan Cheng Bock and Tan Kian lian play their card right this election would be an exciting one. if they don’t, the post would go to Tony Tan. So its time for them to step up their gain and let the voters make their choice