Singapore presidential hopeful Dr Tony Tan has made several public appearances this month. (AFP Photo)
By P N Balji
Presidential hopeful Dr Tony Tan will do himself -- and Singapore politics -- a huge favour if he stops accepting invitations from organisations queuing up to ask him to talk at their functions. In the last 10 days, he has already attended three such public functions, a record that even the Prime Minister would find difficult to surpass.
Such public appearances and the speeches he delivered at these events give Dr Tan an unfair advantage over other prospective presidential candidates. They also make many wonder if the new normal in politics he spoke about is just a passing fantasy, and they leave a sour taste in the voter's mouth.
From a purely public relations point of view, his speeches and appearances are a smart way to show Dr Tan in different angles: As Mr Peranakan, Mr Economy and Mr Education. But politics is more than PR.
His presence at the Peranakan Association's 111th anniversary dinner on 9 July sparked a very relevant question in a posting in Javert's World: "Technically, he is jobless and his title is ex-Deputy Prime Minister, not even Emeritus. So how did he end up as a VIP of the Peranakan clan?"
And, let me add by asking: Why now?
Discussions on the economy, politics and education
Then came his lecture at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce six days later, on 15 July, where he gave his take on trends, risks and opportunites in the global economy, his favourite hobby horse. Even when he was Defence Minister, Dr Tan did not hesitate to give his views on Singapore's economic policy. But what caught the attention was his analysis of the result of GE 2011.
He positioned himself as an all-embracing avuncular elder statesman when he framed the post-GE scenario this way: A win-win-win outcome. A win for the PAP because the party won 81 of 87 seats; a win for the opposition, especially the Workers' Party, because it now has a base to build on its aspiration, credibility, influence "and possibly get even more votes in the next election"; and a win for Singapore as it takes political development here to a new level.
The next date in Dr Tan's crowded diary was 19 July when he again delivered a lecture, this time at the Singapore Management University, on the future of higher education. This one appeared even more strategic with the former executive director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation using the occasion to clarify online talk about his position on foreign students and the graduate mothers policy.
He has been accused of being the architect of the open-door policy on foreign students and has been questioned about his role in reversing the unpopular scheme to give graduate mothers an advantage in registering their children for Primary One.
On the first, he said he had always advocated a Singaporean-first, but not Singaporean-only, approach. But it was on the second point, that he tried to be evasive. The graduate mums policy was one of the hot-button issues in the 1984 election that brought the PAP's majority of votes cast to below 60 per cent. Dr Tan became Education Minister the next year and reversed the policy.
Extensive media coverage
Media reports have used this example to show that the man has an independent streak in him. The online world refused to buy this and asked whether he would have taken the same decision if not for the 1984 election setback and, more importantly, whether he had argued against the policy before its implementation.
His answer: "I see little benefit to say what might have happened. The point is, one looks at the issue when one has the authority to do something about it. And the important thing is, when you have the authority, you should exercise it wisely, and not in a hurried way, but after due deliberation."
Dr Tan's public pronouncements, though lacking in real news value, have been getting a lot of media exposure. The latest saw most of the newspapers giving the views of Dr Tan, the former chairman of the Singapore Press Holdings, Page One treatment, with The Straits Times going further by also reporting nearly every twist and turn of his quotes in a full page inside and using excerpts of his speech in the comment section.
Political battles are never fair. Some parties and personalities will always get more exposure. But the post of presidency, as the Prime Minister's Office said in a recent statement, is very different; it is an office that is dignified and the person who finally gets elected into that office must show that he won it after a fair and square contest.
As long as man-made hurdles like this exist, let's not even start talking about the new normal in Singapore politics.
P N Balji is the director of the Asia Jouralism Fellowship, a joint initiative of Temasek Foundation and Nanyang Technological University.
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