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Tan Cheng Bock's daughter slams REACH over post on cancelled EP forum

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Photo: Hannah Teoh

Prospective presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock’s daughter has slammed government feedback unit REACH after a public forum on the Elected Presidency (EP) was scrapped recently.

The dispute arose over whether Tan, 76, had indeed registered for a forum with Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shangmugam that was to be held on Thursday (29 September). It was cancelled due to “poor response”, said REACH.

In a Facebook post on Thursday evening, Tan lamented the cancellation of the forum as he had registered his attendance last week and had been looking forward to hearing Shanmugam speak.

“This forum would have been a great platform for Singaporeans to seek clarification on the matter,” said Tan, who contested the last presidential election in 2011 and lost by just 7,382 votes, or a 0.35 per cent margin.

Shortly after Tan’s post, REACH posted on its own Facebook page: “In response to queries, we confirm that we do not have any registration under the name of Dr Tan Cheng Bock for this dialogue.”

Tan responded to the post by clarifying that he had registered under his alias Adrian Tan, which is in his NRIC. He also provided his NRIC number, mobile, address, and occupation, and received a confirmation of his registration.

Tan’s daughter Ming Li also weighed in, commenting on the REACH Facebook page: “Given the wealth of information and resources at your disposal, could you not check with him whether he in fact registered before posting your implied statement on Facebook that he did not register?”

Ming Li further pointed out that she, her brother and husband had all registered for the event together with Tan. “Given all the information you know, are you still implying that my father dd not register for this event?”

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Screenshot from REACH Facebook page

Earlier this month, Tan had questioned if the forthcoming changes to the EP were aimed at preventing him from contesting the election. He declared his candidacy in March and told Yahoo Singapore in June that he saw no reason for the Constitutional Commission to disqualify him.

Several dialogues on the presidential election have been organised since a Constitutional Commission released its recommendations on changes to the EP earlier this month. Under the proposed amendments, Tan would be ruled out of the next presidential election in 2017.

The government has released a White Paper adopting many of the recommendations, and it is expected to debate it in Parliament in November.