The Problem is not Who Gets the Job – The Problem is the Job

 The big news in Singapore is that our Senior Minister, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam (“Mr. Tharman”) has resigned from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and the Cabinet in order to run for President. Given that Mr. Tharman has been one of the most prominent members of the government, it seems all but assured that he will be Singapore’s next president.

In a way, you could say this is a career highlight for a man who was once a student activist. Mr. Tharman is what you call that most unusual of Singaporean politicians – he’s a technocrat who has is in touch with the ground. Of all the Ministers produced in Singapore, he alone has been recognized beyond the shores of Singapore, having been appointed Chairman of the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee, Chair of the G20s Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance and Chair of the Group of Thirty. Yet, at the same time, Mr. Tharman has consistently been one of the most popular politicians in Singapore.

Mr. Tharman is such a star that, he’s actually had to go out of his way to say that having a contest for this upcoming presidential election is important to him:

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/tharman-hopes-singapore-presidential-election-will-be-contested-says-its-important-him-3554061

 

As if there was a magic political genie, the most recent announcement in the wake of Mr. Tharman’s announcement is the fact there will be another contender, who is Mr. George Goh, an entrepreneur who brought Harvey Norman to Singapore. Mr. Goh is in many ways a compelling candidate with a rags-to-riches story. He’s another gem in Singapore – a genuine private sector entrepreneur. However, nobody doubts that Mr. Goh will, at best pick up the protest votes – if he’s allowed to run.

The problem here is not Mr. Tharman or Mr. Goh. Both have compelling stories that make them good representatives of the nation. While Mr. Tharman is undoubtedly the better known of the pair, both have carried themselves with a certain amount of gravitas that befits a head of state.

The real issue here is the presidency. Ever since we broke away from colonial rule, it’s been very clear that the role of Head of State has been largely ceremonial, like that of the British Monarch. However, while the role has been largely ceremonial, it’s been a political football to be kicked around at the whims of the government. In his biography, Lee Kuan Yew made it very clear that he needed a Malay to be head of state because he needed to show the Federal Government in Kuala Lumpur that a Malay could rise to the top in Singapore. So, Yusof Ishak became our first head of state. For a while, this was the unspoken rule where ethnic minorities became president, whilst the Chinese majority ran the government.

Suddenly this changed in 1993, when Ong Teng Cheong became Singapore’s elected president. The rules changed. The presidency was no longer about being a symbol of racial harmony but about looking after this thing called the “reserves.” The president is in theory the only office elected by every Singaporean (you vote for the individual not a party) and is in theory an impartial voice that is above the political fray (in theory the president MUST NOT be a member of any political party). Sure, the president is still pretty much like the British monarch – only able to act “upon the advice of the Prime Minister,” which in layman speak is “will do as I’m told,” but unlike the British Monarch, the Singapore’s President has in theory the ability to say no, especially if he or she thinks the government is going to steal from the proverbial cookie jar.

However, whilst the theory is that the president has a separate democratic mandate in order to be an independent voice, the practice has been rather different. Of the four “elected” presidents that we’ve had, only two have actually faced a contest of sorts. Ong Teng Cheong ran against Chua Kim Yeow. Mr. Chua’s entire campaign was “vote for Mr. Ong, he’s much better than me,” and he still got 30 percent of the vote. There could not be a clearer message to the government that “the people” expected to use their mandate and were not going to give the government’s boy a free ride, even if the other guy was begging them to do so.

The only other president who faced a contest was Tony Tan, who despite a track record of government service and having the full weight of the government machinery behind him, only got in with 0.34 percent of the vote.

When came to the presidents of ethnic minority backgrounds, the government went out of its way, to borrow a phrase from our Prime Minister, “fix” the contest and both were selected. This was painfully obvious in the case of Madam Halimah. First, they conveniently changed the constitution to state that only a Malay could be president. Then a whole group of potential candidates were disqualified for not being Malay. Then, when it came out that Madam Halimah was actually an “Indian Muslim,” you had the then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr. Chan Chun Sing proudly displaying a lack of cultural understanding, declaring “An Indian Muslim is a Malay.”

Both Mr. Tharman and Mr. Goh would do well to study the fate of our presidents. Yusof Ishak and Benjamin Shears had the good fortune to die in office and only Wee Kim Wee managed to retire was from office with dignity and died at a ripe old age.

Anyone who had any form of ground support was effectively neutered. Case in point is Devan Nair, who was a prominent trade unionist. The office took him away from his people in the unions and when he was humiliated for having a sip too much, nobody was there for him. Ong Teng Cheong was a successful Deputy Prime Minister who spearheaded the creation of our MRT. He had the tenacity to do the job as described in the constitution and to make matters worse, he mentioned that there were teething problems. His reward was to be told to shut up and when he died, there was no state funeral for a former head of state.

The other Deputy Prime Minister to take the job was Tony Tan and had democratic legitimacy was effectively a silent president who was never really seen in public except for a trip to the UK where he and his wife looked like miniatures next to the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The two most recent presidents from the ethnic minority communities, namely SR Nathan and Halimah Yacob have effectively towed the party line. In a way. Mr. Nathan is the luckier of the two. His career was in the civil service and had a track record of being loyal to the government. Whilst he was often lambasted by the online crowd, he wasn’t a threat and he didn’t come from a background of having “ground support,’ from any particular group. So, you could say the presidency was a good and lucrative retirement for him.

Madam Halimah on the other hand is from the trade union movement. She was, prior to her climb up the ladder of politics, he respected enough figure. She is, unfortunately now a butt of jokes on the internet about whether an Indian Muslim is a Malay.

Both Mr. Tharman and Mr. Goh will not be able to do much and in the case of Mr. Tharman he needs to study what has happened to people in the post. He has ground support. Polls have shown that people want him as Prime Minister, despite the constant reminders that Singapore is not ready for a Prime Minister from an ethnic minority. Mr. Tharman needs to tread very carefully as president. He will not be allowed to be independent even though the public expect him to be so. He needs to retain support from his people on the ground to get elected but at the same time he needs to assure the government of the day that he is no threat to them. Instead of being in a politically neutral office, Mr. Tharman may find that the presidency to be the most difficult political balancing act of his stellar career.