I had not intended to post something today on the issue of the Elected President (EP). After all, the big shots have all told us the EP's key role is custodial ("in case of emergency, break glass"). That was it.
Then Dr Tony Tan said some things (actually reiterated stuff he had said earlier) that made me wonder. Dr Tan, it should be noted, is a straight talker and minces no words.
It started when I saw ST's page one lead, which kicked off with Mr George Yeo announcing that he will not be a candidate for the EP post. Page one, certainly. But the lead story?
TODAY, in contrast, put its "George Yeo says he won't run for President" story as the page one 2nd lead and its lead story was, rightly so, "Unemployment at three-year low".
But it was reading the rest of the ST story that proved intriguing. Let me reproduce the Tony Tan portion here:
Former deputy prime minister Tony Tan, 71, did not rule himself out when asked recently about speculation that he might be running for President.
Asked again yesterday [ie Wednesday, 15 June] after Mr Yeo's announcement, Dr Tan, who is in the United States on a work-related trip for the National Research Foundation which he chairs, said: "I would like to reiterate that the next President's tenure is likely to see great change nationally (emphasis mine) and internationally. That is why this election is important.
"I will have more to say on the elected presidency when I return to Singapore next week."
[Last Tuesday, at a GIC press conference, he had read out a statement saying he was watching the political climate closely (emphasis mine), and that Singapore's next President would hold office during a period of "enormous change". He added that "it is more important than ever to have a President with a steady hand and a deep understanding of the complexities behind each decision the President may have to make."]
Reading all this in a new context was a wow moment for me. Yes, I would be all ears when Dr Tan returns next week!
He is talking about "great changes" ahead in the next six years, a very short timespan really. Internationally, tiny Singapore may have to tweak or even reset its security policies and diplomacy. But that's the job of the Government of the Day (Singaporeans just love acronyms... so is this GOD?).
Nationally, we just had a general election! And within six years, he expects a great change?
On top of this, the EP -- which everyone else is saying has very limited albeit very important executive power -- must have a steady hand and a deep understanding of the complexities behind each decision the President may have to make.
Is Dr Tan signalling that:
* The next EP has to be someone the GOD can really trust, and work with?
* The next EP will get more executive power? Goobye, VIJ, hello VIP?
* There may be a glacial move -- and I emphasise glacial; certainly not likely in the next General Election -- towards a hybrid parliamentary/presidential form of government?
If so, politics in Singapore is gonna be so much, much more interesting.
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OK, too much serious stuff already.
* TODAY has this headline (page 3) which I thought was iffy -- "Home Minister vows to probe nude squats"
* ST, being a family paper, gave a straight-forward headline (page A4) -- "Malaysia investigates nude squat claims"
Note: using "look into" instead of "probe" in the TODAY headline won't help. It might make it worse!
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