Progress Singapore Party (PSP) secretary-general Leong Mun Wai issued a memo to party members on Monday (Aug 28) to assure them that the party will not be endorsing any candidate for the Presidential Election. This was given the concerns that party founder Tan Cheng Bock endorsing candidate Tan Kin Lian in his personal capacity may negatively affect the party.

One PSP member told TODAY it was “audacious” of Mr Tan to ask for Dr Tan’s support given that they used to be opponents in the 2011 Presidential Election, while another member feared that public perception of the opposition party could be affected regardless of Dr Tan’s intentions of supporting Mr Tan.

Other party members said that they supported the move from the start, because it aligned with their personal interest of having a President whom they felt was “independent”, which they believe Mr Tan would be if elected.

In the memo, Mr Leong emphasised that only Dr Tan, and not PSP, was endorsing Mr Tan.

He assured members that despite past differences between both men, that Dr Tan is supporting Mr Tan “for the greater good of the country and people”.

“I greatly respect Dr Tan’s wisdom and magnanimity to put nation before self,” Mr Leong added in the memo.

He repeated PSP’s stance, that the party will not endorse any candidate in the upcoming election “because we support the principles that the President, as a symbol of the unity of Singapore, is meant to be independent and non-partisan”.

He added that PSP members may disagree with the party’s move of not endorsing a candidate, just as some “would be angry no matter who we choose to endorse”.

“It will not be possible for all our members to agree to all of our policies,” Mr Leong said in the memo. “Debate is welcome whenever we encounter an important and sensitive issue.

“However, we must close ranks after the decision has been made and continue working towards our common political objective of realising a progressive, compassionate and inclusive Singapore.”

The memo was issued a day after Dr Tan and Mr Tan Jee Say, a former presidential candidate and Singapore Democratic Party member, declared their support for Mr Tan’s campaign.

Both Dr Tan and Mr Tan Jee Say spoke about the need for an independent president in explaining why they are supporting their former rival candidate.

Then, on Tuesday, it was reported that an email was sent to party volunteers asking them to sign up as counting agents for Mr Tan Kin Lian.

PSP responded to say that the email was drafted “at the initiative of an individual” and not approved by the party.

The party also backed Mr Leong’s message that it has “no plans” to endorse or support any presidential candidate.

WHY SOME MEMBERS HAD CONCERNS

PSP’s first assistant secretary-general, Mr Nadarajah Loganathan, told TODAY in his personal capacity that when he first heard that Mr Tan wanted to garner support from Dr Tan, his immediate response was to reject this request.

“I was furious that Tan Kin Lian had the audacity to want to even talk to Dr Tan, let alone asking (Dr Tan) to endorse him.”

Mr Loganathan was a candidate in PSP’s West Coast team in the 2020 General Elections alongside Dr Tan and said that he was with Dr Tan during the 2011 Presidential Election campaign as well.

That was why having Mr Tan reach out in this manner “brought back painful memories”, he added.

Mr Loganathan believed that had Mr Tan not contested in the 2011 election, some of his vote share may have gone to Dr Tan and helped him to win the election, which he narrowly lost to former president Tony Tan.

It was only after a lengthy debate among the party’s central executive committee that it was agreed that Dr Tan could support Mr Tan, “with the condition that it was his stand and not the party stand”.

“We just did not want to politicise this election… We have nothing to gain but everything to lose,” Mr Loganathan added.

Another party member, Mr Lee Chiu San, said he was concerned that there could be some backlash from the public even though he personally agreed with Dr Tan’s personal move to support Mr Tan.

Mr Lee thinks that the public will not be able to see Dr Tan as his own man.

“Nobody will ever believe that Tan Cheng Bock can ever separate himself from PSP… the public image is that Tan Cheng Bock is PSP and PSP is Tan Cheng Bock,” he said.

“Anything that a public figure does will have implications and repercussions.”

WHY SOME MEMBERS SUPPORTED MOVE

PSP member Alex Tan, who is Dr Tan’s former personal assistant, told TODAY that he supported the party founder’s move from the start.

“Dr Tan's actions are his private doing… There is nothing to do with his position as chairman of PSP,” he said.

He added that this is likened to how all PSP members, in their personal capacity, are free to support and vote for whichever candidate he or she wants.

“For me, I subscribe to the view that the Presidential Election is an exercise of free will, and party members are autonomous in their own right.”

Another party member said that to improve the chances of an “independent” candidate becoming the President, it was a viable trade-off for Dr Tan to be involved.

He spoke to TODAY on the condition of anonymity because he did not wish for his personal views to be confused with the party’s.

He added that the Presidential Election should be non-partisan in theory, but in reality, it is difficult to achieve this because most candidates past and present are linked to a political party, and that Dr Tan’s support of Mr Tan is no different.

“The political parties must have strategically felt that Mr Tan is the best bet for an independent President.”

The PSP member defined an “independent president” as one who is not linked to the ruling party, the way he sees former Cabinet minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam as being one, and as one who is not linked to the establishment, who he believed candidate Ng Kok Song is, considering that Mr Ng was the chief investment officer of sovereign wealth fund GIC.

“Being mindful of not transforming the Presidential Election into a General Election, most political parties (endorse candidates) indirectly,” he said.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by JUSTIN ONG

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