A potential presidential candidate should not be someone who is a senior executive in a government-linked company, or is an employee of an organisation that receives investments from a sovereign wealth fund, said presidential hopeful George Goh.

Mr Goh was responding to questions from the media during his visit to Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre on Sunday (July 16), a day after alternative news website Wake Up Singapore reported that Mr Ng Kok Song, the former chief investment officer of sovereign wealth fund GIC, may contest the elected presidency.

The Straits Times subsequently reported that Mr Ng, currently the executive chairman of investment firm Avanda Investment Management, was "deliberating" adding his name to the list of potential candidates to run in the coming presidential election.

Mr Ng retired from GIC in 2013 before co-founding Avanda with two former GIC colleagues in 2015. Bloomberg reported last year that government-linked firms Singapore Labour Foundation, Temasek and GIC contributed around US$4 billion (S$5.3 billion) in assets to help launch Avanda.

On Sunday, Mr Goh said that whoever is entering the presidential race should not be involved in any political party or grassroots activity, and has not held appointments in a "government-linked corporation or company, or sovereign fund".

He did not mention Mr Ng's name, but Mr Goh also said that a candidate's company should not have received any investments by a sovereign wealth fund.

"Once you have a sovereign fund involved in your organisation, then it becomes very difficult for independence," he said.

Since announcing on June 12 his intention to contest the presidential election, Mr Goh had frequently put himself forth as an "independent" candidate who has had no political party affiliations.

He resigned from his post as Singapore's non-resident ambassador to Morocco to run for the elected presidency, four days after then Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that he would be running as a candidate. Mr Tharman has also quit his government posts.

Whether Mr Goh will be cleared to run for the presidency remains unclear.

Prospective presidential candidates from the private sector are required to run a firm with at least S$500 million in shareholders’ equity during the person's most recent three-year period as chief executive officer (CEO), among other criteria.

Mr Goh runs a group of companies with a collective market capitalisation value of S$3.15 billion.

However, some experts had earlier told TODAY that clause 4(b) of Article 19 in the Constitution provides some discretion for the Presidential Elections Commission to assess a candidate’s suitability to run for President under what is called the "deliberative track".

Through this route, the committee must be satisfied that the prospective private sector candidate has the experience and ability comparable to those of someone who has served as CEO of a profitable company with at least S$500 million in shareholders’ equity for three years.

Mr Goh spoke with the media on Sunday after visiting several stalls at the Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre, where he stopped to talk and take photos with stall owners in the wet market.

He later visited the food centre on level two, where he spoke to several patrons having their meal, before concluding his visit to have lunch with his wife.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by JASMINE ONG

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