All The President's Men

S.R. Nathan deserves his Presidency. This is one man who willingly exchanged his life for an ordinary civilian hostage during the 1974 Laju Incident. Now how many of these keyboard warriors (with their bombastic words and "grand" ideas) are willing to give up the comforts of their air-conditioned rooms, broadband Internet, smartphones etc, in exchange for the life of a total stranger? Granted that Nathan (and Lee Kuan Yew) have worked as translators for the Japanese during the occupation (they were only 18 and 19 leh) but then again, everyone had to run errands for the occupying force whether they like it or not. My grandfather was instructed to look after shops.

Now if Tan Jee Say becomes President, would he then withdraw S$10 billion from the reserves and shift manufacturing companies out from Singapore and into Malaysia and Indonesia? This is not wild talk, this is part of Tan's $60 Billion Regeneration Plans during the 2011 elections. Granted that some aspects of Tan's Regeneration Plans warrant attention but seriously, $60 billion? And you expect our neighbours to give employment priorities to Singaporeans? Now imagine if the PAP introduce such a plan, surely the keyboard cowboys will have a shooting spree.

Mind you manufacturing industries account for about 26% of our GDP and 543,300 of workers. Imagine how many people would be unemployed if Tan Jee Say has his way.

The most credible candidate would of course be Tony Tan (and his long list of credentials). One thing for sure, he is not some power-hungry/fame-hankering dude. This is the guy who could have become Singapore's second Prime Minister, but he declined the offer. Tony's link with the ruling party would however not appeased at least 39.9% of Singaporeans.

But a President should ideally be as neutral as possible, a unifying figure and a healing one at best, especially after a "heated" elections with Singaporeans divided into various political inclinations (PAP, WP and Rest Of The World). He should also not be antagonistic towards the ruling estbalishment. Come on lah, a President safeguards the country, not play devil's advocate, let the 6 WP members do it. We cannot have two arms of power constantly at odds with each other. And so, Tan Jee Say, Tan Kin Lian and Tan Cheng Bock would not be ideal. They are too purposeful. Their participation is also a sign that the opposition fence is divided. Seems like Andrew Kuan as President would appease all factions. But then again, we do not know much about him to begin with.

Tony Tan is my take as the next President of the Republic of Singapore.

For the future, Fandi Ahmad. Don't laugh ah. Yes, it's high time we have a Malay President and surely no matter our inclinations, race and religion, we all love Fandi. He will make a good President (with good financial advisers please, since he is not so good with money).