Selecting A New President

During GE 2011, someone wanted to know how to intentionally cast a spoilt vote. The lady apparently found the responsibility too onerous, and belonging to a different constituency, she was not even affected by the "emotional dilemma" at Aljunied. The election for a new president is a different ball game. It's all about the money.

A is an ex-MP ("stepped down" before GE 2006) and former PAP member who junked his membership card. We are now told latter action was part of the preparation for the presidential race. He started blogging recently to sell his story, which conveniently skips mention of his publicly declared support of the controversial Operation Spectrum while he was in parliament and part and parcel of the groupthink. 22 young Roman Catholic church and social activists were detained without trial, Singaporeans which were later deemed "do gooders" by the prime minister. Most former MPs enjoy a healthy pension and string of directorships to help pay the bills.

B is an insurance executive who retired in 2007. He got some friends to collect the presidential election forms because he was "too busy", and now his wife is supposed to be the reluctant one. In 2008, he said he would run for the election if 100,000 Singaporeans endorsed an online petition of support. He ended up with something like 1,200 signatures. Two very good journalist friends of his apparently called him a "megalomaniac" for the shameless way he made himself the face of his organisation when he was top dog, and detractors once created numerous copies of a fake obituary of him and flung them from the roof-top of a building.

C was publicly voted out of office, and 1 month later, still failing to clinch any lucrative private sector job offer, despite embarrassing accolades that rank him the best thing to have happened since sliced bread. He is still a card carrying member of the PAP. He started tongues wagging with the Facebook posting: "Thinking hard about it and praying for wisdom". This was a curious U-turn from an earlier declaration about not being "temperamentally suited for such a job". Young Lien We King, who was deputed to collect the forms on his behalf, said of his hero: "He probably is, er, free spirited in the way that, er, in that he is very open, er, and he is very open to learning, very open to new ideas and very open to meeting new people, and that is refreshing for my generation and even for my parent's generation." He is also the sensitive guy who said ‘The Last Temptations of Christ’ was allowed to be sold in Singapore and not ‘The Satanic Verses’ because "Christians are less likely to riot."

The common denominator in all three above is that none have drawn a $4 million paycheck in their life time. Heck, they don't even have a full-time day job to speak of. This may be the odd occasion when we want to vote for the "official" PAP candidate, whoever he or she is. After all, the post is just window dressing, right?

Should groupies decide who the next president will be?