Recalling when founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew raised the idea of an Elected Presidency at the 1984 National Day Rally, Mr Ng noted that he warned of “silver-tongued politicians who make empty promises” and squander Singapore’s reserves.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong similarly noted: “If you have a freak election, you have the wrong team in charge, you have a rogue government who wants to raid the reserves. In one term all your life savings of generations of Singaporeans will be gone.”
It is time for Singapore to break from its past of having a President endorsed by the People’s Action Party (PAP), said Mr Ng.
“Choose a President who is competent and experienced, who is trustworthy and who has not belonged to any political party.”
Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, 66, retired from all his positions in government in July and resigned as a PAP member to run for President.
Mr Tan Kin Lian, 75, is supported by a number of opposition politicians, including two former rivals in the last contested Presidential Election in 2011 – Dr Tan Cheng Bock, chairman of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP), and Mr Tan Jee Say, a member of the Singapore Democratic Party.
NO MORE “OWNSELF CHECK OWNSELF”
In coming years, there will be more reasons to draw heavily on Singapore’s reserves, said Mr Ng.
“Can we take the risk of having another government-endorsed President checking government requests to draw down our reserves? Is it appropriate for an ex-Finance Minister who set fiscal policies to then move across the table and become the President and check on the very policies that he had put in place?” he continued.
“I do not believe any person should be put in such a position of conflict, and we don’t need to. We cannot rely on an ‘ownself check ownself’ mechanism to safeguard our reserves or the integrity of the public service.”
Three of the last five presidential elections have gone uncontested, he noted. All of the elected Presidents since 1993 were also affiliated to or endorsed by the PAP.
“While the bar to qualify for presidency is high, I believe the real reason is the perception that, unless you are endorsed by the government or strongly supported by opposition leaders, you have no chance to get elected,” said Mr Ng.
This system has compromised the spirit of the Constitution, allowing past political leaders to stand for election months after resigning from a political party, he added.
“We are now in 2023. This is not 1993. I strongly believe that the time has come in this Presidential Election to uphold the spirit of the Constitution.”
On Friday, more than 2.7 million Singaporeans will head to the polls to vote in the country’s first contested Presidential Election since 2011.