In a recent podcast, WP candidate Mr Harpreet Singh claimed the PAP had gone against principles of meritocracy and equality of all races by not putting up Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam as Prime Minister.
This is untrue.
Mr Tharman ruled himself out for the PM’s position many times. Then DPM, he first put his feelings on record in 2016, stating:
“Just to be absolutely clear, because I know of this talk that’s going around, I’m not the man for PM. I say that categorically. It’s not me. I know myself, I know what I can do, and it’s not me… I’m good at policymaking, I’m good at advising my younger colleagues, and at supporting the PM – not being the PM. That’s not me.”1
He said this long before the 4G leadership began considering their leader.2
In 2023, Mr Tharman said again that he did not want to be the PM. He “never liked being centre forward,” he said. “I didn’t particularly like being the person who scored goals.”3
Mr Tharman is now President. His name should not be bandied about misleadingly to make tendentious political points.
We must respect the presidency.
footnote
[1] The Straits Times, “DPM Tharman rules himself out as next prime minister: ‘I am not the man for PM’”, 28 September, 2016.
[2] Then-Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat emerged as the frontrunner among the 4G leaders to succeed then-PM Lee Hsien Loong when he was named first assistant secretary-general of the PAP on 23 November 2018. He became Deputy Prime Minister on 1 May 2018. Today, “The road to Singapore’s political succession.” 23 November 2018.
[3] Mothership, “Tharman on why he’s running for President, if he did not want to be PM: ‘I never liked being centre forward’”, 8 June 2023.
