Singaporeans are heading to the polls soon and Tharman Shanmugaratnam is concerned about the 'increasingly sweeping statements' made by presidential candidates. One recent instance is 'the idea that the Elected Presidents who have been members of political parties have been serving the political agenda of a political party,' Tharman said in a doorstop interview before his walkabout at Sengkang on...
Singaporeans are heading to the polls soon and Tharman Shanmugaratnam is concerned about the "increasingly sweeping statements" made by presidential candidates.
"Does that mean that all the presidents so far, including Mr Ong Teng Cheong onwards, who had been members of political parties, were serving the agenda of the party they used to belong to? I mean, that's absurd.""He seems to have thought that I said that because he ran a fund management company that depended on government monies and therefore, he's not independent.
"The whole point I'm making is whether you're a member of a political party, or you've been a top civil servant, or you're running a company that depended on the government for its business, the whole issue is your character."Tharman reiterated that "simple labels" such as political affliations should not be applied to everyone who qualifies for presidential election.
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