Former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock is a 20 year
veteran of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). He is also someone on the out with the PAP leadership for contesting in the Presidential Election against the official candidate
of the PAP.
As a 20 year veteran of the PAP, most of which were sent in
Parliament as a PAP backbencher, it was no surprise when the PA (People’s Association) invited Dr. Tan to
the PA Chinese New Year garden party at the Istana. Just
as it was no surprise when he was “uninvited” from the garden party shortly after.
So far so good as I personally can’t see how any of this came as a surprise to
anyone. Yes, it’s pretty to uninvited Dr. Tan but you have to be realistic
about such matters. The PA leadership is not going to go against the PAP
leadership especially when Dr. Tan came within a whisker of embarrassing the
PAP; after all he lost the 2011 Presidential Election in 2011 to the official
PAP candidate, Dr Tony Tan, by just 0.35%.
What is surprising to me was the “surprise” of the PAP and
PA. People's Association (PA) deputy chairman Lim Swee Say, who is also an MP
and a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, has been quoted as saying he is
"surprised" that Dr. Tan has made public his “uninvitation” as he had
accepted the reason he was uninvited was because the PA sent the invitation to
him wrongly.
Two things about this;
1) No
one in their right mind is going to believe Mr. Lim’s excuse that the PA sent
the invitation wrongly. This is a dinner at the Istana, the residency of the
President of the Republic of Singapore, no one is going to make suck a mistake.
2) Anyone who think Dr. Tan is going to take this “uninvitation” laying down has
not paid any attention to his political career at all.
This is a man who publicly showed the Singapore public the
spilt within the PAP, and against the odds came close to winning in 2011. He is
also the man who refused to bow to pressure to withdraw from the race after
throwing his hat in. Yet it sounded as if Mr. Lim and the PAP expected Dr. Tan to accept their jab quietly.
Now that I find surprising and a little laughable. I’m not saying he did the right thing in making this
public, washing dirty linen in public is also never a good thing, but Dr. Tan's
actions should come as no surprise to anyone. It's very much in line with his personality.
2 comments:
Another head scratcher. I am beginning to wonder how many head scratchers are there in the PAP. Are those in the government who try to see over the horizon head scratchers as well? Guess I will be scratching my head when come the next GE, the PAP does not show a further decline in support.
A decline is possible, but I don't think they are in any danger of being defeated. The WP is nowhere near strong enough to take on the PAP and the rest of the opposition bring little to the table.
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