Its Sunday, 29th March 2015 and the hour is reaching 8pm at Mandai. The last stage of Old Man's (God bless him) journey commences. The final batch of pall bearers are made up of his loyal bodyguards. Within hours of his body turning to dust, Operation Overlord commences. A series of early stage aspirational thoughts and plans are to be examined, reviewed and to be fleshed out in detail.
Within 5 days of the cremation, key senior captains of Temasek are called in and told of her desire to take a sabbatical. Lee Theng Kiat, one the firms's President will cover day to day duties. No substantive reasons are given except to act on some long outstanding things. Not mention is made if its personal or otherwise. She does say that she will return in 3 months and is not planing to leave any time soon. She would retain Board room duties and continue make stewardship decisions. Speculations within Temasek ranges from possible illness to the toll of looking after the family from her father-in-laws illness and demise.
The following week, on 15th April the media is sent an official release on her Sabbatical and it becomes public - 2 weeks after the funeral. No details are given for the sabbatical except that it will be 3 months long with she returning in July. She gets queries from fans and others and she responds in Facebook that it is to "spend sometime" on "long standing things". She also throws in the following - catchup on sleep and do long walks. (note the lack of any details).
A month late in mid May, green light is given to convene the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee. It will be chaired by the PM's secretary who is concurrently the Cabinet secretary. Report is completed and sighted by the PM on 21st July. He authorises its release for Friday 24th July to Parliament and President. On Saturday, 25th July, Temasek announces on its website that Ho Ching will extend her sabbatical for a further 3 months.
Exactly a month later, on 25th August, President dissolves parliament. 1st September will be nomination day with Singaporeans going to the polls on 11th Sept. On Sunday night, 6 September and 3 days before the mandatory cooling off day, she release a carefully crafted and concise view of why Singapore succeeded. No mention of PAP or PM is mentioned. Except for hubris and mundane things about nature, health and travel her Facebook has never ever carried a single note or mention of politics or the health of the country. This post becomes a raging fire for the next 3 days including its spillover on cooling off day. If anyone sat on the fence, this post would have tipped them over to the side of the PAP. It was a masterstroke but more importantly it was the desire to lay claim on who ran the PAP strategy and campaign. It was also the first clear indication to an astute few who suspected that she had a much deeper involvement than originally thought. The outcome was not generally unexpected but its magnitude stunning. The demonising and the character assassination of opposition candidates especially the credible ones will be a key plank as proven by the relentless attack on AHTC and the results delivered. Though other areas were addressed diligently and were also instrumental in the swing of the pendulum.
Having tasted success, it was never going to end as planned. 3 weeks later on 1 October 2015, Lee Theng Kiat is named CEO to the surprise of staff and will continue to run Temasek and all staff will report into his management line. Only the CFO will have dual reporting lines - to him and Ho Ching. In late October, she returns to Temasek still in charge with only one staff reporting to her. She will not be accountable for day to day matter for as she has new role outside Temasek and which is expected to set the stage for the country's future.
Lesson learnt - how to eliminate a potential power vacuum and consolidate power without a single voting member of a democratic country being wise to it.
Within 5 days of the cremation, key senior captains of Temasek are called in and told of her desire to take a sabbatical. Lee Theng Kiat, one the firms's President will cover day to day duties. No substantive reasons are given except to act on some long outstanding things. Not mention is made if its personal or otherwise. She does say that she will return in 3 months and is not planing to leave any time soon. She would retain Board room duties and continue make stewardship decisions. Speculations within Temasek ranges from possible illness to the toll of looking after the family from her father-in-laws illness and demise.
The following week, on 15th April the media is sent an official release on her Sabbatical and it becomes public - 2 weeks after the funeral. No details are given for the sabbatical except that it will be 3 months long with she returning in July. She gets queries from fans and others and she responds in Facebook that it is to "spend sometime" on "long standing things". She also throws in the following - catchup on sleep and do long walks. (note the lack of any details).
A month late in mid May, green light is given to convene the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee. It will be chaired by the PM's secretary who is concurrently the Cabinet secretary. Report is completed and sighted by the PM on 21st July. He authorises its release for Friday 24th July to Parliament and President. On Saturday, 25th July, Temasek announces on its website that Ho Ching will extend her sabbatical for a further 3 months.
Exactly a month later, on 25th August, President dissolves parliament. 1st September will be nomination day with Singaporeans going to the polls on 11th Sept. On Sunday night, 6 September and 3 days before the mandatory cooling off day, she release a carefully crafted and concise view of why Singapore succeeded. No mention of PAP or PM is mentioned. Except for hubris and mundane things about nature, health and travel her Facebook has never ever carried a single note or mention of politics or the health of the country. This post becomes a raging fire for the next 3 days including its spillover on cooling off day. If anyone sat on the fence, this post would have tipped them over to the side of the PAP. It was a masterstroke but more importantly it was the desire to lay claim on who ran the PAP strategy and campaign. It was also the first clear indication to an astute few who suspected that she had a much deeper involvement than originally thought. The outcome was not generally unexpected but its magnitude stunning. The demonising and the character assassination of opposition candidates especially the credible ones will be a key plank as proven by the relentless attack on AHTC and the results delivered. Though other areas were addressed diligently and were also instrumental in the swing of the pendulum.
Having tasted success, it was never going to end as planned. 3 weeks later on 1 October 2015, Lee Theng Kiat is named CEO to the surprise of staff and will continue to run Temasek and all staff will report into his management line. Only the CFO will have dual reporting lines - to him and Ho Ching. In late October, she returns to Temasek still in charge with only one staff reporting to her. She will not be accountable for day to day matter for as she has new role outside Temasek and which is expected to set the stage for the country's future.
Lesson learnt - how to eliminate a potential power vacuum and consolidate power without a single voting member of a democratic country being wise to it.
