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Dr Tony Tan: President must have respect of govt and ministers to do anything effectively
July 15th, 2011 |
Author: Temasek Review
The Elected President must have the respect of the PAP government and PAP ministers to perform his duties, said PAP-endorsed presidential candidate Dr Tony Tan.
Dr Tan was responding to a question on Mr Tan Jee Say’s candidacy posed by a SPH reporter today at the Ritz Carlton Hotel where he was speaking in the ‘Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series’ hosted by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
While trying to sound diplomatic that it is good for Singaporeans to have ‘more choices’, Dr Tan took pains to emphasize the Elected President is not a separate center of power as insinuated by Mr Tan Jee Say who is joining the contest to provide check and balance on the PAP government.
“We have to be quite clear. The President is not a separate power center in Singapore. There can only be ONE power center in Singapore, that must be the government.”
He added that one of the important attributes of the Elected President is knowing his own limits:
“You need somebody in the presidency who is steady… who knows the limits of a president….If he wants to do anything effectively, he must have the RESPECT of the government and the ministers.”
Dr Tan’s remarks sparked a furore among netizens, many of whom are peeved off by them.
Johnny Loh remarked sarcastically:
“If he wants to do anything effectively, he must have the RESPECT of the government and the ministers.” sound familiar? Let me rephrase to “If I wants to get respect from media CEOs who earn millions of dollars effectively, I must have the RESPECT of the government and the ministers to provide fat salary.”
Christine Sng added:
“He must have the respect of the government and the ministers” … yo, what happened to the ELECTORATE? The people to whom he is supposedly accountable????”
A former PAP Education minister in the 1980s and 1990s, Tony Tan is most remembered for his pro-foreigner and pro-elitist education policies which caused tremendous hardship, suffering and grief for Singaporeans.
He was responsible for subsidising and giving free government scholarships for foreigners to study in local universities while refusing to do more to help Singapore students.
When then opposition MP Chiam See Tong questioned Tony Tan if the Singapore government was too generous to foreign students in subsidising their tuition fees in 1987, he retorted callously that ‘very bright talent (foreign) students’ would be prevented from joining Singapore universities should their fees be fixed at too ‘high’ a rate.
However, he was quick to dismiss NCMP Dr Lee Siew Choh’s suggestion in 1991 to use the government’s huge budget surpluses to subsidize the tertiary education of Singaporeans, describing it as a “very dangerous philosophy”:
“But believe you me, it only takes a few years to spend what your fathers and your forefathers have earned.”
The 71 year old Tony Tan has been receiving yearly ‘pensions’ from Singaporeans for the last 16 years though he stepped down from the cabinet in 2001. Singaporeans must ask themselves whether they want to pay him another $4 million dollars a year for the next 6 years to ’serve’ them.
Listen to Dr Tan’s full speech below:
<IFRAME src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/16AWNQUzwDs" frameBorder=0 width=540 height=339 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>
The Elected President must have the respect of the PAP government and PAP ministers to perform his duties, said PAP-endorsed presidential candidate Dr Tony Tan.
Dr Tan was responding to a question on Mr Tan Jee Say’s candidacy posed by a SPH reporter today at the Ritz Carlton Hotel where he was speaking in the ‘Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series’ hosted by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
While trying to sound diplomatic that it is good for Singaporeans to have ‘more choices’, Dr Tan took pains to emphasize the Elected President is not a separate center of power as insinuated by Mr Tan Jee Say who is joining the contest to provide check and balance on the PAP government.
“We have to be quite clear. The President is not a separate power center in Singapore. There can only be ONE power center in Singapore, that must be the government.”
He added that one of the important attributes of the Elected President is knowing his own limits:
“You need somebody in the presidency who is steady… who knows the limits of a president….If he wants to do anything effectively, he must have the RESPECT of the government and the ministers.”
Dr Tan’s remarks sparked a furore among netizens, many of whom are peeved off by them.
Johnny Loh remarked sarcastically:
“If he wants to do anything effectively, he must have the RESPECT of the government and the ministers.” sound familiar? Let me rephrase to “If I wants to get respect from media CEOs who earn millions of dollars effectively, I must have the RESPECT of the government and the ministers to provide fat salary.”
Christine Sng added:
“He must have the respect of the government and the ministers” … yo, what happened to the ELECTORATE? The people to whom he is supposedly accountable????”
A former PAP Education minister in the 1980s and 1990s, Tony Tan is most remembered for his pro-foreigner and pro-elitist education policies which caused tremendous hardship, suffering and grief for Singaporeans.
He was responsible for subsidising and giving free government scholarships for foreigners to study in local universities while refusing to do more to help Singapore students.
When then opposition MP Chiam See Tong questioned Tony Tan if the Singapore government was too generous to foreign students in subsidising their tuition fees in 1987, he retorted callously that ‘very bright talent (foreign) students’ would be prevented from joining Singapore universities should their fees be fixed at too ‘high’ a rate.
However, he was quick to dismiss NCMP Dr Lee Siew Choh’s suggestion in 1991 to use the government’s huge budget surpluses to subsidize the tertiary education of Singaporeans, describing it as a “very dangerous philosophy”:
“But believe you me, it only takes a few years to spend what your fathers and your forefathers have earned.”
The 71 year old Tony Tan has been receiving yearly ‘pensions’ from Singaporeans for the last 16 years though he stepped down from the cabinet in 2001. Singaporeans must ask themselves whether they want to pay him another $4 million dollars a year for the next 6 years to ’serve’ them.
Listen to Dr Tan’s full speech below:
<IFRAME src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/16AWNQUzwDs" frameBorder=0 width=540 height=339 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>
