Potential presidential candidate George Goh’s ‘non-establishment credentials’ could be seen as ‘no strings attached’: Analysts

NEED TO PASS QUALIFYING CRITERIA, GAIN MORE SUPPORT 

But some political observers cautioned against assuming there would even be a contest, given the stringent qualifying criteria.

One of the criteria states that the prospective candidate must have held a senior public office or helmed a company that has at least S$500 million (US$370 million) in shareholders’ equity for at least three years.

On their own, none of Mr Goh’s companies meet the mark. However, a press statement from his media team said that his companies have, over the last 40 years, a collective market capitalisation value of S$3.15 billion.

“I’m a bit concerned that Mr Goh’s announcement (to run for president) is making us get ahead of ourselves, because it’s still unclear whether he clearly qualifies,” said SMU’s Assoc Prof Tan, adding that he should “clearly specify” why he believes he is eligible. 

“I suppose he’s going to try to make the case that all the companies that he leads amount to S$3 billion in capitalisation, so that would be as good as or even better than running a company with (at least) S$500 million in shareholders’ equity.” 

People may get “very antsy” if Mr Goh doesn’t qualify, as “there is a lot of pent-up anticipation on being able to vote”, he added. “(They) may wonder if there is a larger conspiracy to engineer another walkover.”

Singapore’s last contested Presidential Election was in 2011. The 2017 election was a reserved election, in which only members of the Malay community were allowed to contest. Mdm Halimah was named President after other potential candidates failed to qualify.

But if all goes well, NTU’s Dr Tan added that voters would “finally” be able to vote in a Presidential Election.

“You need the buy-in from the people, and that is very important. If our experiences have shown from the last situation where there was a walkover, I think certain segments of Singaporeans have been left rather disgruntled by the fact that they didn’t have a choice,” said Dr Tan. 

“It’s very important to have Singaporeans make that decision, whoever the candidates are.” 

Should he qualify, Mr Goh would need to do “a lot more” to “galvanise support for his candidacy”, added Dr Tan.

Political observers had previously told CNA that the Mr Tharman was a “strong” contender, wielding considerable heft domestically and internationally. 

“George Goh is a little less well known amongst Singaporeans … That could be a drawback somewhat because very few people, at least the vast majority of Singaporeans, might not know who he is,” said Dr Tan.

Nonetheless, “the very specific roles of the elected presidency means that regardless of whether they come from the public or private sector, all candidates will need to convince voters that they are the best candidate to play these roles”, added IPS’ Dr Woo.

“Namely, having a custodian role over the reserves as well as having an oversight over key public sector appointments.”