8/28/2011
The gambler won
Actually I did not want to make any post today as I was saddened by the results of the polls. While typing this, I was high in spirit of the liquid kind. I voted for checks and balance, but the gambler won. Not I say one hor, I read in the paper and it said Tony’s big gamble pays off.
Come to think of it, it is quite true. No sensible person who is untouchable in SPH and GIC, and probably earning more millions than the Presidency would resign both positions to stand for an election that he may not win. I would not put my money on such a person. And he won by the skin of his teeth. If there were only two candidates, he would have lost badly.
I still cannot get over it. Why would anyone walk into a situation that he could lose so much and win much less? One way to look at it is that he is a great man with great conviction and commitment to the country. That he is willing to make big sacrifices to make sure that the country is in good hands.
The other way of looking at it is that it is a totally silly thing to do. A big gamble for nothing. Only an irrational and silly person would put in such a big stake for lesser returns, and may even lose everything. After this close call, I don’t thing any PAP stalwart would dare to accept such a proposition even with a gun on his head.
Fortunately the gambler won. Or did he? He garnered only 35% of the votes, only a few thousands more than Cheng Bock who had only a softball association to endorse him. Tony has practically the whole machinery on his side, and all the endorsements, and that was all he could get.
Cheng Bock could take away 25% of the votes for PAP to give Tony a fright of his life. And I don’t think the PAP is backing Cheng Bock at all as it would be difficult to explain to Tony for staking his Chairmanship in SPH and GIC and the millions of dollars.
I am not at all comfortable with the outcome and the new President for taking such a big gamble. And I can’t even call him a gambler. A gambler is smarter than this.
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25 comments:
Confirms my believe that the daft will never ever change.
They like bleeding arses, so let it be. Get over it.
And the majority of Singaporeans have no cause to complain about foreigners, jobs or expensive HDB flats and I would just say 'shut the fuck up because you people asked for it'.
Why only 5000 Singaporeans overseas eligible to vote? Only 5000 Sinkies abroad?
if u look at it this way, he only had a mandate of 35%, the rest had voted against him.
Waiting for your post the whole morning, I very sad too, I voted for the heart and the spect won! PAP can hide for another 6 years and we will know the hard truth about the reserve.
Let's put the results aside and look to WP to check them in parliament. Pls continue to blog for all the sufferings, injustice and inequality in Singapore. I even tell my son not to pledge anymore as the old man said is just an aspiration
Daft singaporean
thank u for blogging, redbean. been waiting for your piece the whole day! TKL's social-economic portal has not been updated since aug 26 and i cant get into TRE. my proxy server says entering it is Forbidden; other methods say TRE will be back in about six DAYS!!!!
anyway, u have put things into context very well - it WAS a huge gamble.
i don't believe the PAP and tony tan realised that - at all - when TT entered the fray. and that is why he 'volunteered' to stand. it may have dawned on them halfway - again - through the campaign. the
party seems quite dense.
a real pity about cheng bock. a real pity that sporeans are not aware that the prez is powerless. there's nothing he can do to save the economy as prez. that any decision of his can be overturned by parliament.
a real pity that sporeans have shown they have no guts, to make their voices heard and to even consider change. we've been brow beaten again, and continue to believe there is a bogeyman hiding under the bed. basically, we'r using the wrong pair of specs to scrutinise the situation.
at the rate we'r going, i wonder if there'll be any reserves left by 2017. after all, the money is now being controlled by the father, the son, the wife and the uncle! so much for transparency.
The gambler says his victory was decisive. What is he bragging about? He almost lost.
Had Jee Say not been in the picture, he would have lost because opposition voters would have thrown their support behind Cheng Bock.
Unfortunately for the "winner", there was so much fanfare, endorsements, promotions and endorsements from PA, NTUC etc but he only managed to secure a minority 35% vote. This is totally unimpressive result. But nevertheless is a big win considering the $4mil paycheck and free pension/healthcare till THE day comes. Not a bad deal.
On hind sight Tan Kin Lian should have courageously withdrawn from the race at the last minute since he knew himself in the latere part of the campaign that he had no chance at all. But being stubborn and fear of lost of face he soldiered on . This resulted in not only in his losing the deposit but also in a thin hair win by Tony Tan. Had he withdrawn from the contest may be two or three per cent of his votes would go to Dr. Tan Cheng Bock and that would have enabled Dr. Tan Cheng Bock to win the presidency. Comparing the two PAP's Tans, Dr. Tan Cheng Bock is definitely a better choice as he is amiable, true and sincere compare to the other who is insincere, dubious and cynical in every way.
Now may I post a message to all opposition parties especially to their leaders.
If opposition political leaders continue to be selfish and look at the political scene through their narrow lens of wanting to fight for their own selfish interest then PAP will always win all the General Elections by proxy due to the lack of unity and disarray of opposition parties. It is high time for all opposition parties to put aside their own narrow interest and unite as one against PAP otherwise they can never hope to unseat the PAP from power. I repeat so long as the opposition parties are disunited their hope of displacing PAP from power will always remain as a dream. Now is the best time to form one united opposition party to take on PAP as Singaporeans by and large are disillusioned with the cynicism and chicanery of PAP.
Southernglory1
Wish the opposition could unite, but the question is, who is to lead?
Already, each party itself has been torn asunder by people with big egos trying to unseat each other and jostling for position the moment they have a foot in.
Easier said than done. That is why the PAP is the winner all these years. They do not have to resort to divide and rule. The opposition parties are dividing themselves and the PAP continues to rule.
Sad and by the looks of it, unlikely to change in the near term.
Can't blame anyone but the DAFT Sinkaporeans for being kiasu and kiasi. So how to change with this kind of mentality of being scared of everything including CHANGE?
"Why only 5000 Singaporeans overseas eligible to vote? Only 5000 Sinkies abroad?"
You should ask the PMO which the Elections dept reports into, why they are putting so many obstacles for overseas Singaporeans to register to be eligble to vote overseas... the ridiculous conditions to deprive Singaporeans of their fundamental rights to vote. Well you should know why.. most Singaporeans who are overseas.. not the nimcompoops seconded by the GIC or govt linked companies, are not pro PAP per se.
There was NO gamble. Someone DID put a gun to TT's head to run. Either that, or if one of the other Tans became president TT would then have to respond to all those difficult questions on GIC.
Expect more PRs converted to citizenship. All said and done, the newly minted citizens did us in. The lack of overseas voters etc is the least of our problems right now.
Me says we should not lose any sleep just because of the PE Result. After all, it is well-known that the Sin Presidency is as impotent as a eunuch in term of policy formulation.
"Why would anyone walk into a situation that he could lose so much and win much less?", unquote.
It is the people that lose out big for failing to realize that had tony tan not turned down the Prime Minister Post decades back, Sin could have prospered much more. This is because tony tan seemed/seems to tell us he could do wonderful things when it comes to economy. He sounded liked he could save Sin from damages even if there is a global downturn.
Anyway, losing some income in exchange for a much relaxed, nothing to do appointment for an old man, in my view is a wise decision for tt. Surely, he must have made much already.
And
please do not blame Singaporeans for being daft; especially the elderly and weak(in qualification, skill and health). They need to depend on the miserly handouts to survive with the prices of everything rising so ever frequently. Some are compliant by nature, others felt intimidated and almost all have no mean to deal with those in power.
But
it is not totally hopeless for the people, as the older folks passed on, the better educated younger Singaporeans and the intellectuals in our society will vigorously seek the liberation they should have been given by any respectable regime. The day of reckoning is not too far away.
patriot
Very selfish of the +37K spoilt votes. What a difference it would have made :(
Agree with Abao.
He is the President-elect of only 35% of the Voters. Simply speaking, he garners ony 35% respect from the electorate.
Now that TKL has lost maybe he won't update his site links anymore. Anyway, try
https://www.facebook.com/pages/SG-Electorate/109454199142752
or www.Singaporedaily.net
Hi guys, this presidential election is a good test case and learning experience for all the political parties. They must analyse the results carefully, read the grounds and prepare for the real thing in 2016.
A battle lost or sacrifice to win a war is worth it.
Soojenn picked up my comments of overseas voters. Why 5000 when we have may a few hundred thousand Singaporeans overseas? The numbers in the last election is a good indication of how many overseas Singaporeans are eligible to vote.
Everyone I spoke to is saying, if only the votes were not splitted. What they are saying is that they wanted a different result. That is the real wishes of the majority of the people versus the 35%.
The winner is very malu.
Endorsed by so many big guns and got so many resources, but still got paltry result. The horse jumped over but lost his tail.
Singapore's most Malu President.
Very clearly Tony was shocked by the result and had to compose himself.
Be very scared of the new citizens. I estimate there are 10% new citizen voters who mostly go for TT. Without the new citizens, TT would have lost badly.
Why? Because most of the issues with TT are not relevant to new citizens. Even worse, some of the issues are actually good from the new citizen perspective.
The big group of new citizens cannot be ignored by alternative parties. 10% is very big when the fight is over 2 or 3%.
The best thing about TT going into the elections is that now the whole world knows: a) how unethical he was re his 3 sons special NS treatment - he should sue if its not true like sue-ing in the ChengSan GE; b) how good his financial experience was in losing $6 billion in investments while in GIC & opposing the building of the MRT; c) how anti-singaporean he is by giving tons of scholarships to foreign students ; d) etc,etc.With all the machinery behind him he LOST 65% of the votes !!!
No point getting unease by the PE.
Right on the evening CNA was reporting that any result that had a difference of 2(two) percent or less victory will have to wait for the oversea voters count which will likely only be out by the following Tuesday.
By 1AM, the Events seemed quite queer to me and by 2AM, me found no reason to remain awake.
patriot
Singapore has been lucky for the past 46 years of Nation Building. Singapore has been playing the right cards in being the ultimate gambler in the ASEAN region. Unfortunately, this luck been now be running thin. More and more educated gamblers are now stepping forward in the region to take over our rice-bowls and role in the world.
I agree with LHL that Sporeans/PRs(haha. what an irony) should work together for the betterment of SG.
Well, but not with him on the helm.
Yes, luck, strategic location, and free of natural calamities play a very big part in charting our course.
Don't swallow all the brag about TT being most economically brilliant and having the ability to pull us out of economic turmoil.
Just watch. When the economy turns for the worse, TT and Company will blame the global effect. If the economy keeps on improving, TT and Company will get the credit and the fat bonuses to boot.
Hi so1trg, welcome to the blog.
It will be good if Tony can show us how much GIC made during his watch. Then we can decide how good he is.
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