President Halimah Yacob might be stepping down, but Presidential Election 2011 candidate Tan Kin Lian will not become Singapore’s next president because he can no longer qualify due to the strict criteria set by the Presidential Elections Committee.
Even if he did, Tan very likely wouldn’t win anyway considering how he won just 5 percent of the vote in 2011.
Not to mention, he was blamed by large factions of the Singapore public for crowd favourite Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s loss to eventual president Dr Tony Tan.
Still, we think he would make an exceptional president.
For better or for worse, here’s 7 reasons why:
(1) Tan Kin Lian the Handyman
Not everyone would us their own presidential election campaign poster to build a moat across a longkang. But Tan Kin Lian would!
(2) Tan Kin Lian the Diplomat
Nope, no discrimination from Tan Kin Lian here, who even has a nice word to say about… the Taliban.
(3) Tan Kin Lian the Not-So-Diplomat
And then again, maybe there’s a reason the former NTUC Income chief was never appointed an ambassador.
(4) Tan Kin Lian the Scientist
Not many would go the extra mile to test a thermometer, but Tan Kin Lian would.
(5) Tan Kin Lian the Change Agent
How many of us would do a Tan Kin Lian and publish our NRIC details on social media just to highlight a flaw in accessing the SingPass system? Few. But Tan did, and he did get blocked because people some mischievous chaps went and misused his NRIC details to, you guess it, try and access his SingPass.
(6) Tan Kin Lian the Philosopher
Only someone like Tan Kin Lian can take a Satre-esque dig at former Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and get away with it.
(7) Tan Kin Lian the Badass
This lao hero actually told off the much-vaunted “Internet Brigade” (IBs). IBs are online trolls which some believe are hired by the government to whack political opponents, although this has never been explicitly proven.
All in, we hope Tan Kin Lian gets another shot at the top rubber stamp post, but sadly that most likely isn’t going to happen!
