It is not easy to cope with losing narrowly in a presidential election. Just ask Hillary Clinton or Al Gore.

But it has been six years since Tan Cheng Bock (TCB) lost in a razor-thin margin during the Presidential Election of 2011.

The 76-year old garnered 738,311 votes (34.85 per cent of the valid vote) in 2011, just 7,382 votes fewer than current President Tony Tan (TT) (35.2 per cent).

We can understand that it must be difficult to accept this setback, especially for an immensely-popular MP at Ayer Rajah and a one-time top performer for the PAP in the 2001 polls (88 per cent).

But we find TCB's press conference on March 31 to be so puzzling that we wonder if he has lost his Midas touch in politics.

1. There are no new points made about the EP, so why do it now?

The key argument that Tan made — whether the reserved election for minority candidates should be held this year or six years later — could have been made a few months ago, perhaps just after the announcement of the reserved election was first made on November 8 by PM Lee in a long speech in Parliament.

After all, the fact that it was passed into law a day later left no more room for uncertainty about this.

So why now?

TCB is very serious about the points he made, so it was definitely not a curtain-raiser to an April Fool's joke.

But the reason he gave for calling for a press conference now was not convincing -- he said he did not make his comments earlier because he shouldn't interfere with the commission's hearing but "felt that something was amiss" after the parliamentary exchanges and the manner of the debates.

Right.

2. Bringing the late President Ong Teng Cheong into the picture and politicising it

The late President Ong continues to be an immensely popular figure for many Singaporeans -- the perception of his independence from the PAP (he had a public disagreement with the government over the access of information regarding Singapore's reserves), his early death, the perception that he was merely given a state-assisted funeral and not a full state funeral -- added to his legend.

Tan's main point -- to call for an open election in 2017 and to question the government for not counting President Ong's term as the first Elected Presidency -- is valid, but not new.

The issue was raised by many before -- us included.

Indeed, this issue wasn't comprehensively addressed by the government. It was also a point that was debated by constitutional lawyers — whether the "E" in EP is a big E (term of office where the scheme starts) or a small e (the President going through an election).

However, TCB said the following:

“But if the government simply accepts AGC’s advice without explaining why they accepted the accuracy of the opinion, I am concerned that our Elected Presidency will always be tainted with the suspicion that the reserved election of 2017, was introduced to prevent my candidacy.”

Now, there are frankly a few logical leaps he made here:

a) TCB assumes that the government's main aim of "ignoring" Ong as the first elected President was to prevent TCB from becoming the next President. With the facts as they stand, we can't prove this.

b) TCB assumes that he even if the election was opened to Chinese candidates, he would qualify right away under the new scheme — when well, actually he won't.

Law Minister K Shanmugam said previously too, specifically, that TCB won’t qualify under the new eligibility rules because he wasn't the top guy at any company that was worth S$500m in shareholders’ equity in value.

So yeah, TCB wouldn't have qualified directly even if this was going to be an open election.

Period.

3. TCB will do more as a unifying figure if he steps aside and endorses a Malay candidate instead.

TCB's banner on his popular FB page is dated April 2012.

His opponent, Tony Tan, is already retiring. And he is just one year older than TCB.

As the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) spokesperson said in response to his press conference on March 31:

“This matter has been considered and debated extensively for more than a year. A Constitutional Commission chaired by the Chief Justice, undertook extensive consultations on the EP, including public hearings. Dr Tan did not participate in those hearings or give his views to the Commission. The Government gave its response to the Commission’s report in a White Paper, and Parliament debated the matter over three days, before passing amendments to the Constitution.

Dr Tan has not raised any new points that require response.”

TCB's press conference was disappointing because he raised the expectations of Singaporeans that perhaps he had something new to announce.

At least that was what TCB did slightly more than a year ago, when he announced that he would be running for PE2017.

We thought that TCB would announce that he would not run for PE2017, or perhaps he would support a Malay candidate for PE 2017.

Because this was Berita Harian's headline:

Which is roughly translated to: "Tan Cheng Bock rejects the provision for a Malay elected President".

Over the weekend, TCB continued his fight with the government, saying that "the government brushes off my press conference" and that "MCI has missed my point totally".

If TCB carries on like this, the government may not be the only stakeholder to brush off his future announcements and press conferences.

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Top photo by Tan Guan Zhen

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