It was a Facebook post on New Year's Eve but one would have assumed that Emeritus Senior Minister (ESM) Goh Chok Tong was trying to crack a joke as on April 1.

At a youth awards ceremony in his Marine Parade constituency, ESM Goh clarified with the media today (Jan 6) that his post on the urgency to confirm Singapore's next Prime Minister was made "on purpose to elicit a response" from Singapore's younger political leaders.

Yup, you heard it right.

Goh was baiting the fourth generation leaders to respond publicly to the leadership succession question.

Here's the text of his remarks in full:

"I posted on purpose to elicit the response from the fourth generation (leaders) and they have given the response, so I have achieved my purpose.

In other words, get on with the task -- your part you got to play, the part which others got to play, and now just get on with it.

Having achieved my purpose, I'm not going to go further than that...

Which means it can be earlier, it can be later, (the timeline when the next PM would be chosen) I don't know.

I'm not going to question them what does "good time" mean (this was in reference to the 16 young political leaders' remarks that they would pick a leader among themselves "in good time").

But the point is they (the 16 leaders) have responded to the call that they have to decide very quickly.

Otherwise, in our nature, we normally don't want to fight for the post. And they're not fighting for the post, but they have to decide who should lead them. That's the difference in politics between us and other countries.

"(In) other countries they elbow one another. They all move up. Ours (are) very responsible leaders -- a job has to be done, they will do it.

But we all do not have sharp elbows to get into that senior position. So I thought I should just signal to them to better decide."

After a somewhat vague response from the young leaders -- what does "in good time" in terms of timeline mean anyway? -- the former Prime Minister wants to quickly move on and put the genie back in the bottle.

But the public Q & A between ESM Goh and the 16 leaders via Facebook post and the mainstream media just made everyone rather confused about the leadership succession situation and the nature of Goh's relationship with the young leaders:

1. Didn't Goh have any regular meetings with the key young Ministers to catch up on important matters such as the question he posed?

2. Couldn't Goh just ask his fellow Marine Parade teammate Tan Chuan-Jin, one of the 16 signatories, to address his queries on his behalf?

3. Why didn't the 16 young Ministers and Senior Ministers of State contact Goh personally and subsequently announce publicly that they have told him that they will select their next leader "in good time"?

4. As the next leader of Singapore is likely to be the Secretary-General of the ruling People's Action Party, why did the 16 include political office-holders who are not part of the Central Executive Committee (CEC)? Currently, 7 of the 16 are in PAP's highest decision-making body, with 4 directly elected.

5. Why did the 11 young Ministers (plus Speaker Tan) include 5 Senior Ministers of State but not the other 4 Senior Ministers of State? In fact, two Senior Ministers of State not included are younger than a Senior Minister of State who was included.

Guess we will find out the answers to these questions in good time.

Top photo via MParader's Facebook page