Having been with the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) for more than 30 years until 2011, it appears presidential election aspirant and runner-up Tan Cheng Bock is looking for new friends shopping around for a new party to start or join.

As long as those new peers are not from the PAP.

Opposition sat down for preliminary chat

A few months ago, Tan met with seven opposition parties (Singapore Democratic Party, the People’s Power Party, the Democratic Progressive Party, the Reform Party, the National Solidarity Party, the Singaporeans First Party and the People’s Voice Party).

During the meeting, the seven parties proposed an opposition coalition and asked Tan to lead them.

Tan said then that he had not decided in what capacity he would help.

And then on Sunday morning, Nov. 4, he had breakfast with Lee Hsien Yang, a person who is quite unlikely to join the PAP.

In his Facebook post, Tan said the more than one hour breakfast was good, because of "the sharing we had on world affairs and the current state of politics in Singapore".

This breakfast news has since made a few opposition supporters excited, such as:

CPF blogger and RP GE 2015 candidate Roy Ngerng:

Activist and RP GE 2015 candidate Gilbert Goh:

Here are three observations on how we can make sense of this breakfast meeting.

1. There was every intention to make the casual breakfast meeting publicly known.

When approached by The Straits Times, Lee, the younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said: "We were just here to have breakfast."

But it is not just a breakfast between two men in their sixties and seventies.

It was a breakfast between two establishment men who are now perceived to have fallen out with the establishment.

And the intent of this moment was to create a photo opportunity for Singaporeans to speculate what the meeting was about.

After all, the breakfast meeting was swiftly reported by The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao within an hour.

While there was strangely no byline for the ST article, the photo was taken by an ST photographer, which means somehow the media knew about the meet up beforehand.

This means that there is a high likelihood of Tan or Lee's camp leaking the news to the media in advance.

Unless you believe that the mainstream media actually stalk Tan and Lee daily.

2. The choice of location indicates a love for hawker food West  Coast GRC

It was Tan who suggested that they meet at West Coast Food Centre, saying that Lee "missed our local hawker fare in the heartlands".

But the venue is a nice segue to reintroduce Tan's association with Ayer Rajah.

Tan was a six-term MP at the Ayer Rajah constituency, winning a record 88 percent of votes in his ward during GE 2001.

Ayer Rajah is now part of the four-member West Coast GRC, led by retired Minister Lim Hng Kiang and Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran.

In fact, Reform Party secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaretnam, whose party has contested in West Coast GRC for two consecutive elections, had already given his blessings:

"Should Dr Tan decide to return to his old constituency, we would be delighted to stand under his leadership."

The West Coast GRC is usually considered a "safe (GRC) seat" for the PAP.

Both Lim and Iswaran have been MPs in the GRC for 21 years.

With RP as their opponents for GE 2011 and 2015, the PAP West Coast GRC team coasted to a 66.6 percent and 78.57 percent victory. Both victories were also above PAP's national average.

With Lim likely to retire in the next GE, Iswaran will face a tough fight if his opponents include the likes of Tan and Lee.

3. The hope and change (ubah) slogan may work better with a fresh face leader with no political baggage

In his July Facebook post, Tan said:

"I may only have a short time to mentor a team to work for the good of the nation. This is a small window of opportunity, a moment for ubah (change in Malay)."

But the Pakatan Harapan (Hope) success story and Ubah moment in Malaysia is not so straightforward for Tan in Singapore.

This is because 93-year-old prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was perceived as someone with nothing to prove. In fact, an electoral loss at the Malaysian GE 2018 may even tarnish his glorious political legacy.

Tan, on the other hand, seems to be on permanent campaign mode since PE 2011.

In 2015, Tan was meeting Singaporeans and opposition leaders at the opposition rallies during the General Election 2015.

In 2016, Tan announced his decision to contest again for the Presidential Election.

In 2017, Tan participated in the reserved PE protest at Hong Lim park.

Singaporeans may start taking Tan's national electoral ambitions more seriously if he manages to score some coups in attracting current PAP MPs.

And not some disgruntled ex-PAP MPs.

Or the prime minister's brother.

Image from Gilbert Goh