[UPDATE on Aug. 22 at 2:25pm: Tan has amended the statement on his website to remove mentions of his “top opponent” and “a political party”. He also deleted his Aug. 22, 5:40am livestream in which he alluded to the possibility of Tharman’s involvement in the supposed smear campaign against him.]

Tan Kin Lian's previous Facebook posts about his solicited and unsolicited interactions with "pretty girls" over the years are being recirculated recently by concerned individuals.

The presidential candidate now says he's been the target of a "smear campaign", and claims that those involved include "the mainstream media" and its editors, "an attack team" from the People's Action Party (PAP), as well as the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE).

Tan said this in a lengthy statement on his website, posted in the morning on Aug. 22, and shared on his Facebook page.

"Concerted effort by an attack group that went all out to smear me."

He explained that he initially thought it was "a single person" who was "uneasy" about his previous posts, but has come to believe that he is facing "a concerted effort by an attack group that went all out to smear me."

He said "the mainstream media" wrote up the episode to make him look bad, though he did not mention specific outlets or publications.

He added that a "fair and impartial mainstream media would have realised that these posts would have been seen by several hundreds of thousand people over the years" and that most people who consider them to be "light hearted and non-offensive."

"It is dishonest for the media to portray them negatively," said Tan.

Tan takes aim at the government

Tan said that government statements about "building trust" and "uniting the people" rang hollow for "many people" in light of its deeds.

While he did not address specific acts by the government, he mentioned the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) in another part of his statement.

The PEC made a statement on the matter on Aug. 21, after AWARE said the PEC's granting of a certificate of eligibility — which spoke of Tan's "integrity, good character and reputation" — "suggests a systemic endorsement" of Tan's views and behaviours.

The PEC's response was that it was unaware of Tan's social media posts before issuing him a certificate of eligibility.

Tan addresses the issue in Facebook posts

Since 11:53pm on Aug. 21, Tan has devoted no less than six Facebook posts to addressing the issue, and also spoke about it during a livestream on Aug. 22 at 5:40am.

In the livestream, Tan named fellow presidential hopeful Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

“The whole episode is orchestrated — this is just my belief, I got no evidence — orchestrated by a party backing my biggest opponent. You know my biggest opponent, whom I hold with respect, Mr Tharman."

Tan added that he would bring the matter up to Tharman, and said his opinion of Tharman would change if Tharman was involved "in any way". Tan said:

"I will tell Mr Tharman later today through the social media, I’ve changed my mind about respecting him if he is involved in any way in this malicious attack organised by a party against me he would have lost a large part of my respect.”

Tan's Facebook posts also repeated his stance on the posts in question, namely, that they were "light hearted", and that it was "quite natural to appreciate people, both males and females, who take a lot of trouble to look attractive".

Background

Tan first addressed the matter on Aug. 21 during a walkabout at West Coast Food Centre, in response to a TikTok that highlighted the "pretty girls" posts.

This led AWARE to raise concerns about Tan's candidacy despite having a "history of objectifying women".

Tan's daughter then labelled AWARE's objections as "a bit overblown" and disagreed with the description of Tan's posts as "objectifying" their subjects.

Top image via Tan Kin Lian on Facebook