The Presidential Election is over and Sunday is a rather disappointing day for me because Dr Tan Cheng Bock didn’t win. 83.44% of 2.27 million eligible voters cast their votes and Tan Cheng Bock was beaten by a hair thin margin of just 0.33%. Tony Tan’s supporters can ungraciously say that even if Tan Cheng Bock had won, he would also be another 35% president. But the difference is that a Tan Cheng Bock win would be a lot less abrasive and a lot more acceptable to some of those who voted for Tan Jee Say. That is a fact because when Tan Jee Say has fallen behind, the hashtag #AnyonebutTonyTan starts making its rounds on Twitter. In other words, Tony Tan is a 35% President both in name and in fact while Tan Cheng Bock will only be one in name.
Personally, I had expected Tan Cheng Bock to win. It was not by detailed analysis. It was simply gut feel. I went to a customer site with a colleague and on the cab, the colleague said he would vote for Tan Cheng Bock. I was drinking myself silly in a pub and one of the usual patrons came up and asked me who I would vote for and toasted me for saying Tan Cheng Bock. Among my two drinking partners, one has already decided to vote for Tan Cheng Bock while the other said he would go with that as long as that is the popular choice. I asked someone who I haven’t spoken to in a long while and she said Tan Cheng Bock. Tan Cheng Bock was so overwhelming a choice among the majority of my friends and that was in spite of the online propaganda by the likes of Temasek Review Emeritus. To me, “Doc” (as his team on Facebook affectionately calls him) is simply the people’s choice outside the online community and it was something spontaneous and not orchestrated. If there was a movement online canvassing for votes for Tan Cheng Bock, all of that effort appeared to be individual and uncoordinated. In my case, I had simply forwarded what I liked to my Facebook wall, and to those friends who have not decided on who they would vote for. To me, Tan Cheng Bock is the black horse which would come from behind and surprise everyone. In fact I had generally refrain from criticising the other candidates publicly and when I had to post anything critical of them I had make it clear I regarded them as ‘political smear’, so that anyone who wants to read them would read with a pinch (or a bucket) of salt.
A day before the polling day when I met an ex-colleague for lunch, he spoke of tactical voting and has advised that the votes for Tan Cheng Bock and Tan Jee Say be consolidated to deny Tony Tan the presidency. He mentioned that if we failed to do so then Tony Tan would definitely win. In fact, it was a foregone conclusion even then that Tan Kin Lian is finished and we were hoping for a last minute miracle in which he would pull out of the race to avoid humiliation and to throw his support behind either Tan Cheng Bock or Tan Jee Say.
I understand the concept of tactical voting, but I find it difficult to abandon Tan Cheng Bock for Tan Jee Say. The reason is rather simple. I knew very little about Tan Jee Say. All I have is just what he had said during the campaign period and I would be a fool to take all that at face value and give him my vote. On top of which, a Tan Jee Say win would be as bad as a Tony Tan win since they stood on the opposite end of the political divide. While it maybe said that Tan Jee Say is being true to himself by aligning solidly with the opposition camp, it simply reinforces the impression that neither a Tony Tan nor Tan Jee Say win will do anything to bridge the politcal divide. So even though it was a risky (if not painful) decision, I stayed my course and voted for Tan Cheng Bock. My ex-colleague said we might as well have voted for Tony Tan. I had told him to stand firm and vote for the candidate he believed in all the way to the end. To vote against one’s own preferred candidate simply because one thinks the candidate is unlikely to win is just making one’s vote meaningless.
On hindsight, perhaps I should have convinced him to vote for Tan Cheng Bock instead. I should have told him that it is rather impossible for Tan Jee Say to win. After all, while the national average for the opposition vote is 40% in the recent General Election [GE], that average is generally boosted by the overall good showing of the Workers’ Party [WP], and the good showing of the Singapore Peoples’ Party [SPP] at Bishan-Toa Payoh and Potong Pasir. That means the die-hard opposition base is actually much lower, and I estimate it to be around 35% due to the resentment over public transport, housing and the surge in foreign labor.
It may have been logical for Tan Jee Say aligned himself primarily with the opposition. Unfortunately, that almost certainly sank his bid more so than his confrontational stance in the debates. His deliberate, pointed barbs against Tony Tan did nothing to endear him to the PAP camp at all. While that may present his supporters an impression of self-confidence (i.e. the impression he is already running neck and neck with Tony Tan), it also made him looked arrogant. It may play very well to the rabidly anti-PAP camp, but it does nothing to endear him to the middle voters (a part of those who has chosen to vote for any opposition only in the recent GE) because he had treated the other two candidates as just also-runs and insignificant. By failing to engage the other candidates, it really leave very little room for voters to engage in tactical voting because there is very little common ground (if not none at all). It also means he wouldn’t be able to win all of that 35% of the opposition votes. In my case, that arrogance and disrespect was simply offensive. It was as offensive as Tony Tan interrupting Tan Jee Say when he was speaking on the ISA. I am dismayed that someone of Tony Tan’s stature had rudely interrupted before Tan Jee Say finished speaking.
I hadn’t bother to write anything of these things down on my blog or any social media platform, nor speak to any of my friends or colleagues about these because I didn’t want to influence how people decide on their choice BEFORE the Presidential Election. Above which, I really don’t relish the idea of being flamed by the rabidly anti-PAP camp even though I could delete all such comments at my discretion. Furthermore, offending the supporters of the other candidates would leave very little room to convince anyone to change their decisions or to convince those who are undecided. That’s not mentioning that since I want to vote for a President who would unify the people, and I don’t think criticising the other candidates will help Tan Cheng Bock win at all. It was rather unfortunate that the supporters of the other candidates are not so restraint.
Dr Tan Cheng Bock, you have fought the good fight. You have inspired some of us and given us hope. You are right that even though we lost, we have also won.
Then again… I still preferred it to be your photo hanging on the offices of all government department and civil services in Singapore. On Sunday morning, I finally understand the anguish of SPP supporters in Potong Pasir. It is definitely a loss that is really, really hard to swallow.
