Good afternoon, everybody.

Tomorrow is Nomination Day for the Presidential Elec

tion. I expect the Presidential Election to be contested. It is the first cont
est in 18 years and the second time ever that the PE has been contested, so I th
ought it would be useful for me to make a few points to remind voters what this
election is about. The President holds the highest office in the land. He has
important ceremonial duties representing Singapore, representing Singaporeans, b
oth at home and abroad, and he also has custodial powers under the Constitution,
veto powers, especially over the spending of past reserves and over the appoint
ment of key personnel in the public service. Apart from these custodial powers
in all other areas under the Constitution, he acts in accordance with the advice
of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. These powers and the rules are set out q
uite clearly in the Constitution and have been well expounded by Minister Shanmu
gam recently when he went to the IPS seminar.
When we are appointing a President, we are looking for a person of character and
standing. We want somebody with an illustrious track record of accomplishments
who has the experience, the competence and the judgment to fulfill the roles of
the President and who will hold the office with dignity and distinction. Not e
verybody can do this. It makes a very big difference to Singapore whether you h
ave a good President, domestically because the President has to be a unifying fi
gure above politics who enjoys the respect of all citizens but internationally a
lso, we need a President who will represent Singapore who will be respected and
who will enhance Singapore s standing in the world because of his personal abiliti
es and qualities, not just because he happens to be the President of Singapore b
ut because of what he knows, his experience, his abilities, his temperament, his
skills in conveying Singapore s interests, what Singapore stands for. Mr Nathan
as President is a very good example of this because his grasp of international r
elations has helped us greatly in fostering better relations with many friendly
countries and when he has gone on his overseas trips, he has brought business de
legations with him and he has opened doors for many Singapore companies.
Beyond these ceremonial roles, it is also important to have a capable President
when he wields his custodial powers, especially under the present circumstances
when we are looking ahead and we are not sure what the world holds, whether ther
e will be more trouble, more storms on the horizon and uncertainty. You need a
president who will make considered well-judged decisions when he has to exercise
his powers, when he says yes or no. What is critical is not whether he says ye
s or whether he says no but whether he makes independent, wise, well-considered
decisions on these matters in Singapore s best interests after hearing all views a
nd especially after hearing the views of the Council of Presidential Advisers.
It is important that we have a good President and it is also important for the P
resident and the government to have good mutual understanding and a constructive
relationship. In terms of the custodial powers, certainly because to implement
the constitutional safeguards, the President has to work with the Government an
d this is important at two levels. One, day-to-day in implementing the details
of the safeguards, translating the principles and the broad scheme of the Consti
tution into a detailed working arrangement, dealing with transactions, deciding
how to treat them, deciding what practical adjustments to make. But also at ano
ther level when in fact major discreet decisions come up, when the Government ha
s a proposal to spend past reserves, when the Government puts up a proposal to a
ppoint a person to a key appointment and the President has to understand what th
e Government is trying to do and make a decision and judge whether to say yes or
whether to say no.
But even beyond the custodial powers, more generally it is important for the Pre
sident to work with the Government and the Government keeps the President inform
ed on all important matters. The President as you know reads all Cabinet papers
, he reads the Cabinet minutes and I, as PM, keep in regular touch with the Pres
ident. With Mr Nathan, I have made it a practice to have lunch with him every m

onth at least and I will brief him on what I have on my mind and he will tell me
what is on his mind. I naturally welcome his views because he gives a very tho
ughtful perspective backed by his extensive experience and judgment and we consi
der very carefully the President s views, although under the system the final deci
sion is made by the Cabinet. This is how my Cabinet and my Government have work
ed with President Nathan and one good example of how this functions is during th
e recent global financial crisis when we had to draw on the reserves in order to
fund the Resilience Package and Jobs Credit, and when we had to use part of the
reserves to back our guarantee of bank liabilities. Way before we made a decis
ion on these issues, we could see the crisis coming, deepening, and we kept the
President and the CPA informed of developments as the crisis deepened. The Gove
rnment worked out its response when it was working out the package and as we saw
events unfold. At first we were very reluctant to draw on the reserves because
that is really a last resort but eventually we decided that it was looking so g
loomy it was necessary and when we reached that point, we made a formal proposal
to the President. We briefed him and the CPA carefully. They asked questions,
they spent several days thinking the matter over, asked and finally only after
satisfying themselves that this was in Singapore s best interest and the situation
was serious enough to need the draw, that they approved the draw. The result w
as we were able to stabilize the economy, to boost confidence and to recover str
ongly when the storm passed. But also importantly, we were able to demonstrate
how the Presidential safeguards were meant to work and could work in a tight sit
uation.
This is how we hope to work with the next President. The Presidential Election
Committee has issued certificates to four candidates but of course getting a cer
tificate is only a first sieving and the PEC decides based on the qualifying cri
teria which are set out in the Constitution which means that in the PEC s views, a
ll four meet the basic threshold to be a candidate but it does not necessarily m
ean that all four are equally qualified to be the President. The voters will ha
ve to consider carefully which candidate will make the best President and will d
ecide when they vote on August 27. The Government will respect the voters choice
and will work with whomever the voters choose in the interest of Singapore.