Tharman Shanmugaratnam as President

 Is there any  adult in and outside Singapore who has not heard of Tharman Shanmugaratnam? With his superlative  credentials, local and international, he made a once-in-a-life-time senssational announcement  of standing for presidential election in September this year.following the expiration of the tenure of President Halimah Yacob.This may be a surprise to some but not entirely unexpected. Without any iota of a doubt do you think that there will be any challenge from any self-exalted candidate to his presidential aspiration?

Although he made it clear that he was offering himself as a candidate independently after considerable introspection there is no denying that he will be naturally projected as an establishment figure. This is so prominently proliferated  by the SMS and mediacorp ad  nauseam since his announcement of standing for presidential election  A day never passed  without Tharman propagating on TV and newspapers and even a child finds it hard to believe he is not an establishment-sponsored candidate. Will this convey an illusion of hypocricsy? The voters can decide if there is a contest which boggles the mind as it is clear that Tharman will romp home without any squeak from any contestant. So why do the PAP think that there should be an election? Tharmen will just be the right choice for the PAP to fiddle with the reserves like the presidents before  him Halimah Yacob and Tony Tan.

It must be some kind of compassionate divinity that there is indeed a prospective candidate-in-waiting  who is contemplting throwing in the gauntlet for the contest. It is mentioned in the Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao today. He is known as Goh Chin Hwa (my romanisation) (吴振华) who comes from a humble beginning and is now the non-residential ambassador to Morocco  He is an entrepreneur  of Ossia International and is quite well-known in the Chinese community as a charitable man who helped cardboard pickers by supplying them pushcarts and getting Border Mission the buyer to give them a good price.

He doe not match the local and international standing of Tharmen shhanmugaratnam and whether he can give Tharman a run for his moneywill be left to be seen. But it will  a trial of strength that will be the cynosure of the eyes of Singaporeans and of course the outside world.