You chose Tan Kin Lian!

 

In polling booths across Singapore, Tan Kin Lian is chosen by a slim margin as Singapore's 5th Elected President. Few suspect it, but hardcore opposition supporters do not form the largest portion of Tan's winning coalition. Tan wins the day not on his own merit. Instead, enough voters across Singapore's political spectrum have grown weary of the endless machinations of the PAP to redefine the elected presidency. After 30 years of PAP's tomfoolery, enough voters realised that the presidency has become a clown show and the appropriate way to reward the PAP is to elect the biggest clown they can find on the ballot sheet.

As it turns out, what you saw from Tan over the two weeks of campaigning is exactly what Singapore gets from his presidency. Gaffes every day from a leader who has a direct connection between his mouth and his brain. Every day, Tan posts a video or a paragraph on his personal social media account that draws sighs of exasperation and more audible protests from various groups of people. "Tan Kin Lian's daily cuckoo bird moment", some snarks will call these. In an interview with Sumiko Tan, he explains that as a people's president, he is obliged to eschew formal lines of communications especially with the people. After all, the government didn't stop Halimah from posting on Facebook, did they?

But that's not the worst. Tan posts on a daily basis, suggestions to improve the transparency of government, the management of Singapore's reserves, and the government's duty to the rights of the people. The prime minister refuses to meet with Tan at all, from fear that the president would just repeat everything they discuss on X, formerly known as Twitter. Undaunted, Tan invites himself to visit government offices, Temasek and GIC, and crashes cabinet meetings to give unsolicited advice, which he publishes on his blog instead of the official website of the President of Singapore.

Before the year is out, the council of presidential advisors is convened by the prime minister and his cabinet to initiate proceedings to remove Tan Kin Lian as president. They will choose between 2 explanations: either Tan has acted in contravention of the Constitution, or Tan has developed a serious and debilitating mental condition that was undisclosed at the time of his application to be president and disqualifies him from holding the office. Either way, the motion passes in parliament. However Tan will contest this in the Supreme Court, forcing the Chief Justice and his colleagues to judge on what the role of the president should and can be, within the Constitution. Tan will lose his appeal to the Supreme Court, but the judgement will contain a suggestion to revert the presidency to a ceremonial function in line with the practices of Commonwealth nations.

Regardless of the council's reasoning and the outcome, one segment of Singapore is outraged by PAP arrogance and bullying. Another segment of Singapore is outraged that the qualifications could let in someone so eminently unfit for office. It is only after Lawrence Wong becomes prime minister in 2025 that the PAP amends the Constitution once more, to reinstat a ceremonial president and popular figurehead. Tan Kin Lian is the last elected president of Singapore, and you and other voters heave a sigh of relief.