Politics
Lim Tean raises questions about Ng Kok Song and Tharman’s independence claims
Lim Tean, People’s Voice leader, highlighted familial affiliations of Presidential Candidates Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Ng Kok Song with GIC and Singapore’s reserve management.
Drawing attention to potential conflicts of interest and undisclosed connections, Lim contrasted their situations with Tan Kin Lian’s, emphasizing his lack of governmental ties.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Lim Tean, leader of People’s Voice, drew attention to a striking disparity.
Despite Presidential Candidate Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his rival contender, Ng Kok Song, vying for recognition as “independent candidates”, Lim Tean highlighted that both of them have family members associated with GIC and the management of Singapore’s reserves separately.
This revelation led him to raise thought-provoking questions about their true ‘independence.’
Earlier, a vigilant netizen highlighted that Ng Kok Song’s son-in-law, Mark Lee, currently holds the position of Managing Director at GIC.
Lim Tean aptly pointed out that this affiliation places NKS in a precarious conflict of interest position, considering the President’s duty to safeguard the reserves.
“And it is a well-known fact that Avanda, the fund which NKS is executive Chairman of, started off with huge investments from the Singapore Labour Foundation, Temasek and GIC. If these entities were to pull their funds from Avanda, will that not lead to a significant drop in the value of Avanda? ” asks Lim.
“So NKS is talking nonsense when he says that he is an “independent” candidate.”
The sum that Avanda Investment Management received in 2016 was a staggering S$4 billion worth of investment fund.
Turning his attention to Tharman, Lim Tean voiced his concern about the reported involvement of Tharman’s son in the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Reserves, who was later transferred to the Investment Directorate Reserves Policy.
This was fiercely discussed on online forums and private messaging in Singapore.
The situation prompts the question from Lim Tean: Why did Tharman not disclose this crucial information to the Singaporean public upon declaring his candidacy?
“Tan Kin Lian has no conflict of interest problems. None of his children work with the government,” Lim Tean concluded.
MOF clarifies “no conflict of interest” between Thurman’s Presidential candidacy and his son’s role in MOF
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Public Service Division (PSC) Secretariat issued a statement regarding Akilan, the son of Mr Tharman, mentioned that Akilan has been a part of MOF since June 2022.
Currently, he is engaged in shaping education and manpower policies within the social programmes directorate.
The Singapore Government Directory website has been updated to reflect Akilan’s new job role.
The statement also emphasized that there exists “no conflict of interest” between Akilan’s current position and his father’s presidential candidacy.
“Akilan was previously working in the Reserves and Investment Directorate at MOF. No conflict of interest occurred in his previous work at the Directorate, ” the statement wrote.
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There is no such thing as conflict of interest in Nepotism and Cronyism.
When ownself check ownself all is fine and dandy and father in charge of country, mother in charge of money and now a new signatory to allow spending of reserves, where got COI issues.?
Its just one big happy family sharing in the “business”.
After watching the video, puppet claim Singapore is a safe place?
They can’t even handle a bicycle man in Clementi….Old man must be damned shock.. tsk tsk tsk
There should only be only one family member working for the govt. at any time. LHL operates through cronyism so he disregards ethics and Conflict of Interests. The PAP and citizens use different dictionaries. So no PAP member will admit to the Conflicts. We can only use our vote to remove the PAP, family and friends
Mr Lim Tean; you can ask any PAP’s MPs or Ministers, any one of them will has some relatives working in the government service. Even those MPs’ or Ministers’ relatives are idiots. That’s the reason why Tharman did not disclose his relatives is in the government service. Back to the question of being independent of the establishment. Can Tharman be independent of the establishment, in mind or in spirit? Tharman was with the establishment for more than 20 years! Tharman claims he knew about the establishment’s finance. Like all those with financial knowledge, he knows very well how to manipulate… Read more »
Both of their son and son-in law work in the garment sector and how its independent going to be?
Mr. Tharman & NKS: Stop fooling us !!! What do you think?
Voting Mr. Tharman & NKS = Voting for PAP!!
No difference if you vote either one of them.
Will BTO prices drop once once kids graduated and married to buy one?
Will Cost of Living be lower?
Will Food Cost remains High or even higher?
The answer is very obvious.
Might as well TKL to make a change to our lives
Once they raise the level of $500 million and above for Presidential criteria, we may not even have the chance to vote for our next President.
Remember to tick the box for TKL !!!
Cheers !!!