Lim Tean raises questions about Ng Kok Song and Tharman’s independence claims

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.