Our President doesn't have any real political power to do
anything despite having some legal powers as the case of
Ong Teng Cheong shows.
Some of
your colleagues did not think it was much fun when your only
opponent, a former accountant-general, Chua Kim Yeoh, got so much
support?
Yes, all of
them were quite worried. Some ministers even called me to say: Oh,
we are worried about the outcome. At first, we were quite confident
about getting over 70 percent of the vote. But there was a swing of
support over to my opponent's side, especially in the educated
class -- civil servants and the Shenton Way group. The issue was
whether they wanted a PAP man as president to check on a PAP
government, or whether it would be better to have a neutral
independent like Chua. That's why they voted against me because I
had the PAP government support. I would have been happier without
the PAP's open support. I think I would have been better off with
just the unionists' support and the Chinese-educated heartlanders.
Without them I would not have been elected.
But you
did win and you had to figure out how to do this new job as
Singapore's first elected president.
Yes. At the
first opening of parliament after I was elected, I was given a
speech prepared by the government. I read the speech carefully.
Besides ceremonial functions, it said that I'm supposed to
safeguard the reserves and to help society become more
compassionate and gracious. So I decided that, well, if that is
what is said in the speech, then that's going to be my job. And I
am going to do it. That's what I tried to do. In fact, during the
six years I was president, I was very busy.
Doing
what?
Well, I got
involved in a lot of things. The Istana presidential palace and
other places had to be renovated. All this had to be planned and
these places got ready one by one, so that ceremonial functions and
other business could go on as usual. I had to press the government
to finalize the procedures for the protection of the reserves. A
lot of the teething problems and misunderstandings were because
there was a lack of clearcut procedures ofwhat to do. Towards the
end of my term, I pressed the prime minister for a White Paper to
be tabled in parliament that would set out all the principles and
procedures for the elected president. Then I will announce my
decision to step down. I want to get the job
done.
Initially, he did not want to do
that?
It's not that
he did not want to do that, but it had been dragging for a long
time. They produced a White Paper eventually, tabled it in
parliament last July, and that made the future president's job
easier. We have already tested out many of the procedures during my
term, except for asking the president to approve a draw on the past
reserves during a deep economic crisis. That
was never done. It's that part of procedure that was not tested.
How to do it?
It was
this issue that caused the dispute between you and the
government?
Yes. But I
don't want to go into details and upset everybody.
The thing is that the elected president is
supposed to protect the reserves, but he was not told what these
are until five years later. From the day the
Constitution was amended in 1991 to provide for an elected
president, he was supposed to fulfil that role. My predecessor, Wee
Kim Wee, although he was not elected, was supposed to play that
role during the last two years of his term. But he did not actively
check. So, when I came in in 1993, I asked for all this information
about the reserves. It took them three years to give it to
me.
The
holdup was for administrative reasons?
Either that or
they did not think there was any urgency. You see, if you ask me to
protect the reserves, then you've got to tell me what I'm supposed
to protect. So I had to ask.
Why did
they not want to tell you?
I do not know.
Don't ask me, because I don't have the answer. I've been asking
them. In fact, in 1996, exactly halfway through my term, I wrote
prime minister Goh a letter. At that time, everybody was expecting
a general election in December or January. After the election, a
new government would be sworn in. When that happens, all the
reserves, whether past or current, become past reserves and are
locked up on the changeover date. As president, I have to safeguard
them and they can only be drawn upon with my permission.
So I said to Mr Goh: It's already halfway through
my term, but until today I still don't know all these figures about
the reserves.
So the
government had been stonewalling you, the president, for three
years?
Yes. What
happened actually was, as you know, in accounting, when you talk
about reserves, it's either cash reserves or assets reserves. The
cash side is straightforward: investment, how many million dollars
here and there, how much comes from the investment boards and so
on. That was straightforward -- but still we had to ask for it. For
the assets, like properties and so on, normally you say it's worth
$30 million or $100 million or whatever. But they said it would
take 56-man years to produce a dollar-and-cents value of the
immovable assets. So I discussed this with the accountant-general
and the auditor-general and we came to a compromise. The government
would not need to give me the dollar-and-cents value, just give me
a listing of all the properties that the government
owns.
They
agreed?
Well, yes, they
agreed, but they said there's not the time for it. It took them a
few months to produce the list. But even when they gave me the
list, it was not complete.
It
seems the Singapore government does not know its own
assets?
Yes. It's
complicated. It's never been done before. And for the assets of
land, I can understand why. Every
piece of land, even a stretch of road, is probably subdivided into
many lots. There are 50,000 to 60,000 lots
and every one has a number. If you want to value them all, it would
take a long time. In the past, they have just locked everything up
and assumed it is all there. But if I am to protect it, at least I
want to know the list.
When
they eventually gave you the list -- the incomplete list, did you
have enough staff to do the checking and other
work?
No, I did not.
I only had one administrative staffer and two part-timers from the
auditor-general's office. For things like approving the budget of
statutory boards, the auditor-general's office would normally go
through that for me. They are very good. They check on everything.
And they query and ask for information.
For
government financial policy matters that you had a veto over, did
you get all the details?
They finally
came with an executive summary to say that they had checked through
all this, and that this is what they have, this is how much they
are going to spend, and that it won't need any draw from the
reserves -- or that there's likely to be a draw. There never was a
draw during my time, but there were instances where it was a bit
dicey whether the budgets of one or two statutory boards would
require a draw. But finally we resolved that.
Eventually then, with the list of
properties and the executive summaries, you were kept
informed?
I wouldn't be
able to say that. Even in
my last year as president, I was still not being informed about
some ministerial procedures. For example, in
April last year, the government said it would allow the sale of the
Post Office Savings Bank POSB to DBS Bank.
In the
past, when there was no elected president, they could just proceed
with this kind of thing. But when there is an elected president you
cannot, because the POSB is a statutory board whose reserves are to
be protected by the president. You cannot
just announce this without informing him. But I came to know of it
from the newspaper. That is
not quite right. Not only that, but they
were even going to submit a bill to parliament for this sale and to
dissolve the POSB without first informing me.
What
did you do?
My office went
to tell them that this was the wrong procedure. You've got to do
this first, do that first, before you can do this. It was question
of principle and procedure. We had to bring all this to their
attention. That
they cannot forget us. It's not that we are
busybodies, but under the Constitution we have a role to play and a
responsibility. Sometimes in the newspaper I came to know of things
that I am responsible for, but if it had not been reported in the
newspaper I would not know about it.
You
must have been pretty angry that this was still happening in your
last year as president?
Yes, I was a
bit grumpy. And maybe not to the liking of the civil service. They
did not like what I said. But I have to be a watchdog all the time,
you see. So this is where they are supposed to help me to protect
the reserves. And not for me to go and watch out when they do right
or wrong.
Under
the Constitution, you have the right to all the information
available to the cabinet.
Yes. That's
right. And I sourced much information from the cabinet papers. But
they are not used to it. So I said: I understand, it's something
new, and I know you don't like my interference and busybody
checking up and so on. But under the Constitution it is my job to
do that.
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw00/000310a4.htm
