PM explains
why Steve Tan dropped out
PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that 'there is no absolute
certainty in any process of choosing people,' when explaining the
unprecedented last-minute pullout of unionist Steve Tan from the
PAP slate on Nomination Day.
'We're looking for many attributes, strengths and capabilities,
and also testing for weaknesses, and there's no process which is
100 per cent accurate.'
'And even if you're accurate now, something may happen later on
and we have to revise our assessment,' he said at a press
conference after nominations closed on Wednesday.
Mr Tan, 37, told reporters that he had stepped down for
'personal reasons'. MP Baey Yam Kheng replaced him in the Tampines
GRC lineup, while new face, surgeon Chia Shih Lu, took Mr Baey's
place in Tanjong Pagar GRC.
Mr Lee was unequivocal that party leadership had not known about
Mr Tan's past troubles, arguing that the change would not have been
at the eleventh hour if they had.
He said that the party and Mr Tan could have 'pretended there
was no problem and just carried on'.
'But Steve Tan is honourable, we are (as well), and we decided
that awkward as it is, we just had to go through with this and made
the last-minute change and explain to people: I'm sorry, something
has come up...we have had to make a change.'
Separately, Labour chief Lim Swee Say said Mr Tan was put up as
a candidate 'based on our knowledge of his track records over the
last 10 years'.
On Mr Tan's decision to drop out of the contest, he said: 'I'm
glad he took the decision before the GE. I suppose he came to the
decision in the interest of the party, in the interest of the
voters. I take consolation that we have responsible people who put
the bigger voter interest ahead of personal interest.'
