PM Lee Hsien Loong's Press Conference on the Presidential Election 2011

Good afternoon, everybody. Tomorrow is Nomination Day for the Presidential Election. I expect the Presidential Election to be contested. It is the first contest in 18 years and the second time ever that the PE has been contested, so I thought it would be useful for me to make a few points to remind voters what this election is about. The President holds the highest office in the land. He has important ceremonial duties representing Singapore, representing Singaporeans, both at home and abroad, and he also has custodial powers under the Constitution, veto powers, especially over the spending of past reserves and over the appointment of key personnel in the public service. Apart from these custodial powers in all other areas under the Constitution, he acts in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. These powers and the rules are set out quite clearly in the Constitution and have been well expounded by Minister Shanmugam recently when he went to the IPS seminar.

When we are appointing a President, we are looking for a person of character and standing. We want somebody with an illustrious track record of accomplishments who has the experience, the competence and the judgment to fulfill the roles of the President and who will hold the office with dignity and distinction. Not everybody can do this.  It makes a very big difference to Singapore whether you have a good President, domestically because the President has to be a unifying figure above politics who enjoys the respect of all citizens but internationally also, we need a President who will represent Singapore who will be respected and who will enhance Singapore’s standing in the world because of his personal abilities and qualities, not just because he happens to be the President of Singapore but because of what he knows, his experience, his abilities, his temperament, his skills in conveying Singapore’s interests, what Singapore stands for. Mr Nathan as President is a very good example of this because his grasp of international relations has helped us greatly in fostering better relations with many friendly countries and when he has gone on his overseas trips, he has brought business delegations with him and he has opened doors for many Singapore companies.

Beyond these ceremonial roles, it is also important to have a capable President when he wields his custodial powers, especially under the present circumstances when we are looking ahead and we are not sure what the world holds, whether there will be more trouble, more storms on the horizon and uncertainty. You need a president who will make considered well-judged decisions when he has to exercise his powers, when he says yes or no. What is critical is not whether he says yes or whether he says no but whether he makes independent, wise, well-considered decisions on these matters in Singapore’s best interests after hearing all views and especially after hearing the views of the Council of Presidential Advisers.

It is important that we have a good President and it is also important for the President and the government to have good mutual understanding and a constructive relationship. In terms of the custodial powers, certainly because to implement the constitutional safeguards, the President has to work with the Government and this is important at two levels. One, day-to-day in implementing the details of the safeguards, translating the principles and the broad scheme of the Constitution into a detailed working arrangement, dealing with transactions, deciding how to treat them, deciding what practical adjustments to make. But also at another level when in fact major discreet decisions come up, when the Government has a proposal to spend past reserves, when the Government puts up a proposal to appoint a person to a key appointment and the President has to understand what the Government is trying to do and make a decision and judge whether to say yes or whether to say no.

But even beyond the custodial powers, more generally it is important for the President to work with the Government and the Government keeps the President informed on all important matters. The President as you know reads all Cabinet papers, he reads the Cabinet minutes and I, as PM, keep in regular touch with the President. With Mr Nathan, I have made it a practice to have lunch with him every month at least and I will brief him on what I have on my mind and he will tell me what is on his mind. I naturally welcome his views because he gives a very thoughtful perspective backed by his extensive experience and judgment and we consider very carefully the President’s views, although under the system the final decision is made by the Cabinet. This is how my Cabinet and my Government have worked with President Nathan and one good example of how this functions is during the recent global financial crisis when we had to draw on the reserves in order to fund the Resilience Package and Jobs Credit, and when we had to use part of the reserves to back our guarantee of bank liabilities. Way before we made a decision on these issues, we could see the crisis coming, deepening, and we kept the President and the CPA informed of developments as the crisis deepened. The Government worked out its response when it was working out the package and as we saw events unfold. At first we were very reluctant to draw on the reserves because that is really a last resort but eventually we decided that it was looking so gloomy it was necessary and when we reached that point, we made a formal proposal to the President. We briefed him and the CPA carefully. They asked questions, they spent several days thinking the matter over, asked and finally only after satisfying themselves that this was in Singapore’s best interest and the situation was serious enough to need the draw, that they approved the draw. The result was we were able to stabilize the economy, to boost confidence and to recover strongly when the storm passed. But also importantly, we were able to demonstrate how the Presidential safeguards were meant to work and could work in a tight situation.

This is how we hope to work with the next President. The Presidential Election Committee has issued certificates to four candidates but of course getting a certificate is only a first sieving and the PEC decides based on the qualifying criteria which are set out in the Constitution which means that in the PEC’s views, all four meet the basic threshold to be a candidate but it does not necessarily mean that all four are equally qualified to be the President. The voters will have to consider carefully which candidate will make the best President and will decide when they vote on August 27. The Government will respect the voters’ choice and will work with whomever the voters choose in the interest of Singapore.