Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Comment on Tan Kin Lian

Friday, July 08, 2011

Comment on Tan Kin Lian - bv Rex

Rex comments as follows,

For the sake of proper discussion, i will comment on the three objections raised against TKL:

"Petty".
I think people get this impression because of the recent case where TKL wanted to sue someone on the blog for publishing what TKL beileves are lies. I followed through the details, and i did find that the allegations were indeed very serious. It is not just a personal attack, but it was one with an anectdotal context, the truth of which is crucial to understanding the character of tKL. Therefore, i do not find it a all "petty" and anyone with a decent public reputation would logically consider legal redress. There is this issue of the election deposit. People are saying TKL is rich and should not be petty to ask for donations from his supporters who are not so rich. Well, in that case i will tell them go vote for Tony Tan, he'll never ask you for donations. You vote for the person whom you think serve Singaporeans better. Donation is voluntary, if you like you donate if you don't just shut up. Focus on a independent candidate with passion and conviction.

"Egotistical"
Who isn't egotistical to some extent? Tony Tan? Tan Cheng Bok? There is no saint on earth. You can be a President to serve people, but you also want a bit of satisfaction of some form of recognition and not receive insults. If TKL is egotistical to the extreme, he certainly would not have dirtied his hands with so many things post retirement. That are many many CEOs and retired civil servants enjoying their retirement in peace and enjoying their wealth. Why go through all this hassle to campaign for presidency... TKL passion to do something for the country is 80% real and maybe 20% ego, please be more observant. you can;t find anyone like him in Singapore, the rich men all take cover after retirement and play golf.

"Ïntolerant of Criticism"
To some extent nobody likes to be criticised. If you consider TKL intoleratn of criticsm, let us ask ourselves, how does Tan Cheng Bok or Tony Tan react to criticsm? Perhaps they are not tested? Do bear in mind we are selecting one out of three, have to apply the same standards. We tend to apply rigorous standards to TKL because maybe he has a user friendly blog for 4 years so we know the style. But Tony Tan and TCB are completely shielded from public access. How do you judge their reactions when criticised? You don't know. But for TKL, i think he is quite fair. Comments which are merely personal attacks are always removed from his blog. I think this is the right way to go. Comments which differ from his but politely written has always been published. I think he is fairly tolerant to criticisms if raised reasonably.

There is no perfect human being. Choose wisely the three Tan's.

Rex

6 comments:

Lee Kay Kong said...: This sounds very much like another 'product' of GMS aka Aurvandil, and now aka Rex.d now aka Rex.; July 08, 2011 11:46 AM
C H Yak said...: I have been reading blogs regularly recently to catch up on the PE Race.

(1)Petty

There ought to be a distinction between a false allegation and attack on a person's character versus on, say; a not so accurate opinion of someone's past work or decisions.

Even a layman would jump to defend himself against the slightest false allegations particularly smears, slurs, libels, etc.

(2) Egotistic

Strong egos driven by the right “values” is not necessarily bad.

(3) Intolerant of Criticism

Mr Tan is well-known as a “letter-writer” to the press (Forum Page). To say someone who supports honest and responsible critics, particularly if identifiable openly, as intolerant of criticism is absurd. Criticism should be backed by true facts. As Mr Tan explained in his press conference, he not only just want to criticise, but prefers to look at alternative views which are more fruitful than plain criticism.

Plain criticism can be worse than “hear-say” and is not so positive.

As responsible voters, we should not only discern “hearsay” but also criticise honestly, fairly and responsibly.; July 08, 2011 1:51 PM
Anonymous said...: Thank you Rex, for not disagreeing that Tan Kin Lian is petty, egotistical and intolerant of criticism. You can give excuses for such behaviour but nonetheless, people need to see this other side of Tan.

Tan claimed to be honest. Actually it is not true. He is not honest on certain issues. Again going by your protective stance, you would say, there is no such thing as a completely honest person. Up to you, but I say a person who has been a PAP cadre for 30 years and suddenly claimed that he has nothing to do with PAP and its polices is blatantly lying through his smiling tiger teeth.

Over the years, we have seen how this man works and he is someone who tells half-truths only and turns when the wind turns.; July 08, 2011 3:25 PM
Anonymous said...: totally agree!; July 08, 2011 5:35 PM
rex said...: Rex comments as follows to Aonymous @3.25pm:

I am not trying to protect TKL. I will attack him if there is a substantiated accusation against him, so far i see none. I don't protect anybody. I only protect Truth and I attack Lies.

I said earlier in my post, i think 80% of TKL actions is passion and 20% is ego. Which millionaire Ex CEO or Minister will dirty his hands with mundane issues and come down from their high horses to interact incessantly with the demanding, ugly singaporean public post of retirement, you tell me?All the other millionaire ex CEO and ministers, they'd probably spend their retirement half the year in Canada, Swiss mountains, or yachting, golf at Country clubs and sip wine and enjoy life and their privacy. It does not make sense to sacrifice the personal privacy of enjoying millions of dollars of money, and instead, spend time to build a blog for 4 years and interact with the public with the purpose to upgrading their knowledge about financial matters. (3,000,000 hits to date on his blog)It is the same question you may ask why Chen Shao Mao came down from his position. I think it would be at least 80% passion and 20% ego boost in both cases.

Now you said that TKL is not honest and tells half-truths, because you implicated that he was involved with "PAP policies". Do note, the way Lee&Sons work is quite clear. There is an inner circle that does policies. The rest are implementers and react according to "ïnformation available at the time" to quote Tan Cheng Bok. TKL was never part of the inner circle. TKL did say that he was involved in helping the grassroots organisations when they were set up by PAP. Grassroots work is like helping the community, is that a shameful thing? In fact by comparison, the person who would be closest to PAP policies design would be TT followed by TCB and then TKL in that order.

For me it is very simple. We start with the premise that no one is perfect. You draw a matrix. On one axis is the values honesty, passion, ego, ability to take criticism, ability to say NO to Lee Hsien Loong when required, past association with PAP, and Handsomeness and social grace(to rub shoulder with the high end socialites, dignified) . On the other axis you plot some numbers for each of the Tan. Some score high in one and low in others. But you get my idea.

As with tender evaluation procedures, If you don't know anything much about the other fellow you have to reject the information you have of one fellow. (they call it "equalisation")

By this method, i already mathematically calculated who is my candidate. However one has to constantly update the data right up to election date. That is why it is important to read internet sources and think (forget about Straits Times, they are the worst of the worst) and interact, like what i do now.

One more thing, i have one more parameter to add in my little matrix.. if you don't mind, it is DRIVE, as in, energy level. As a rule 90 year old will think and act more slowly than 80year old, and so on. So you get the point, how to plot the graph matrix, you have to compare the energy levels of the three Tans, especailly in the mental aspects because the job of president is not so much physical.

IT is just a simple puzzle like soduku. I dont know why people have such hard time deciding.

rex; July 08, 2011 10:48 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Reply to Lee Kay Kong
I know Aurvandil and Goh Meng Seng personally. They are different people.
I spoke to Rex previously over the telephone. He is a retiree and is much older than Aurvandil and Goh Meng Seng.; July 12, 2011 7:42 PM