No posters, banners for Ng Kok Song's campaign due to 'limited resources', sustainable reasons

SINGAPORE: Presidential candidate Ng Kok Song said on Wednesday (Aug 23) that his campaign team will not put up physical banners and posters around the island because he lacks the resources to do so and wants to be environmentally friendly.

Social media will remain the thrust of his campaign strategy, he said, to better communicate with younger Singaporeans, who can share his message with their parents and grandparents. The 75-year-old added that his online reach so far has been “quite spectacular”.

Speaking to the reporters during a walkabout at Amoy Street Food Centre, Mr Ng, who was confirmed on Tuesday as one of three candidates for the Sep 1 Presidential Election, said he would also reach out to Singaporeans through “the traditional way” of walkabouts and handing out pamphlets.

Posters featuring the other two candidates, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Mr Tan Kin Lian, have been up since Tuesday, when their candidacy was confirmed.

Mr Ng added: “I want to be conspicuous by my absence of posters and banners because it’s for good reason – and the good reason is that we want to be a more sustainable society.”

He also questioned the need to make posters and banners, which would be taken down after a few days and destroyed.

“I will go to shopping malls. I will go and visit as many organisations as possible so that I can be personally in touch with people,” he said.

“We will print some pamphlets for those households who need (them) … But we will keep that to a minimum so that we can be as environmentally friendly as possible.”

Another reason he gave for the lack of banners and posters - a mainstay of election campaigning - was more prosaic.

"I don’t have the manpower resources or the party machinery to hang up posters on lampposts all over the island," Mr Ng said. "I have very limited resources."

On Tuesday afternoon, during a visit to Kangkar in the Hougang area where he grew up, he had said he would hold an online seminar – instead of a physical rally – where members of the public can submit questions.

Mr Ng is the former chief investment officer of GIC, Singapore's sovereign fund. During his interaction with patrons at Amoy Street Food Centre, some introduced themselves as current GIC staff.

His fiancee Sybil Lau, 45, told CNA that they often patronised the hawker centre themselves – especially Mr Ng when he was still with GIC.

Mr Ng spent 45 years in the public service before retiring in 2013 and starting his own investment firm, Avanda Investment Management.

YOUNG PEOPLE "CRUCIAL" TO CAMPAIGN

The last contested Presidential Election took place in 2011, which means those in the 21 to 33 age group will be first-time PE voters.

For this reason, this particular demographic is crucial to his campaign, said Mr Ng, adding that young people will “begin to learn what is the meaning of the Presidential Election”.

“It’s not just a voting thing. It’s an educational process which will benefit the future governance of Singapore,” he said.

Mr Ng said that from his walkabouts so far, the main concern of young voters is their future – specifically, employment opportunities.

He listed three things that would "inspire hope and confidence in our younger generation”: The government stepping in to help; young Singaporeans helping themselves by working hard and persevering; and learning financial literacy.

Mr Ng also addressed earlier comments from fellow candidate Tan Kin Lian that he would use the so-called “soft power” of the presidency to influence policies.

“I think for soft power to be exercised, the soft power must have some expertise and some credibility,” said Mr Ng.

“Secondly, that soft power has got to be exercised within closed doors because it’s not the responsibility of the President to make policies. It is not the business of the President to make trouble for the government, so any advice I have to give as President should be exercised gently and behind closed doors.”

Separately, when asked if he had any potential appointees in mind for the Council of Presidential Advisers should he be elected, Mr Ng said he had “two or three names" but declined to say who they were.

The President must consult the council before he or she exercises his or her discretionary powers on fiscal matters related to Singapore’s past reserves and the appointment of key public office holders.

The council comprises eight members and two alternate members. Three members are appointed by the President at the President’s discretion.

Mr Ng added: “I do not want to announce them because I need to take into account the advice of the Council of Presidential Advisers, so it’s a premature question for me to answer.”

Later on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Ng visited  non-profit organisation Taman Bacaan – also known as the Singapore Malay Youth Library Association – where he participated in a discussion with members of the Malay-Muslim community.

They included one of his assentors, former presidential hopeful Mohamed Salleh Marican, as well as Taman Bacaan president Abdul Halim Kader.

Mr Ng spoke again about the problems faced by youths while recounting how his childhood neighbourhood of Kangkar was a “hotbed of gangsterism” in the 1950s and the 1960s. Youths today are "vulnerable to other risks", he said.

"All youths are vulnerable (to) the negative effects of social media," he added.

"But Malay youths are particularly vulnerable, from what I know, of the risk of radicalisation, of the risk of addiction," he said.

Mr Ng asked the participants to help him understand this challenge and how he should "go about thinking about it".

“One of the things that I would like to see if I become President is – it’s a good thing in Singapore for each of our communities to self-help … But wouldn't it be even better and more powerful if we have interracial help?” he added.

“That will send a very powerful message that we not only care for ourselves, our own community, we care for all the community.”