Opinion: Singapore's Obama Moment With Indian-Origin Tharman Shanmugartnam

When Tharman Shanmugartnam, former senior minister in the Prime Minister's Office, won the presidential elections with a landslide victory of 70.4%, people of all races and persuasions celebrated jubilantly. The magnificent win means he can do so much more than being relegated as senior minister, which is a rather perfunctory role in the ruling party's cabinet. The elected Presidency, though largely a ceremonial role, has the mandate and the legitimacy to lead from the front. Even though he is restricted from weighing in on policy matters, he can use his influence to set sail in a new direction.

In his new role, Tharman has promised to be a president for all and can play a vital role in easing inter-racial tensions that surfaced during the pandemic. His win comes on the back of a major anti-free trade debate in parliament; more specifically, there was a push to review the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) signed with India. This motion was filed by Leong Mun Wai of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) in parliament in September 2021. 

He and his party colleague, Hazel Poa, called for the trade agreement to be abolished. They argued that many cushy Singaporean jobs had been lost to Indian professionals since the CECA was signed in 2005 and that Singapore as an island county with limited space had run out of room for Indian professionals. The move by the two opposition MPs was seen by many political watchers as a rise in nativist agenda that targeted the expatriate Indian community in Singapore. Social media was rife with hate speech, which put the Indian community at risk of communal violence and attacks when the virulent Covid Delta variant hit our shores.