SINGAPORE - Weeks before former GIC investment chief Ng Kok Song announced his decision to contest in the upcoming presidential election, there had been chatter on the ground that an “establishment candidate” would soon emerge.

With former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and businessman George Goh having declared their intention to run for office, the story goes that the Government would engineer a three-cornered fight to help ensure Mr Tharman’s victory.

Asked about who put him up to join the presidential race, Mr Ng quips: “I put myself up to this.”

The 75-year-old says it saddens him that some say he is doing so just to split votes. “I’m doing this because I think it is for the good of our country. It is good for the credibility of the office of the president that there should be an election. So I’m standing to ensure that there is an election,” he says, adding that he has spent 45 years in the public service, and has worked with ministers as part of his job, but he has never belonged to any political party.

“We must be careful to distinguish between public service and political office... We must distinguish between the establishment, governing party and political party,” he says.

Speaking to The Straits Times shortly after announcing his decision to run in the election, he answers questions about his motivations, the reserves and his investment company.

On going up against former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Mr Tharman is very well known in Singapore... I am relatively unknown because all my life, I’ve stayed out of politics. I just concentrated on my work in the GIC. I was an investment professional; I didn’t want to be in the limelight. That’s the way it was.

I’m an underdog; it is a good situation to be in.

Mr Tharman is a very good friend of mine. We worked together for many years. I respect him and I’m running for president because he wants it!

On giving people a choice

I want the people to have the chance to choose. It is not good for the presidency that there should be another walkover. For there to be an election, there must be at least two qualified candidates.

I do not know for sure, but I think I can qualify to be the second candidate so that, at least, the people of Singapore say: “Okay, there are two candidates to choose from.”

On why Singapore is so secretive about the size of its reserves

Our reserves are our financial defence. They form part of our Total Defence. We have our military defence, we have our economic defence... for the survival and the resilience of Singapore.

When Kuwait was invaded by Iraq under Saddam Hussein, what saved Kuwait was not only the Americans who helped them get back their country. It was also because Kuwait had considerable foreign exchange reserves, and they were therefore able to use some of the reserves to pay for the American war effort against Iraq.

After the war, they also spent maybe US$40 billion or US$50 billion to reconstruct the country. So that’s one example of what I refer to as financial defence.

Another way our reserves act as our financial defence is that our financial reserves are the solid backing behind the stability and strength of the Singapore dollar.

All Singaporeans are happy with a strong Singapore dollar because when we go overseas, we can afford things because our currency is strong.

So what is the reason for the strength of our currency? It is because Singapore saves money, and people know that we have an AAA credit rating because of the reserves that we have accumulated.

From time to time, the financial markets will test the Singapore dollar.

In 1985, when I was in charge of the foreign exchange market operations at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), there was a speculative attack on the Singapore dollar because our economy was then in a recession.

So the speculators thought the Singapore dollar was going to go down. They were testing us.

Fortunately, we had our reserves and Dr Goh Keng Swee, who was then in charge at the MAS, told me: “Kok Song, stop the speculation. We must not allow our currency to be undermined.”

So we used a little bit of our reserves. We challenged the speculators. They ran away, they lost money. So it’s also about the defence of the Singapore dollar.

When you understand these two reasons for financial defence – when you go to war against an enemy, or against speculators in a foreign exchange market – do you want to reveal how much resources you have? Of course, we shouldn’t. Every country has its secrets. Our financial reserves are our secret, but that is not to say that we are totally opaque or unaccountable.

The president, for example, has the right to know and he knows the size of our total reserves, but it is not in the national interest to disclose it to the world because we may have hostile people out there.

On setting up an investment company and getting business from the Government

When I retired from the GIC eight years ago... many organisations, endowments, foundations and government agencies approached me.

They said: “Kok Song, can you please come and serve on our investment committee, chair our investment committee?” There were so many of these requests.

I said: “There’s only one Kok Song; he cannot sit on so many committees.”

So that was the genesis for me thinking: Maybe the best way I can help other Singapore organisations, endowments, foundations and family offices to invest their money better is for me to set up my investment company.

At the same time, having spent so many years in MAS and in the GIC helping to build up our financial centre... I wanted to do one more thing, which is to set up Singapore’s first indigenous fund management company so that our financial centre does not just have foreign fund managers.

So I set up Avanda Investment Management. We now employ 50 people, practically all Singaporeans.

So if you have a Singapore company, a small company like ours, what we want when we go to government organisations is to be given a chance to compete for business.

I’m a small Singapore company. I have to compete against the giants, global fund management firms such as BlackRock and Schroders.

So should the Government discriminate against a local company? I’m not asking you to favour me, I said: “Just give me a chance.” And I said: “With my experience in the GIC, I have a track record as good as those of the foreign fund managers.”

So it is very important that small local companies like Avanda should be given the opportunity. We should not be discriminated against when it comes to getting business from government-related agencies.

On whether he can be independent as executive chairman of Avanda

If I get elected as president, I will divest all of my private businesses. I have to, because I do not want to be beholden to anyone.

But we will cross the bridge when we come to it. Right now, I’m not the president. I have a business to run, I have to keep my company going because we have got 50 staff at Avanda.

On whether he will qualify, and what he will do if he does not

It’s not clear-cut (that I will qualify). But one of the things you learn from meditation is detachment – whatever you do, you do it to the best of your ability, and then you are unconcerned about the outcome.

That gives you peace of mind, that you do the best you can with the best of intentions.

But quite often, in life, even with the best of intentions, the outcome is beyond your control. So the outcome of whether I am indeed eligible to stand for president is beyond my control. It’s too late to do anything; what I have done is on the record.

A benefit of meditation is that I’m at peace.

If I win, it would be the greatest honour that my country can give me – to be able to serve the people of Singapore one more time at this stage of my life.

If I do not win, if Tharman wins, I will be happy that Tharman has become president with a mandate from the people, and the presidency would be honoured.

But I’ll be most happy that the people of Singapore get the chance to choose their president and that it’s not a walkover.