Lee Hsien Yang congratulates President-elect Tharman, says the latter needs to be the independent president he said he would be, and speak truth to power

SINGAPORE: Lee Hsien Yang took to social media on Sunday (Sept 3) night, congratulating President-elect Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

In a Facebook post, the younger brother to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote that Mr Tharman will “represent Singapore very impressively on the global stage”.

“In Singapore, he needs to be the independent president he said he would be, and speak truth to power. I wish him all the best”, said Mr Lee.

Among those who commented on Mr Lee’s Facebook post was Mr S Nallakaruppan, one of the candidates the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) fielded in Nee Soon during the 2020 General Elections.

Mr Nallakaruppan said: “Yes, we should give our strong support to Mr Tharman, who had a landslide mandate, & he could be the strongest Unifying President Singapore has ever known with his “Respect for All” core message to fellow Singaporeans”.

Here’s what others commented:

Mr Lee’s comments come after Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan have sued him in the High Court for defamation over his Facebook comments about their rental of two black-and-white Ridout Road bungalows.

66-year-old Tharman Shanmugaratnam scored a landslide win with 70.4 per cent of the ballot, beating fellow candidates Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian, both 75, who received 15.72 per cent and 13.88 per cent of the vote, respectively.

Mr Tharman said the result was a real positive for Singapore and that he had not expected “such remarkable unity”. /TISG

Shanmugam and Balakrishnan sue Lee Hsien Yang over Ridout Road allegations