PE 2023: ‘Horrid’ or ‘not wrong’? Tan Kin Lian's ‘pretty girls’ posts draw sharp reactions; some say PEC can't police morality
SINGAPORE — A viral TikTok video of presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian’s past Facebook posts about “pretty girls” has sparked strong reactions from critics and supporters alike on whether it is acceptable behaviour for someone seeking the country's highest office.

Mr Tan Kin Lian pictured in his home on Aug 19, 2023.
- A video clip of presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian's Facebook posts on "pretty girls" has sparked strong reactions from critics and supporters alike
- Critics said the "horrid" posts are not acceptable behaviour for someone seeking the country's highest office
- Supporters said there is nothing wrong with the posts and that he is not objectifying women
- Public figures also chime in on whether the Presidential Elections Committee can act as "morality police"
- One political analyst said that the debate has “unnecessarily ensnared the committee in unsavoury controversies over an applicant’s ethical and moral standing”
SINGAPORE — A viral TikTok video of presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian’s past Facebook posts about “pretty girls” has sparked strong reactions from critics and supporters alike, on whether it is acceptable behaviour for someone seeking the country's highest office.
Lawyer Stefanie Yuen Thio said that she is “offended and appalled” by Mr Tan's posts.
“These are such horrid skin-crawling posts. When called out, he said people find it 'enjoyable' and only a small minority are offended."
Then there are others such as anti-vaccine activist Iris Koh who do not have a problem with Mr Tan's posts.
Writing on Facebook on Tuesday (Aug 22), Ms Koh said that there is “nothing wrong” with calling girls “pretty”.
“Which men don't like pretty girls? Women are like flowers. Their beauty (is) to be admired and praised.”
Some people also weighed in on whether the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) should scrutinise a candidate's social posts before granting him a Certificate of Eligibility.
The Certificate of Eligibility is issued before Nomination Day to a prospective candidate who wishes to stand for the Presidential Election and it is given to those deemed to have qualified to contest.
'HE APPRECIATES BEAUTY'
Mr Tan’s daughter Tan Su Ling came to her 75-year-old father’s defence in a Facebook post on Tuesday. She said that she found the objection raised on Monday by the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), a gender advocacy group, “overblown”.
“I do not think that a light-hearted compliment given to a good-looking person, whether a man or a woman, should ever be equated to 'objectifying' them,” Ms Tan said.
Many of Mr Tan's supporters also find the brouhaha over his Facebook posts unfounded.
Ms Koh, the founder of Healing the Divide, asked in a TikTok video: “Is it a crime for a man to appreciate a woman for her beauty and tell her how pretty she is?
“Well, I believe only insecure women with low self-esteem would think a man is trying to objectify her when he actually compliments her for her looks.”
Online reactions aside, some supporters of Mr Tan who gathered at the nomination centre for the Presidential Election on Tuesday morning told TODAY that they did not see anything wrong with his posts.
Mr Mohamed Jufrie Mahmood, 73, a retiree and former Singapore Democratic Party chairman, said that Mr Tan “appreciates beauty” and posting pictures of women on Facebook and calling them “pretty girls” is “not an issue at all”.
He posed this question to a female journalist: “Are you offended? If I say, eh, ‘pretty girl’, are you offended?”
Opposition party leader Goh Meng Seng of the People’s Power Party said that looking at “pretty girls” is a “minor” issue.
“I think you are losing the whole picture; what the nation needs is an independent separation of powers,” the 53-year-old said.
He cited the example of the recent affair between former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and Ms Cheng Li Hui, former People's Action Party Member of Parliament, and said that Mr Tan Chuan-Jin was allowed to continue as the speaker for about two years even though Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was aware of the affair.
“Which is more serious? We should question that,” Mr Goh added.
'SIMPLY INAPPROPRIATE'
The nine-second TikTok clip in question that featured screenshots of several Facebook posts that Mr Tan Kin Lian had made about women he met around the country was put up last Saturday by TikTok user “spilling SG tea”.
As of Tuesday evening, it has amassed more than 335,000 views, more than 10,000 likes and 360 comments, many of them negative.
Some online users were appalled.
TikTok user “kay !” said: “No one finds this ‘lighthearted and fun’.”
Another with the account name “TayswiftxChuhong_13” remarked:” I’ll not vote for him.”
On online forum Reddit, in a thread discussing Mr Tan Kin Lian’s actions, someone who went by the name “iorchidi” said: “If this was some uncle joking around at a hawker centre, I would not approve but (would) ignore these dated uncle-type comments; but as (an aspiring) head of state in this day and age, it’s simply not appropriate.”
Ms Stefanie Yuen Thio, a managing partner of TSMP Law Corporation, also sees these posts as highly problematic.
Writing on professional networking platform LinkedIn on Monday, she said: “I am offended and appalled. Not just for myself but for all women who are subjected to this objectification. And women are 50 per cent of the voters.”
Her contacts on LinkedIn mostly agreed, with one user named "Jerry Lee" saying: “What !!! This is simply unacceptable and upsetting.”
Ms Thio is also the founder of SG Her Empowerment (SHE), a charity aimed at helping women and girls against online harm.
She put up another LinkedIn post on Tuesday saying that there is nothing wrong with calling a woman “pretty”, but the issue at hand here is the intent behind the presidential candidate’s Facebook posts.
“It denies the whole personhood of the female. It devalues her contribution except as eye candy or to service ageing male health. It is a demeaning depiction of an entire gender.”
PEC IS NOT THE 'MORALITY POLICE'
Amid the controversy, another matter being debated is the role of the PEC and how far it should delve into a candidate’s life before issuing the Certificate of Eligibility.
In a statement on Monday, PEC said that it was unaware of Mr Tan Kin Lian’s social media posts before issuing him his eligibility certificate. And having made its decision, it is not legally allowed to revoke it.
It added that giving him the certificate was not an endorsement of his social media posts.
Aware had earlier called on the committee to “thoroughly consider the broader implications of such endorsements in the future”.
Taking issue with Aware's stance, Madam Ho Ching, former chief executive officer of state investment firm Temasek Holdings, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that it is “not the PEC’s job to go search the internet for this or that posts that the candidates may have done”.
She added that behaviours that are not criminal or chargeable are beyond the scope of the committee to make a moral pronouncement unless it is particularly serious or publicly unseemly.
Mdm Ho, who is also the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, also said that it is “unfair to ask the PEC to be a morality police” and that “ogling at girls in and of itself is human nature” and womanising is not a crime even though society may frown on it.
“So Aware can make its views known in the same channels where they found the posts which they find offensive. Just don’t whine about the PEC and subjective standards of moral rectitude,” Mdm Ho wrote.
Activist and freelance journalist Kirsten Han said that even though she finds Mr Tan Kin Lian’s posts “pretty creepy and gross” and that Aware has “rightly” criticised his behaviour, she does not think that the advocacy group's suggestion that potential candidates be screened by the PEC is a good solution.
“It shouldn't be left up to some elite committee to decide who 'truly upholds values'. What are these values? How to define? Who gets to define?” she added in a post on Facebook.
WHAT POLITICAL ANALYSTS SAY
Political analysts who spoke to TODAY said that it is not the job of the PEC to judge a potential candidate's morality and character based on his social media posts or past comments.
Otherwise, "there will be no end to that”, one of them said. Dr Felix Tan from Nanyang Technological University, whose research interests cover Southeast Asian politics, added that the committee does not need to be that “pedantic” to scour candidates' social media posts.
Instead, it should focus on a “measurable criterion” for a candidate that avoids a “judgement value” that is difficult to determine.
“Candidates’ integrity should be determined and decided by voters themselves,” he said.
Agreeing, Associate Professor Eugene Tan said that it is “next to impossible” for the PEC to scrutinise all social media outputs of applicants.
The law lecturer at Singapore Management University and a former Nominated MP added: “Neither does the law provide for a process for the PEC to receive evidence from people on an applicant’s integrity, character and reputation.
"It is also highly problematic to enable the PEC to do so.”
Assoc Prof Tan added that if this is the case, the PEC would be inundated with feedback and it would not satisfactorily enquire into the feedback.
“In any case, the PEC will not be able to look into the heart of hearts of an applicant.
"So long as there is no evidence to the contrary, the PEC has no discretion to rule that an applicant lacks the requisite integrity, character and reputation.”
Assoc Prof Tan also said that this incident arising from Mr Tan Kin Lian's social media posts has “unnecessarily ensnared the PEC in unsavoury controversies over an applicant’s ethical and moral standing”.
It is therefore timely to re-look the utility and necessity of the constitutional requirement that a candidate be a “person of integrity, good character and reputation”.
“To be clear, the requirement is well-meaning,” Assoc Prof Tan continued.
“Our head of state should be a person of integrity, good character, and reputation.
"The problem lies in making such a judgement given the limitation of time, resources, and the true utility of an assessment that doesn’t really tell us much.”