Man With A Vision

Milestone moments, Facebook memories, and Singapore’s most pressing challenges—Tony Tan Keng Yam talks to Hong Xinyi about life after the presidency

- Hong Xinyi

TONY TAN KENG YAM IS PONDERING ONE OF the enduring mysteries of modern life— why do people seem to live their whole lives on the internet these days? “Whenever I attended an event as president, we would usually post something about it on Facebook afterwards. By the time I got around to it, the post might be quite late at night,” he says, a hint of gentle bemusement in his calm, measured voice. “What I found surprising was that almost immediately, the post would get a fl urry of comments.”

We are catching up with him just a little over a month after the end of his six-year term as the seventh president of Singapore, and this observation is just one indication of how seriously he took the task of reaching out to all segments of Singapore society. He left banking and entered politics in 1979, when communicating with the electorate was a much more straightforward affair. By the time he ran for president in 2011, the use of social media was prevalent, Tan recalls.

“I knew it was going to be an important medium. If you want to engage the public, you have to use it.” Some of his posts were written by his Offi ce, but the ones he deemed most personal were signed off with his initials TT. As he chats about the frequency of his posts and changing cover photos to keep people interested, we can’t help but remark that he seems to have taken to the brave new world of the interwebs quite naturally. He demurs the suggestion with a laugh. “I wouldn’t say that. It was quite an effort. And I had a lot of help from younger friends.”