Is Dr Tan Cheng Bock confused?

Dr Tan Cheng Bock seems to be confused about the role of a President. He is making a second bid for President and wants to 'represent all Singaporeans'.

The President of Singapore is the HEAD OF STATE, NOT the representative of Singaporeans.

Is the President a politician? Is he in politics? Is he elected to represent Singaporeans to the Government? Is he the opposition in Parliament? No. No. No. No.

The opposition in Parliament is the Workers' Party. But it looks like many people have forgotten the existence of Workers' Party in Parliament.

The President is not a politician. He does not exist to oppose the government. He is not involved in government. He does not interfere in policy-making.

So what does the President do? Someone asks: Is his job just to wave his hand during each NDP? Of course not.

For want of a better word, we can say that the President is more like a diplomat. A politician represents his constituency for a term while a diplomat REPRESENTS THE NATION.

Thus you see President Tony Tan representing Singapore when the Queen invited him to London. He also receives dignitaries from other countries who come to Singapore and plays host to them and in the process help to further seal the good relations we have with the countries concerned. Just recently he received the former Swiss President Mr Adolf Ogi who led a delegation of Swiss business representatives to explore investment opportunities in this part of the world. (See here: https://www.facebook.com/DrTonyTan/posts/1099966273358225)

But the President is more than a diplomat.

While the role of the President is largely ceremonial, the President is also bestowed with custodial power to ensure the integrity of our key institutions (which include the Auditor-General Office and Attorney-General's Chambers, CPIB etc). He also holds the second key to our reserves and ensures that no rogue government can help itself freely to the reserves.

In addition, President Tony Tan is also involved with the community in various other ways. For example, he is the Chief Scout of the Singapore Scout Association.

Perhaps Dr Tan Cheng Bock just cannot get politics out of him. He did let slip the word 'politics' during his press conference and then quickly corrected himself with 'no politics here'.

One wonders WHY Dr Tan does not clarify the misunderstanding that a huge number of his fans on his facebook seem to have - that the President's role is to take on the Government?

Why does he allow them to continue to misunderstand?