George Goh has a chat with AsiaOne and shares his thoughts on choosing to run for the upcoming Presidential Election as a Private Sector candidate.
He also shares snippets of his family life, and what he intends to do with his businesses if he is elected.
He also shares snippets of his family life, and what he intends to do with his businesses if he is elected.
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00:00 The people must give the chance for both sectors.
00:03 Must give.
00:05 Hi, I'm George.
00:20 I hope to run for this year's presidential election.
00:26 As usual, maybe sometimes 8am. If I'm too tired, then it will be 8.30am.
00:32 It depends on the activity of the night.
00:35 In the morning, I do a quick exercise, a very quick one.
00:37 Then, I will go to my rooftop,
00:43 take my breakfast.
00:45 After that, of course, I will go to my office.
00:47 Then, lunchtime, with my brother,
00:51 we'll travel to Hawker Centre and eat.
00:55 Mainly hawker, because we quite like the hawker food.
00:58 And of course, go all the way to evenings.
01:02 Then, I will make sure to come home to eat my dinner.
01:07 I try not to do too many of this type of social stuff.
01:13 Once a week, we try to bring all the children together,
01:22 have a good meal at night.
01:24 So, the children will share about their work.
01:29 And my youngest one is going to the UK, LSE.
01:33 To me, that is the most precious time for me.
01:35 So, I have a meal with my children.
01:38 Of course, my wife, my father-in-law is joining as well,
01:42 and the dinner as well.
01:44 In 2016, I travelled to Himalaya.
01:50 Of course, the community work is one of the work we are doing there.
01:54 For the poor and needy,
01:55 we're building some infrastructure, like a school.
01:59 Sometimes, we also do some solar panels.
02:03 Because the whole village is without light at night,
02:07 and the children are very difficult to study,
02:09 so we provide solar panels as well.
02:11 You know, there's one village that is totally,
02:13 there's no toilet at all, the whole village.
02:16 So, my people proposed, why don't we build for them?
02:20 So, we did that as well.
02:23 There are three roles.
02:25 One role is quite important, called community role.
02:28 As the president, we should bring more institutions,
02:33 more businessmen,
02:35 or even the so-called rich individuals.
02:40 Try to bring them together to help the society.
02:44 I think, can.
02:46 Which are the areas, like people with disabilities,
02:50 the elderly, you know, our population is getting ageing now.
02:55 So, these are the areas.
02:57 Of course, the poor and needy ones are also a lot now.
03:01 Because of the household income, cannot catch up.
03:06 So, a lot are depending on support by institutions.
03:11 I think, as a president,
03:14 I think we can champion more causes,
03:16 to encourage people to look at the society,
03:20 whether they can come together and help.
03:23 When you decide to run for presidency,
03:28 you more or less, you must prepare yourself.
03:31 If you are elected,
03:33 or your executive position, you have to step down.
03:37 There is no alternative.
03:39 You can't have a conflict of interest.
03:42 You're running an executive as your business continues.
03:45 At the same time, you run the presidential office,
03:48 that's not doable at all.
03:50 Let other people continue.
03:52 I think, as a president, you know, the role is important.
03:56 So, I think you need a lot of time to be focused in this area.
04:00 Especially, you look at the key appointments,
04:03 and protect our so-called safeguard the reserve,
04:06 and other stuff.
04:07 There are many things, a list of things you need to do.
04:12 (upbeat music)
04:15 Currently, we all know there are three candidates,
04:19 maybe four.
04:20 I'm misleading the two horse race, right?
04:23 There's some small group of people was talking about it.
04:26 Maybe they know something I do not know,
04:29 or maybe the fourth candidate,
04:31 or the fifth candidate do not know.
04:34 We must consider.
04:36 There's some good private sector candidates come forward.
04:40 In fact, it's good.
04:42 There will be a new fresh pair of eyes, you know, right?
04:45 They can bring the new, the different perspective into it.
04:50 I think we should encourage.
04:52 We should not confine it's only the private sector.
04:55 Chope, the Istana.
05:00 I don't think this is the right thing to do.
05:02 The people must give the chance for both sector.
05:07 Must give time to change.
05:10 Now, of course, there's a big job for the PEC.
05:14 Very big job this time.
05:16 At least we know now there are two candidates
05:21 is under deliberative.
05:23 One is private sector, one public sector.
05:26 One is the CEO, Chope, the most senior person,
05:30 one is the CIO.
05:32 So they have a big job.
05:34 Let them conduct their job.
05:37 Fairly, if we give everybody a chance,
05:41 whether private or public,
05:46 we should fairly treat them.
05:48 Public sector is already an underdog.
05:54 Not only me.
05:55 Because historically, there is no private sector.
05:58 Maybe private sector candidate,
06:02 very few are qualified.
06:05 The bar is super high.
06:08 Think about it, from 100 million equity to 500,
06:11 how many people can qualify?
06:14 It's very few.
06:16 Then the second question,
06:19 if you have 500 million,
06:22 do you want to go forward?
06:24 You want to come forward?
06:26 You may not want to do that also.
06:29 Right?
06:31 Of course, private sector is always
06:36 have this worry, you know,
06:41 whether they've been welcomed into the system.
06:46 They worry.
06:47 Of course, she's underdog, right?
06:49 It's very clear.
06:50 Not only me, you know,
06:51 I believe all private sector individuals
06:55 will feel the same thing.
06:57 (upbeat music)
07:03 (upbeat music)
07:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]