Dr Tony Tan expressed his "disappointment" at the online community for engaging in the spreading of "rumours" about his son
By Philip Tan
Contributor
For much of the past week, Singapore netizens have been in uproar over the alleged ‘preferential treatment’ given to Dr Patrick Tan Boon Ooi while he was serving his National Service. Dr Patrick Tan is the son of presidential candidate Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, a former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence.
It has been revealed that Dr Patrick Tan was granted a 12-year disruption from full-time National Service, during which he obtained a medical degree. However, instead of serving as a combat Medical Officer like most qualified doctors, Dr Patrick Tan was assigned to the Defence Medical and Environmental Research Institute (DMERI), serving in the vocation of “Defence Scientist” for the remainder of his full-time NS liability.
It is not the first time that there has been a debate about children of influential people being given preferential treatment during NS. Some years ago, Cedric Foo, who was Minister of State for Defence, admitted in Parliament that MINDEF had an official “white horse” classification prior to 2000. Mr Foo claimed that the “white horse” classification existed to single out the sons of the rich and powerful so that they would not receive preferential treatment.
“All NSmen are treated equally and are deployed in vocations and units based on SAF operational requirements, their medical classification, and their academic and military performance. No NSmen has been accorded special privileges. Prior to year 2000, the term ‘white horse’ was used to identify sons of influential persons to ensure such enlistees were not given preferential treatment. And their medical classification and vocation assignments are scrupulously fair,” said Mr Foo in reply to a question tabled by former Non-Constituency MP Steve Chia.
MINDEF has been known to be completely unwilling to allow for NS disruptions or deferments on personal or compassionate grounds in the past. A case in point would be that of Ike See, a talented violinist who was offered a music scholarship to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in the United States. However, MINDEF rejected his request for deferment, putting his plans into a tailspin.
NS is a hated but respected institution in Singapore because it represents a rite of passage that every Singaporean male has to go through. It is a great social equaliser because it forces those from rich and influential backgrounds to interact with people from more disadvantaged backgrounds on a daily basis, subject to the same regimen of strict military discipline. NS is non-negotiable; there are no exceptions. Or so we thought.
The Office of Dr Tony Tan offered a feeble explanation as to how his son had made contributions to Singapore. Claiming that there were “multiple service pathways for NSmen after BMT”, Dr Tan’s administrators went on to assert that Dr Patrick Tan had made significant contributions through his research work. “In line with his research at medical school in genomics, (Dr Patrick Tan’s) research work focused on melioidisis, a disease involving abcesses, pneumonia or blood poisoning caused by a soil-borne bacteria… which was a concern to MINDEF because it was affecting soldiers in the field and is a potential bio-terrorism threat”.
The fact that Dr Patrick Tan made significant contributions to MINDEF is unquestionable – it could even be argued that someone with his background and education would have been expected to make contributions. However, this is a moot point, as the issue in question is whether or not he was entitled to preferential treatment. Many other talented Singaporeans have had to serve their NS in vocations which did not allow them to utilise their skills or knowledge – almost everyone knows of a highly-trained doctor, lawyer, engineer or researcher who had to serve as ordinary riflemen.
The question really is: If Dr Patrick Tan was not the son of Dr Tony Tan, would he have been allowed a 12-year disruption from full-time NS? And would he have been allowed to serve out the remainder of his NS liability as a “defence medical scientist” at DMERI? If these issues continue to be sidestepped, the integrity of NS as a whole could risk being called into question – the morale of both servicemen and reservists could be affected, and more importantly, the incorruptible image of Singapore’s leaders will be placed in doubt.
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The author is a former Singapore Armed Forces regular. He obtained the Local Study Award (LSA) to study engineering at the Nanyang Technological University, and subsequently served four years as an infantry platoon commander and instructor at the Basic Military Training Centre. He is now working in the private sector.
patrick tan was defered for medical studies and whatever the length of his deferment he should have served as a field medical officer.his research should be done concurrently with him serving as MO during nsf. during reservist he was not made to serve as MO. there are drs who were not allowed deferment and during reservist they were compelled to go thru mocc and serve as MO.it is ridiculous he was allowed deferment and yet he was not made to serve as MO during active and reservist days. his cv did not list any housemanship posting and so he is not fully registered medical dr. it is ridiculous to defer for medical studies and end up not fully registered. it seems it was a delibrate ploy not to do houseman so that he is not fully registered and do not need to serve as MO. blatant white horse treatment so he can serve nsf in air con comfort furthering his own career.
Dr Phoney Tan should just withdraw from the PE elections now.
If more skeletons are dug up during the campaign, he will really look very bad for the next 5 years if elected. How can Singapore have a disgraced President?
TT is drawing a lot of flak from the online social media, rightfully so, for his son’s 12 years NS evasion, but also – rightly or wrongly – for his management of GIC’s reserves.
However, before readers flog TT indiscriminately, it may be useful to understand how GIC operates.
GIC Group CIO, Ng Kok Song gave a very detailed exposition of GIC’s history, its objectives, strategy and modus operandi in an exclusive interview to the Yale School of Management in Oct 2008. The interview is at:
http://qn.som.yale.edu/content/how-does-sovereign-wealth-fund-operate
Given GIC’s traditional secrecy, this interview is quite an eye opener.
My son is a Canadian citizen. I sent him back here to do his NS so that he will not be a fugitive from the Singapore laws. Towards the end of his NS I applied to Mindef for 3 months deferment so that he could start his University in UBC. I was prepared to put up a monetary bond for him to come back and complete the rest of his liabilities during his summer holidays. MINDEF flatly refused. The words still ring in my ears.
“The Mindef rules apply to EVERYONE and we will not make any exceptions”
NOW THIS!!
Singaporeans. You are now going to the polls to vote for the highest office in the nation. Vote wisely.
I feel so cheated. Some people have not shame. I would drop from the presidential race if I were him. I wonder what shenanigans occur without our knowledge and which other “VIP”s son are getting special treatment. Had it not for TT standing for election, there would still be wool in our eyes.
What else would the RP do next? Would they authorise preferential treatment for ministers’ children they way they have authorised high salaries to keep their appointment holder clean?
Silent Majority,
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for a few good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke.
@Liz
Well quoted! Edmund Burke also said “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” I just hope native Singaporeans take note of this.
Let’s leave Dr Patrick Tan alone. These are his private matters and as a private citizen he should be entitled to his privacy just like everyone else.
Dr Patrick Tan is not a candidate in the Presidential Election and he is not a politician. He is a scientist. Let’s not fall prey to hatred and bitterness and end up making things difficult for him.
Goalscorer,
Yes you are right, Dr Patrick Tan is a private citizen, but it seems from the information gathered thus far that he was enabled and advantaged by his father who was a public figure then and now is a public figure since he is running for a high level public position. So, this is about public interest and did Dr Patrick Tan enjoy privileges that would otherwise be denied if he had been an ordinary citizen? So, he is fair game.
Please, if white horses were not to be advantaged, why the policy to identify them? Wouldn’t anonymity result in fair and equal treatment? And are there other cases where a potential soldier was awarded a 12-year deferrment?
Patrick Tan has no shame and shirked his national service liability, why should be leave him alone? Even if he is shielded by the powers that be, he cannot be shielded from the opinion of Singaporeans. Let him hang his head in shame for a few years for the many good years of privilege. Hopefully if Patrick has a son, his son will have more backbone than him. May Patrick not make the same decision that TT made in allowing his son to be lesser than a man than he is capable of being.
Update:
The Govt has decided not to pursue this as they did the Mervyn Tan affair. It also appears that application to disrupt was not made to pursue medicine and therefore this was not the medical pathway where the chap has to come back and do MOCC. However as a non bonded President scholar this is not allowed. There is also no question that he took up scholarship and then gave it up plus the portion of the bond. The practice is to immediately cancel the disruption as happened in the past to others. There have been cases where bonded scholars gave up the scholarship and had to stop their tertiary education in Oxbridge and return to complete their NS.
Another story has now emerged. The posting was made tailor-made as PT was keen to pursue in the direction of the course and the appropriate lab and equipment was not in any MINDEFSO facilities. The name under DMERI was purely to reflect his NS liability status. This reminds me of the case where the Head of Civil Service whose son did not fare well in his A level, re- did it again, got OMS and now in Admin Service.
There is also some rumblings over the biowarfare comments.
Looks like TT will be President after all, the son who did 7 months of actual NS will be having regular meals at the Istana while the rest who did their full NS will have to hold their dick tight and live with it.
Not good enough. We need a proper explanation. If necessary, form an official inquiry into the case. Cannot simply shrug it off and claim “it cannot be helped”. We need to have transparency.
I guess Tony loved his son so much that he did it for him. Now he has to pay the the price for his love. He must withdraw from the EP campaign in order not to put further shame on the Singapore elistist club members.
a proper explanation is needed. this is a huge debacle. people deserve to know the truth. hopefully the government can be transparent about this, or it will just cause more resentment.
Well.. it’ll just be treated like the Chip off the Temasick affair… ignored.
There are many ways to serve the country. It is not just about digging trenches and going for live firing at the range. If someone is well-qualified and possesses unique knowledge and skills, why not make the best use of it and get him to contribute in a more meaningful way?
Besides, he already had to do 7 months of digging trenches in BMT and OCS.
He then went to study abroad for 12 years. If you are the SAF, when you can make use of his 12 years of knowledge, why not make use of it? What’s the use of his 12 years of studies if you are going to make him do silly things like give MCs to chao recruits and conduct FFI for ORD personnel?
1. He was a medical RESEARCHER with a PhD, not just an ordinary medical degree. There are many medical practitioners with medical bachelor but hardly any medical researchers.
2. He was admitted in Stanford which has very stringent selection criteria for PhD candidates. Even qualified medical practitioners may not be able to get in this programme.
3. He worked on melioidosis during PhD which is RELEVANT to SAF at that time. He might’ve been instructed by SAF or DSO to take that up. If not, he could’ve done something more “glam” like cancer.
4. He came back and helped to set up in DSO some special technical capabilities which is a specialty in Stanford. This is not something any usual medical graduate can contribute.
5. He was a President scholar which is very stringent scholarship in itself. On top of that, he was concurrently a recipient of LCK which is also an extremely competitive and very selective scholarship. That makes 2 highly-sought scholarships.
With these points in mind, it’s obvious that there are many merits in Patrick’s case. All the points above can stand on their own without TT in the picture. If anyone has the same merits and passion to contribute to SAF/DSO’s capabilities, they can make a case to CMPB. This is purely a HR decision to tap on an individual with relevant talents to enhance capabilities relevant to SAF. It’s no different when top sportsman are granted leave of absence.
But it’s certainly different from mere deferment due to MO studies or postings without rhyme nor reason. So, don’t muddle up issues. That must be clear.
Then like that might as well let everyone defer their studies to work or study until they have a stable income or an impressive resume. So everyone can serve NS in whatever vocation they want. Right?
Whatever scholarship he had was not required, its for face value, his parents could easily afford them, we pay them so.
Flawed BS logic is flawed. He should have been made to do menial jobs or chiong sua then think of what’s next after NS like the rest of us.
You miss the point.
PT wasn’t deferred so that he could’ve a chance to prove himself. He was deferred according to his outstanding merits. He has already proven himself through stringent selections in PSC and LCK, in his performance at school in both scholastic pursuits and others.
Don’t muddle up the issue. If someone else can convince CMPB of his outstanding merits and relevance to SAF, surely he’ll also be deferred. It is based on case by case merits.
Yes, although there have been cases of outstanding individuals who defer NS for undergrad studies, deferring NS for postgrad studies is unheard of.
In fact, even the fact that he was granted disruption because of his achievements as a PSC cannot be clearly verified.
Try reading this: http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/08/03/more-questions-for-dr-patrick-tan/
I’d like to see what sort of arguments you have for it.
It’s not the point of whether his research was ‘defence’ related or not. It’s the fact that any other equally capable person would most likely not be given this sort of opportunity to pursue his pHD with NS deferred, and work as a researcher to fulfil his ‘NS’ requirements
Find me another PSC who deferred in a similar fashion as he did
“It’s the fact that any other equally capable person would most likely not be given this sort of opportunity”
That’s a very big statement. How is it a fact? You have concrete irrefutable proof of that statement.
“Find me another PSC who deferred in a similar fashion as he did”
In fact, I’ve heard there are scholars who return at 28 from the same site you quoted. That’s a full 10 years, so that’s easily postgraduate Masters, if not PhDs. They are overseas scholars, not Presidents scholars. It really depends on merit. You need to sit down calmly and think objectively.
The requirement is who is your father…..
meloidosis is very very rare but highly lethal. it almost never affect young people and it is not transmissble person to person.it does not tolerate exposure to air and thus not easily made into bio weapons. so why is it of military intersest? patrick tan was allowed to defer for medical studies so he should serve as a field medical officer irregardless of the length of his deferment. his cv does not include any housemanship posting. i would guess he did not even apply for any housemanship so that he is not fully registered and thus unable to serve as MO. deferment to study medicine means he is obligated to serve as a combat MO unless he is physically unift.any research to be done can done concurrently with him being a MO.also there are plenty of infectious disease specialist drs who can do do research as part of their reservist ns service .
meloidosis almost never affects young people below 45 years age. it is not transmissble person to person. it does not tolerate air exposure so it is not easy to weaponize it . so how is it of military interest ?patrick tan was allow to defer so he should serve as a combat MO like everyone else allowed to defer. any research to be done can done concurrently with him being a nsf MO. his cv does not show any housemanship posting so he is not registered with smc . it is ridiculous that he was allowed to defer to study medicine and yet not be fully registered. did he skip housemanship so he does not have to serve as MO? why was his deferment not cut short when it is clear he would not be able to serve as a combat MO?
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I’m not convinced that he made significant contributions, of all his publications, he isn’t the 1st author or the 2nd author. Plus, he received grants for his studies, so where are his publications?
Can we have an independent body that will audit MINDEF on the NS disruptions and length of disruptions that it has given especially to the children of politicians, senior civil servants and the rich. The confidence and trust is the government machinery has been eroding with each passing day.
Also audit PSD on the number of scholarships it has given out to the children politicians, rich and senior civil servants. I am very sure the numbers would be very high since there is no transparency or accountability by the government. They sure hide a lot of things from the people.
Disappointment with the numerous corrupt practices that favours the ruling party and its cronies. The day the PAP opens it books to the public on all matters, then we can say that we have a True and honest government that cares for its people.
Let’s get the CDF TO EXPLAIN clearly the criteria and also to clarify if dr pat is being accorded special treatment. And if so, who is responsible and account for the lapse.
There is no doubt that there is a perception of “white horse” treatment here. Add to that Cedric Foo’s statement in parliament that the “white horse” folder was started to ensure that they do NOT get preferential treatment. Dr Tony Tan is therefore either guilty of ensuring his son get preferential treatment, or guilty of incompetence in ensuring his son did not enjoy “white horse” treatment.
Tony Tan should do the honourable thing and withdraw from the Presidential Election.
How can someone who does this sort of thing be a President?
It’s just not right. Even if it is legally OK, morally it is not right.
Dr TT did not initiate the ‘special treatments’ for his son, but he surely did not mind his son getting them. In fact, he maybe very glad that his reportees exercise self-initiative to take care of ‘business’ for their big boss.
Does this make Dr TT less ‘guilty’?
” Mr Foo claimed that the “white horse” classification existed to single out the sons of the rich and powerful so that they would not receive preferential treatment.”
I have my doubt to the above statement. Those who have been admitted to NS and especially those who were based in Tekong or Nee Soon taking charge of new recruits will know the “WHOLE TRUTH”.
The fact that our ministers and ministers of states can publish such passing statements make me really worry for the future. Do they not know that there are fellow Singaporeans in the platoon or camp?
I did my full share of 2.5 years NS and the full 13 year Reservist cycle, liable up to 50 years of age, picking up several physical injuries during ICT. My son has completed his NS and will remain liable for decades. He’s got his fair share of injuries too.
Many Singapore families have gone through similar grueling paths without too much vocal complaints. Grin and bear it, for the security of the country. Rite of passage and all that crap.
This is a BETRAYAL of our trust in NS, Mindef, and the government. The decent thing to do is to give a decent answer. Can the presidential hopeful do the decent thing?
The principle of White Horse policy is to enusre that whaite horses are not favoured in any way,so far,it does not seem to work,perhaps PAP should come up with Dark horse policy or whatever.
PAP should be doing itself and Singapore citizens a great favour if it were to start singing the tune that this is an unfair world and we have to learn to live with it,it is the actual situation,rather than trying to spend so much energy to claim that it is a very fair world under PAP,it brings temporary satisfaction and praise from some silly citizens,but the cost is much higher.
It is time to get real!
This may be an excellent opportunity for an important leader to make that clear to the citizens and foreign talents if they are on the way to become our citizens.
The question really is: If Dr Patrick Tan was not the son of Dr Tony Tan, would he have been able to still make the significant medical contributions he did? Could you have done it?
white horse anyone?
It is clear and present favouritism, and not all the hand-waving by Tony Tan will dismiss it. They will not give an honest and direct answer, because they are hypocrites. Everyone who can, get out as soon as possible.
“Mr Foo claimed that the “white horse” classification existed to single out the sons of the rich and powerful so that they would not receive preferential treatment.”
This guy Mr FOO is aptly named. You wonder who is he trying to FOOl .
Serious, they should stop insulting our intelligence, not that lesser mortals are daft and stupid.
Foo Mee, Har?
There are many unfair thing happening in the army camp. Take for example LHL.
If one is a nobody, you are expected to die for the country.
If one is a son of the first class citizens (4 legs good, 2 legs better), someone else’s son is expected to die for you.
That’s the kind of Singapore we are having today.
At least with all the research done by Patrick, you shouldn’t die of melioidosis. Maybe an exploding AGL propellent will kill you, or you could die during navex or IPPT, but you’ll be safe from melioidosis.