SINGAPORE - Businessman and presidential hopeful George Goh has heard many “angry people” complain about the criterion for private-sector candidates to enter the presidential race.

A candidate needs to have run a company with $500 million in shareholder equity for three years, and Mr Goh says some people think this makes it too difficult for anyone to qualify. They also feel that the criterion for public-sector candidates should be raised in the same vein, he adds.

But Mr Goh, who made known his intention to run for president in June, takes a more sanguine view of the criterion put in place in 2016 to take into account the growth of the economy and the national reserves.

To him, it helps to separate the wheat from the chaff.

“I did some thinking. Okay, you raised the bar so high. What it means to say is that the one who can come forward, can take (the public-sector candidate) on any time. He’s really like Mike Tyson. He must be the heavyweight,” he says, comparing the private-sector candidate to the iconic American boxer.

“Do you know why he’s the heavyweight? It’s because they never raised the bar (for public-sector candidates), that means they’re still at middleweight, right?”

In an hour-long interview with The Straits Times, Mr Goh talks about how his private-sector experience gives him an edge over presidential hopeful and former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

On the president’s job scope and whether he is up to the task:

I looked at the job scope of the president. No. 1, a ceremonial role… who is coming in, who is going out, who is supposed to be sent out, who is supposed to come in, it’s all been prepared very well beforehand… and we already had the system for many, many years. This ceremonial role, anyone can do the job.

No. 2, a community role. You can be a guest of honour, you can champion certain good causes to encourage more individuals and institutions to participate. For this role, you would need to be a bit of a ground person, and you must have some idea about the history of charity. I set up one charity foundation with my wife in 2015. I was on the ground for the last eight years working directly with the beneficiaries and working directly with people with disabilities.

Now, I come to the third (role) and this is the hardest one. The two key functions are very important: safeguarding the reserves, and the key appointments. 

Safeguarding the reserves… it’s only when it comes to withdrawals of the reserves, the president has the second key to look into it. When you’re going to make a withdrawal, you must fully understand how the funds are moving about. For me, because I’m from the private sector and not from the establishment, I will look at the figure more objectively. I’m not worried about (being) part of (the establishment).

As for key appointments, to me, the most difficult part is conflict of interest. In the private sector, we are very particular about this. We will never want to be put in a conflict position, especially for higher-level staff. For example, if the CEO brings in his relative to be the director of accounts… we would definitely say no. I will look at (the people) quite independently, because I’m not in the system… it’s only the people from outside, such as the independent candidates, who can look at this more objectively.

On unifying young people:

I can only use my whole life to show the young people. I will tell the young people that (one), I’m not a scholar... but it is okay, find your way to make it in life. Two, my whole family background, where I came from. You know that 80 per cent of the people in Singapore are what we call ordinary people. We all are ordinary people. There’s a small little group of elites... We don’t want to compete with them. So if I can be an inspiration, to (have the young people say): “Eh, George Goh was from an ordinary family, he can make it, I think we can also.” 

On wearing his faith on his sleeve:

I do not see this as a problem. When you’re born in an environment with multi-religions… you know everybody has his own religion. So nobody is going to say: “I want to be friends with you because you are a Christian.” There’s no such thing. You also won’t say: “Oh, because you are a Muslim, let’s not go into a restaurant or whatever.” No such thing. If the nasi biryani is good, you would still go inside.

The president’s role is very clear: You are representing all religions. Whether you are a Muslim or whether you are a Hindu, you are representing everyone. You have to be very clear about your role.

On Tharman and the edge that private-sector candidates have:

Tharman’s whole life is the public sector, his whole life. From school till now, he only knows about the public sector.

The private sector, when you have a $500 million equity, most likely, your organisation is across quite a lot of international companies in a lot of countries. You have to meet international bankers, lawyers, auditors and politicians. So we know how to deal with these groups of people. 

I built my whole entire career up from the bottom. My structure is built up from the basement… to this level – $3.15 billion in (market value). That speaks a thousand words, volumes. And I crossed 17 countries (and territories) from the US to India, to China, Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and even Macau. You know very well how the system works, if not, you cannot (set) up in so many countries in the world.

Nevertheless, I have been an honorary ambassador to Morocco for seven years. I met quite a lot of people... ranging from the king’s adviser to the Moroccan royal family, to the Prime Minister and other ministers, and our Foreign Minister (who) visited Morocco. I met so many agencies in Singapore during my stint as ambassador. 

So if you combine the two – public service where I (served) a few years, and 41 years in the private sector. If you look at my opponent, he only has one, the public sector. Where is his experience in the private sector? He doesn’t have it.

If you’re a public figure, every time you talk about (the) world stage (experience)... but does this job require you to have world stage (experience) or not? This job, you cannot even go out and talk about policy any more because the president does not talk about policy. I worry about your old habit, it’ll create two centres of power. That is my worry, because when you think you are very good, you go outside, all your old habits all come back. That is not good.

On being mentioned in the leaked Panama Papers financial documents:

For me, you don’t have to worry. When I was appointed Singapore’s ambassador to Morocco, I had to submit all my organisation papers to them. I put down which are the companies, doing what. You have to declare. If something goes wrong and they find out, there would not be a need to consider you as an ambassador.

We have only one company now (registered in the British Virgin Islands), it’s in property development, only one. It’s legitimate.

On allegations that he treats employees badly and unfairly docks their pay:

Of course, when these things come out, I have to check with all the subsidiaries on every single part we invest in. The good news is that no such policy was written in all the companies. I’m very scared of HR (human resources) kiang jiu jo, mai ge kiang (Hokkien for being too smart for their own good). So, fortunately enough, there is no such policy in HR that says minus here, chop here, chop there.

But between the HR, sometimes the staff have some differences like how many days, actually, you’re really on leave? Oh, is this considered being on leave or not? This, you leave to the staff to sort out among themselves. Of course, sometimes the staff is correct, sometimes the HR manager is correct. It depends on them.

On rumours of his links with the Progress Singapore Party:

I am not involved in any political party.