President Ong went most unwillingly
Singapore's ex-president was asked to take a bow
FORMER Singapore president Ong Teng Cheong, 63, left his post a less than happy man, one who would have preferred to remain head of state and not return to the mundane life of his family's architectural firm.
In January, Ong told PM Goh Chok Tong that he wanted to run again in the August presidential polls.
The former PAP stalwart and deputy prime minister was given the go-ahead in principle, but was told to get a medical exam - he had been diagnosed with cancer in 1992. Ong complied and got reports from a local doctor and a US specialist.
Their investigations reportedly gave him a relatively clean bill of health, but evidently left enough concern that the government recommended that he not stand again for the job - a decision that greatly annoyed the president.
As Ong weighed his options, Goh and his cabinet quietly made the decision to put former security head and diplomat S. R. Nathan up for the job.
Ong kept his thoughts so private that the government began to worry - its initial soundings indicated that the popular and independent-minded Ong would most likely easily defeat Nathan.
As a fallback plan, Goh's team lined up an alternative, lower-profile candidate than Nathan - and one who would be less prickly for them to deal with than Ong.
If the president decided to run again, this star of a lesser magnitude could be put up as the sacrificial lamb.
At the last moment, Ong decide not to contest the election and Nathan's name was promptly put forward. It was a deeply unhappy episode which left Ong bitter and Goh upset about having left the impression that he had let his former PAP colleague down.