PE2023: Tan Kin Lian calls criticism of his 'pretty girls' Facebook posts a smear campaign led by 'attack group'

The recent backlash against his "pretty girls" Facebook posts is a "concerted effort" to smear him, presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian said on Tuesday morning (Aug 22).

Tan said that he has been the target of a "smear campaign" over the past few days led by "an attack group that went all out to smear me", and that they sent a few screen shots of his Facebook posts over the past 10 years to the mainstream media. 

In his post, he said that the government leaders cannot build trust if they act in a "dishonorable way".

"They cannot unite the people when they go all out to attack, in an underhand way, the reputation of the people whom they consider to be their opponents. I am not even their opponent," he added in his media statement that was embargoed until 1pm but which he posted on Facebook early this morning.

The former NTUC Income chief executive had occasionally made references to "pretty girls", "pretty joggers" and "pretty slim girls" on his public Facebook page. There have been at least 18 such posts since 2022, and five since the start of 2023.

A TikTok video compiling several of such posts went viral over the weekend.

The Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) said on Monday (Aug 21) it shared the public's concerns that a candidate who has a history of objectifying women has been cleared to participate in the presidential election.

The gender equality group said that consistently posting about "pretty girls", recording videos of women in public without their consent or commenting about their appearance reduces them solely to their appearances for personal entertainment, and suggests that it is acceptable to trivialise women.

But Tan said that "only a small minority" of people are uncomfortable with them.

'Actually, the girls would prefer the attention': Tan

In a livestream on Facebook on Monday night (Aug 21), he wondered why people will consider his posts to be rude.

"What's wrong with looking at pretty girls? Actually, the girls would prefer the attention," he said.

In a statement on the same day, the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) said that they are not aware of Tan's Facebook posts before issuing him the certificate of eligibility.

Granting a certificate of eligibility to Tan therefore could not have amounted to an endorsement of his social media posts, it said on Monday (Aug 21) night.

They added that they are "not legally entitled to revisit its earlier decision".

In his post this morning, Tan said that many of his supporters are concerned about the "negative impact" on his campaign.

"Some of them pledged to work doubly hard to overcome this handicap. Many others said that this is clearly a malicious and unjustified smear effort," he said.

"In spite of this bad incident, I still pledge to work with the government, if I am elected as the president. I will continue my effort to influence the government to change their policies so that the people of Singapore can have a better life."

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chingshijie@asiaone.com