George Goh on family time, running for election and his thoughts on his potential competitors

AsiaOne

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.

Transcript

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]

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