My understanding was that there was a movement to get rid of the old guard and put in the new cronies which were cut from the same cloth as Gay loong, i.e. scholar generals like TCJ and CCS and more. Old guard pushed back because they felt the next gen was not ready and not good enough. when u look at some one like wooden, he rose to the top of his profession and ran one of the top shipping companies on his own merit. He proved that he could run one of the largest companies in singapore with some degree of success until he was tapped to be PeeM. As it looks now, the next PeeM might be another scholar general, and what has he done on his own merit? Its easy to wear stars and order people around. But I digress. As part of the movement to oust the old gen, idiots like TPL were parachuted in to make the results closer then they should have been for Wooden. The CEC used the poor polling results to confront Wooden and he even then he resisted. After further bribery as shake leg Emeritus Senile Minister with a million $ plus salary, he agree to go into the night, relinquish his Senile Minister position (which actually has some power) and take the jiak liao bee ESM position and collect just his MP salary.
