Introduction to the Open Letter to Mr Gan Kim Yong
As Singapore approaches General Election 2025, it is timely to reflect on leadership, governance, and public trust.
This open letter to Mr. Gan Kim Yong — Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and former Chairman of the Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF) — is the fourth I have written to him over the past eight months.
The first three letters, written between August and September 2024, raised serious concerns about the proposed sale of Income Insurance to Allianz. Despite the significance of the issues raised, I received no responses.
Today, Mr. Gan is not only Chair of MAS but also seeking election as the lead candidate of the PAP team in Punggol GRC. In this new role, transparency and engagement with citizens are not optional — they are essential.
Mr Gan’s position in the Allianz-Income episode was pivotal. As MAS Chair, he oversaw regulatory aspects of the deal. As former SLF Chair — during the period when critical capital injections into Income were made to protect its social mission — he was directly involved in shaping the strategic foundations that were later put at risk.
Given his deep institutional knowledge, Mr Gan is uniquely placed to explain how these events unfolded — and why they departed so sharply from earlier undertakings.
The collapse of the deal after public outcry revealed more than a flawed transaction. It exposed deeper issues: fragmented oversight, shifting narratives, and a failure to uphold past assurances to the public.
While engagement last year was limited, this election offers Mr. Gan an opportunity:
To explain openly to account honestly, and to help rebuild trust in the processes that rebuild trust in the processes that safeguard Singapore’s cooperative and public institutions.
In raising these questions, I do not assume Mr Gan lacks perspective or good intentions.
But citizens deserve — and must demand — full and candid explanations when public trust has been put at risk.
It is in this spirit that I have written the accompanying open letter, and I invite Mr. Gan, and all Singaporeans, to engage with it thoughtfully and seriously.
