Mr Koo Tsai Kee, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC is retiring. I would like to offer him my heartiest congratulations.

He’s been MP for 20 years – since his maiden foray into electoral politics in 1991.

I am congratulating Mr Koo for doing what – as far as I can see – no other MP has done. This is why I find the rather toned-down announcement of his retirement and the inconspicuous reports by the media has done him a great disservice.

So, what is it that this great man has done or achieved?

Mr Koo is the only MP who has – in all of his 20 years as MP – never won a single election outright.

More remarkable is because he has never fought an election, he also has never won a single vote.

No one in Tanjong Pagar had to ! cast a single vote for him – in all of 20 years.

1991. 1997. 2001. 2006.

All walkovers uncontested.

It is indeed, whichever way you look at it, an astounding achievement.

Mr Koo has single-handedly demonstrated what it means to be a successful “Walkover MP”.

The Straits Times, in its own small and humble way, tried to pay a well deserved tribute to Mr Koo by telling us that “he has served residents in two wards in the GRC: his own Tiong Bahru ward as well as Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s Tanjong Pagar ward, where he stands in at Mr Lee’s Meet the People sessions.“

You may have stood in at MM Lee’s MPS’s but remember, its his coat-tails which you have hung on for two decades.

Even so, and just for “standing in” at MM Lee’s MPS’s, this alone deserves recognition.

Mr Koo is also Minister of State (MOS) for Defence. Which means he bags home some S$1.2 to S$1.6 million a year? At S$15,000 a month as MP ! and that insane salary as MOS, Mr Koo can retire happy – and ! very rich indeed.

Not a bad deal for not having to contest any elections ever, eh?

Well done, Mr Koo! I salute you! And I also salute the miracle of the GRC system!

===========