Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s wife, Ho Ching, has shared a barrage of news articles covering recent remarks made by her husband, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing.
Mr Lee, Mr Heng and Mr Chan – who serve as the ruling People’s Action Party’s (PAP) secretary-general, first assistant secretary-general and second assistant secretary-general, respectively – made comments over the weekend that received considerable traction since the next general election could be called at anytime
Mr Lee spoke about the looming general election while Mr Heng made remarks about his recent parliamentary motion against the Workers’ Party and the impending GST hike. Mr Chan declared that the Government takes a “serious view” of falsehoods about the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), that recently drew intense public concern.
From 10 to 11 Nov, Mdm Ho shared at least 14 articles covering the PAP leaders’ comments. She published three posts linking to news articles covering Chan Chun Sing’s remarks. Interestingly, two of these posts linked to the same article:
Mdm Ho published four articles covering comments made by DPM Heng, who is widely expected to succeed her husband as head of government after the next election:
She published the most number of posts linking to articles covering her husband’s comments. Out of the seven posts covering PM Lee’s most recent remarks at the PAP convention this weekend, two posts were repeat links to articles she had already shared:
The PAP government, which is set to undergo leadership renewal, has been indicating that the next election will be a “tough fight”, in the weeks following the formation of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC). The formation of the EBRC precedes the calling of the next election and has been taken to mean that the next election is imminent.
News that the EBRC was convened in August has led to fevered speculation on when the next election will be called. Political observers and members of the public seem to agree the election could be held as soon as December 2019 or timed to take place in the first quarter of 2020, after the next Budget.