This year’s National Day Parade to celebrate Singapore’s 59th birthday was a watershed one. It was a welcome, farewell and thank you occasion for the political leadership.
Among the Ministers and MPs arriving to take their seats at the City Hall dais were five personalities, each of whom now appearing in a different or more senior capacity.
Lee Hsien Loong took his seat as Senior Minister, Seah Kian Peng as Speaker of Parliament and Gan Kim Yong as Deputy Prime Minister. Then there were the two motorcades accompanied VIPs – Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
For the record, missing from the usually photo-worthy lineup were former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan Jin, former Trade and Industry Minister S Iswaran and two other ex-MPs, the Workers’ Party’s Leon Perera and the PAP’s Cheng Li Hui.
Lee Hsien Loong had a rapturous reception from the crowd when he appeared on the dais. He paused and waved happily to acknowledge their cheers. Guess many Singaporeans were showing their gratitude for his 20 years of leadership and service to the country as Prime Minister.
He will still serve as SM and do, as he said, whatever PM Wong wants him to do. This NDP was a fitting farewell for his years as the PM.
Lawrence Wong arrived at the parade for the first time as PM in a Beamer, came out beaming to a warm crowd welcome and strode to his seat looking ready to enjoy himself.
Next motorcade: President Tharman Shanmugaratnam. For him, another loud welcome. He did his parade inspection without missing a step.
I thought, on surface, this NDP showed Singapore at its seamless best.
The country is in a leadership transition phase. New President, new PM, longtime PM retiring, new generation leadership cohort taking over.
And there are so many challenges, including coping with the needs and expectations of younger Singaporeans and dealing with climate change, the US-China trade war and tensions, economic developments and game-changing technological advances.
What is interesting is that we may be witnessing a delinking of Singapore’s future and the influence of the Lee Kuan Yew family. Or are we? There is no junior Lee or Li in the wings in the transition. Or is there a Ho or Kwa being groomed somewhere? Not that we know of publicly, anyway, and that would include Lee Hsien Yang and his son, Li Shengwu (no publicly stated interest or ambition).
Or we may be seeing a transition that has been so comprehensively carried out with everything in its place that the 1G ethos will prevail for a very long time.
In the 4G cohort are progeny of those who were with the founding generation. They and their parents had watched at close range the early leaders in action. And many of the current top leaders have also worked in crucial ministries and agencies.
It has always been a cycle of shared experiences and values.
Sometimes transition does not come out smooth because it is not organic. Like when the establishment was trying to foist unsuitable candidates as PMs and Presidents. But when the transition is truly authentic, Singaporeans know and will show it. They are not idiots.
That’s how they clearly see Lee Hsien Loong – an authentic, effective and caring PM. They also believe the new PM, Lawrence Wong and the new President, Tharman Shanmugaratnam are the right choices and will do well.
Tan Bah Bah is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a magazine publishing company