And so Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai (full name), 49,is on the way to becoming Singapore’s fourth Prime Minister. Bit of surprise the way things turned out for him, considering that he has been in politics for just 10 years. He was not even on any horizon to succeed PM Lee Hsien Loong until lately.
Up to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Singapore in early 2021, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Heng Swee Keat was on the verge of strengthening his position as PM-designate. Like everyone else in the world, he and the Singapore government must have calculated that the virus would go away, maybe, in at most a year. Out came what was thought to be a record Resilience Budget in early 2020 – meant to save lives and livelihoods and confirm Heng as the man to take over Lee’s place.
Things turned out be not so straightforward. The government had to spend a total of $193 billion for four budgets (three more besides the first). Holding GE2020 in the midst of Covid-19 in July 2020 did not help the DPM’s case at all. His performance was lacklustre. It was unclear whether switching him from Tampines GRC to East Coast GRC was a last-minute strategic move to prevent the loss of the latter GRC against a strong Workers’ Party team. Heng’s team won but by a small margin and his somewhat low-energy post-election speech did him no favour. No surprise, therefore, that the 61-year-old DPM subsequently ruled himself out of the journey to the Istana, claiming that the runway was too short for him.
Education Minister Chan Chun Sing was supposed to have been in competition with Heng in the pre-Lawrence Wong phase of the race. The party chose Heng over him. Being, in theory, the No 2 would have automatically seen him stepping in as the PM-designate. If he was considered good enough to be regarded as a Heng competitor, he should have been selected as PM–to-be – but was not, and that was damaging. This should mean he was out of it. I was surprised therefore by a recent rumour making the rounds that he would be the one. Allegedly “because the PAP caucus has chosen him and that he was Ho Ching’s favourite since day 1”.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung is somewhat of a newbie, though I must say he did well as part of the Covid-19 Multi–Ministry Task Force, but he could not have been seriously considered as a contender just yet.
To sum up my humble reflection, let me rehash what I said in a April 11, 2021 Sense and Nonsense column headlined “Lawrence Wong has my vote”:
“Of the three touted front-runners to become Singapore’s next PM, it is clear which two have the all-important more charismatic public image. Of the two, Lawrence Wong, who has not lost in an election, has my vote. Covid-19 has claimed a big victim but it has also thrown up a potential good leader for the times.”
With the question of his successor settled, PM Lee’s task will now be to look really forward. Cabinet reshuffles and adjustments are inevitable. These are some of the big questions to be answered ASAP or by next GE and even beyond:
I have another very big question. But I will leave that for another day. It concerns the progeny of Singapore’s most prominent family, whichever the branch.
Tan Bah Bah, consulting editor of TheIndependent.Sg, is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a local magazine publishing company.