Singapore has a Prime-Minister-in-waiting

Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai (Twitter)

By Ivan Lim,
Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN  

SINGAPORE: He is Finance Minister Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai. A career civil servant-turned- politician, he has been designated as the new leader of the fourth generation (4G) cohort of the ruling People’s Action Party(PAP).

It is a spectacular rise for the unassuming member of a select group groomed meticulously to take over from Mr Lee Hsien Loong’s aging team. Indeed, his peers of scholar-administrators, like former Finance Minister Heng SweeKeat, 60, and Education Minister Chan Chun Sing,52, were seen as early front-runners for the Prime Minister’s post.

In November 2018, the PAP leadership had endorsed former Finance Minister Heng Swee, at age 57, as the 4G leader and potential successor to Prime Minister Lee, when he was to step down after his 70^th birthday in February 2020.

The Prime Minister had told the nation he would call it a day on touching 70.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic posed a crisis that led Mr Lee to stay on to see the city-state of 5.3 million through safely. This disrupted the timeline for the leadership handover.

Citing a “short runway” to lead the nation by the time he takes over from PM Lee post-Covid-19, Mr Heng opted out of the race.

After a gruelling two-year-long battle containing the pandemic, in which the Prime Minister put himself in charge of overseeing a multi-ministerial trouble-shooting taskforce, Singapore has settled into a new normal of living with the coronavirus. And the search for a new leader began afresh.

MrWong,49, won approval, not least for his prominent role as co-chairman of the anti-Covid taskforce.

According to the Prime Minister, the new Finance Minister, who took over from Mr Heng on May 15 last year, won the backing of an “overwhelming majority” of ministers–other than PM Lee and two senior ministers,Teo Chee Hean and Tharman Shanmugaratnam– polled confidentially by PAP chairman Khaw Boon Wan. The government Members of Parliament had endorsed the decision.2/…

The son of a sales executive- father and a teacher- mother, Mr Wong was a Public Service Commission scholar, who studied economics at top United States universities, and public administration at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. He then joined the civil service, and did stints in Trade and Industry, Finance and Health Ministries.

From 2005 to 2008, he served as the Prime Minister’s principal private secretary. He was CEO of the Energy Market Authority before entering politics.

In 2011, he contested the general elections as part of a victorious four-man PAP team in the West Coast ward. His political career took off as he won the Marsiling-Yew Tee group representation constituency (GRC) in 2015 general elections. He was fast-tracked through various ministries before becoming Second Finance Minister in 2016.

The new heir aspirant, who won re-election in the same GRC 2020 general election with 63.18 per cent, has to prove his mettle at the coming general election.

For there are still gaps in the transition. For one, the Prime Minister has not announced when he would hand over his reins to Mr Wong.

.Mr Lee told the media recently this depends on the PAP’s strategy for contesting the next election.

“Whether it is for me to hand over to him first, he consolidates, he leads into the next election as leader of the 4G team and will be in charge after the next election,” he said.

“Or I go into the next election leading the PAP, fight the next election, … and if we win, after that Lawrence takes over.

“And then the 4G team moves forward. It will depend on how things evolve. But either way, our plan is for Lawrence to be the next PM.”

In the meantime, Mr Lee said a Cabinet reshuffle would be held in early June. This is likely to see Mr Wong promoted as Deputy Prime Minister to reflect his enhanced position.