Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong will hand over power to deputy Lawrence Wong 'before next general election'
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will hand over the premiership to anointed successor Lawrence Wong by next November, entrusting his deputy to lead the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) into the next general election.
Speaking at a party convention on Sunday, both referred to one marker of the much-talked about handover: the PAP's 70th anniversary on November 21 next year.
Wong said by then, the PAP would be renewed and refreshed to be a party for everyone, not just its supporters.
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"We aim to be ready by the PAP's 70th anniversary next year," he said. "We can look forward to a refreshed PAP ready to fight the next election and to win the confidence and trust of all Singaporeans."
A tearful Lee, who said it had been his "great fortune and honour" to have served his country for "all of my adult life", added: "If all goes well, I will hand over by the PAP's 70th birthday next year."
Wong, 50, was last year voted by his fourth-generation (4G) peers in the PAP to take over from Lee, in what will be only the third leadership succession in Singapore since independence in 1965.
The next vote must be called by November 2025. The PAP has won 14 general elections and governed Singapore uninterrupted since 1959, with Lee having led the party in four polls.
"The next GE will coincide with our leadership transition to the 4G team," Lee said.
Lee revealed that he and Wong had debated extensively on whether the transition should take place before or after the election. But after consulting both his generation of leaders and the 4G, they decided on not further delaying the handover as the team was ready.
"There is no reason to delay the political transition. Therefore, I intend to hand over to DPM Lawrence before the next GE. After that, I will be at Lawrence's disposal," said Lee, who has been prime minister since 2004. "I will go wherever he thinks I can be useful."
He added the PAP now had the right combination of "grey hair and dark hair", and the challenge was to ensure Singapore continued to be well-governed and to "stand out compared with other countries elsewhere".
Investors and other countries were also watching the transition, Wong had said earlier.
Wong, who is currently deputy prime minister and finance minister, is 21 years Lee's junior. But the 50-year-old will not be Singapore's most youthful premier. Founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was 35 when he first took office.
"I've always known the weight of this duty and the demands of the job. But you have my promise that I am all in - heart and soul - nothing but my very best," he told his party's cadres in a rousing speech.
Lee's announcement is in line with his party's preference for no-surprises successions. While all three were carefully choreographed, this round has been unusually unsettled.
Political scientist Ian Chong of the National University of Singapore said: "I think the timing is very much extended, with little explanation as to why this is the case. It contributes to public speculation about Wong's readiness for the job as much as Lee's unwillingness to let go."
With Sunday's announcement, the issue of succession was finally sealed, said political observer and former Nominated MP Zulkifli Baharudin. "Now, it seems that Lawrence will have a bigger say on when they want the election. The 4G will decide this," he said.
Lee had earlier said he would hand over the premiership before he turned 70. However, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted that plan. He said he and his older colleagues would continue working "to hand over Singapore, intact and in good working order, to the next team".
Aside from the pandemic, there were clear signs that the party leadership was struggling to settle on a succession plan. Lee announced in 2018 that he would be succeeded by then finance minister Heng Swee Keat, with Chan Chun Sing as No 2.
But not long after the party's relatively muted showing in the 2020 general election, Heng counted himself out of the running. The party acknowledged that the next generation leadership had different views about who should take over, eventually settling the matter with a ballot.
Heng's withdrawal had appeared to propel two of the more prominent fourth-generation (4G) leaders, Chan Chun Sing and Ong Ye Kung, to be the top contenders. However, out of the 19 younger officeholders asked to vote, 15 picked Lawrence Wong in April 2022.
Wong had emerged as the front runner for the premiership in 2022, after he won support from Singaporeans and party cadres for his management of the pandemic as the co-chair of the country's Covid-19 task force.
Inderjit Singh, a former parliamentarian from the ruling party, said among the three men in the running for the premiership, only Wong was able to command the support that proved he was "a much clearer choice".
The result of this unusually protracted process is that Lee Hsien Loong is likely to leave office as Singapore's oldest prime minister. He will turn 72 in February.
There had been speculation that he would further delay his departure due to a string of recent controversies, including the arrest of a cabinet minister for possible corruption.
However, in August, at his National Day Rally, the Singapore equivalent to the State of the Union address, Lee said succession was "back on track", a point he repeated on Sunday. Earlier, he said the party had dealt with all the controversies thoroughly and transparently, and stressed "these incidents will not delay my timetable for renewal".
As to when the general election will be held, even though both leaders revealed the timing of the handover, the PAP is not surprisingly keeping its options close to its chest.
Under Singapore's Westminster system, voters do not directly pick the prime minister, who is instead chosen by the winning party from among elected members of parliament.
Traditionally, however, the PAP has used general elections to call for a strong mandate for new leaders.
Analysts do not expect an easy electoral ride for the PAP.
"It's a very challenging period to go into an election, and it is also at a time when the appetite for political opposition and the contestation of political space is stronger," Zulkifli said. "It's going to be very difficult but there's no good time and you just have to go through it."
Chong, from NUS, said that the current global conditions - such as concurrent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and great power competition - coupled with domestic challenges, could "challenge the premises of the existing Singapore model and its formula for success".
While the system is "richer and materially better off than at anything in Singapore's history", Chong said its public service and how its political system dealt with future needs would be put to the test in the coming years.
"The next group of leaders will have to be able to adjust the Singapore model accordingly. This may mean somehow addressing questions over more public participation in the political process as well. Cutting and pasting past policies may no longer do," he said.
However, analysts agreed Wong was inheriting a system that was doing relatively well compared with his predecessors, though it was not without its own set of challenges.
"Wong will inherit a well-trained public service, but one that mattered in the relatively benign environment of the 1990s and 2000s. Their performance in a persistently more unsettled, uncertain and contentious world, where globalisation is less prominent, is untested," Chong said.
Wong himself started out in the civil service as an economist and an aide to Lee before becoming chief executive of the energy agency. He joined politics in 2011 and went to several ministries, including education and national development. In recent years, the public got to see another, more personable side of him as he often played his acoustic guitar and clips of him riding a motorcycle were widely shared.
On Sunday, setting out his vision on how he saw the party rededicating itself to win the mandate of voters, Wong said he wanted a PAP that was more inclusive.
"The PAP is not a party for our supporters, it must be a party for all Singaporeans," Wong said.
"We know that many Singaporeans may want the PAP to form the government, and they say so, but growing numbers of them also want more opposition and more checks and balances. We must recognise and respect this," he said.
"We must understand the desire for more opposition is, at its heart, a desire for those with different perspectives to be heard - a desire for those who may have felt excluded, to be seen, to have their lived experiences validated."
But Wong also said the party must continue to work for the long-term good for the country and not be a party "hanging on by its fingernails" at every term.
Wong added that he intended to continue with tradition by retaining the counsel of his predecessor, Lee, who has been prime minister since 2004, after he takes over.
Lee, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and other leaders of their generation "will continue to serve", he said.
"They have been excellent mentors and role models and I value greatly their advice and input," Wong said.
The timetable announced on Sunday comes just a week after Wong presented a 180-page report, called Forward Singapore, an economic and social blueprint for the future produced after a 16-month exercise involving discussions with 200,000 people. In detailing policy suggestions and challenges on almost all aspects of Singapore life, analysts have likened it to an "election manifesto" for Wong, who led the exercise.
"[Leadership transition] is supposed to signify a new era in Singapore politics. Of course, whether there will be substantive differences in policy across the third and fourth generation of PAP leaders remains to be seen," Chong said.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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