Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has announced a new cabinet with key appointments largely unchanged as the country continues to fight the Covid-19 health and economic crisis. The new parliament will convene on Aug 24.
With the exception of Lawrence Wong, Minister of National Development, other key ministers, Gan Kim Yong (Health), Josephine Teo (Manpower)and Chan Chun Sing (Trade and Industry) will continue their existing roles.
The two Senior Ministers, Teo Chee Hean and Tharman Shanmugaratnam, will remain as well, to give advice when need be. The ruling People’s Action Party returned to power but got to put up with a popular vote share of 61.2% which is its second lowest ever. In total, the new cabinet has 37 officeholders, same as 2015.
“In assembling this team, I’ve consulted DPM Heng Swee Keat and my senior colleagues, balance continuity, exposure and renewal,” said Lee on July 25.
Lee calls this team one with experience and depth, with senior members tempered by the challenges they’ve dealt with, and reinforced by younger members with fresh perspectives. “My entire leadership team have roles to play,” said Lee. Heng, who wears another hat as the Minister of Finance, remains at this role and is formally designated as coordinating minister for economic policies. He is supported by Lawrence Wong and Indranee Rajah as second ministers at MOF.
Josephine Teo will continue at Manpower, to continue to tackle tough challenges of rising unemployment and retraining.
New exposure
While Wong will continue to co-chair the multi ministry taskforce, he will move to head the Ministry of Education and help review higher education, and life-long learning. Ong, who headed Education, will be the new Transport Minister, taking over from Khaw Boon Wan who has retired from politics. In this role, Ong will help ensure the public transport system remain in good shape. He will also be tasked to continue bilateral links in Malaysia for keyinfrastructure projects such as the High Speed Rail and Indonesia for air-space related issues.
In place of Wong at National Development, Desmond Lee, who was already the Second Minister for a few years, will take over. He will be supported by Indranee as Second Minister for MND, as well as Finance, and also at the Prime Minister’s Office to oversee national population matters. Masagos Zulkifi will now head Social and Family Development. He will also be Second Minister at Health, so that he can better coordinate overlapping work between the two ministries in things like community heath.
Grace Fu will take over from Masagos and head the newly-named Ministry of Sustainability and Environment, to better reflect its future role. It was previously called the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources.
Four ministers, Ng Eng Hen; Vivian Balakrishnan, K Shangmugam, S Iswaran, will continue at defence, foreign affairs, law and home and affairs, and communications and information ministries, respectively.
New promotions, new faces
A few officeholders have been promoted. Maliki Osman and Edwin Tong have been promoted to full ministers. The former to be Second Minister at Foreign Affairs and Education; the latter, will head Culture, Community and Youth, taking over from Fu. He will also be Second Minister for Law. “They’ve done well, it is time for them to step up and take on more responsibilities, “said Lee.
Zaqy Mohamad, will be made Senior Minister of State; Low Yen Ling, Sun Xueling, Faisal will be made Ministers of State. Rahayu Mahzam will be Parliamentary Secretary for health. She was previously a backbencher.
Dr Tan See Leng, a first time MP, will be made a full minister. Tan, previously CEO of healthcare giant IHH, will help bring a private sector perspective as Second Minister at MTI, MOM and PMO. Four new ministers of state will be appointed among the first-timers: Gan Siow Huang for education and manpower; Alvin Tan, now a LinkedIn executive, for MTI and MCI; Desmond Tan for MHA; Tan Kiat How, MOS for MND. Eric Chua, another first-timer, will be Parliamentary Secretary for MCCY and MSF.
Succession question
At the briefing, Lee was asked if he would handover come2022, when he reaches 70 years old, as he had previously flagged. During the election, Heng’s group representative constituency, East Coast, won narrowly, leading to the likes of Straits Times pondering if he will still be the designated successor as the fourth prime minister.
Lee was asked if there have been discussions if this arrangement is intact but the response was deferred to Chan, who said the team is entirely focused on dealing with the economic challenges and saving jobs. “There are no plans, no discussions,” said Chan.
The priority, for now, is to deal with the fallout of Covid-19.“I will see through the crisis and hand Singapore in good working order to my successor as soon as possible,” said Lee.
