Singapore’s new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong faces many challenges

Outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 72, is stepping down two years later than planned because of COVID-19. His successor, who will be sworn in on Wednesday, now has to tackle some of the city-state’s toughest issues, like housing, an aging population, and an inadequate welfare system.

Singapore (AsiaNews) – On Wednesday, outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 72, will pass the torch to his designated successor, Lawrence Wong, 51, who will also serve as Finance Minister.

An economist by training and a former Minister of Education, Wong was supposed to take over in 2022 after becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Secretary of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), but the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the transition.

The new head of government faces several challenges, ranging from social mobility, environmental sustainability, and the economy to the welfare system, healthcare, poverty, and an aging population.

Internationally, Singapore must show decisive and exemplary leadership in regional and global contexts that require a balancing act amid various alliances and interests across Southeast Asia, such as the civil war in Myanmar.

The ruling party has so far failed to solve some of the major issues that have dominated the post COVID-19 pandemic period, most notably the country’s aging population, ethnic and religious tensions, increasingly inadequate public welfare, and housing.

Coping with the social divide as well as the housing crisis can no longer be postponed, especially regarding migrant workers, 1.5 million strong, who constitute 38 per cent of the workforce, and are often discriminated and poorly integrated.

These problems are not new nor unique to Asia, but they dent Singapore’s reputation for efficiency and coherence, centred on morality, openness, and respect for the law for the sake of social peace, which comes with top-down controls and penalties for behaviours tolerated elsewhere.

The health emergency marked the end of a period of 20 years and four legislatures during which Prime Minister Lee[*] played the dominant role as head of government and leader of the ruling PAP.

With his quiet and pragmatic style, he was able to maintain the country’s high-level of economic development and the balance among its various ethnic and religious groups, while enhancing the city-state’s international reputation as a financial hub, especially following the relative decline of its main rival, Hong Kong.

Nevertheless, his leadership, based on a system of "guided democracy” elaborated by the state’s founders, has shown a few cracks and he has had to face a few opponents.

Under the ruling party, administration has been highly centralised to ensure order and provide prosperity with repressive methods if need be. This has included a laissez-faire approach in economics, backed by a strong state, seen as appropriate for Singapore, but also elsewhere in Asia.

Most Singaporeans are in favour of the system as it is, but this has left many issues unresolved, which Lawrence Wong will now have to deal with.

[*] Lee’s father, Lee Kuan Yew, also served as prime minister (1959-1990) and party chief (1954-1992).

• singapore
• prime minister
• lee hsien loong
• lawrence wong
• guided democracy
• pandemic
• covid-19