SINGAPORE – Singapore’s carefully planned leadership succession has been disrupted.
According to political observers, it is not clear who will be the next prime minister of the Asian financial center.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat shocked the country late Thursday when he announced that he would step aside as the designated successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
He said he would turn 60 this year, calling his age an obstacle to running the country in a post-pandemic world.
Heng will relinquish his role as finance minister to the next cabinet reshuffle, which local media say is expected in two weeks. He will continue as Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policy.
It throws a wrench into the work in terms of Singapore’s very meticulous succession plans, but I do not see it as a major blow to Singapore’s political renewal.
Eugene Tan
Singapore Management University
“It throws a wrench into the work in terms of Singapore’s very carefully laid out succession plans, but I do not see it as a major blow to Singapore’s political renewal,” said Eugene Tan, a law professor. Singapore Management University and a political observer, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday.
Financial markets were stable on Friday after Heng’s announcement, with the Straits Times index 0.1% lower and the Singapore dollar against the US dollar.
Who could be the next Prime Minister of Singapore?
Analysts have identified four potential candidates who could be selected by the leadership to become the next prime minister in Singapore:
- Chan Chun Sing (51), who is Minister of Trade and Industry;
- Ong Ye Kung (51), Minister of Transport;
- Lawrence Wong, 48, education minister and co-chair of the country’s Covid-19 task force;
- Desmond Lee, 44, national development minister.
Gillian Koh, deputy director of research at the Institute for Policy Studies of the National University of Singapore, said the men had some exposure on the international scene. That could help ease them into the best job, she said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
However, she pointed out that Wong and Lee, who are both in their 40s, would have “a much longer runway”, even if they were to take five years from now.
The ruling People’s Action Party has ruled Singapore since independence in 1965. Leadership transition – Singapore has so far only had two – is usually a pleasant affair, with a successor identified many years before the sitting prime minister resigned.
But even before Heng’s decision to step down, the country’s leadership succession plan was heightened by the Covid – 19 pandemic, Tan, the law professor, said.
Lee, the current prime minister, said earlier he was ready to retire By the time he turns 70, but later indicates he will delay his handover to see Singapore through the Covid-19 crisis.
Lee is 69 this year and said on Thursday he will do so continue as prime minister until a new successor emerges and is ready to take over.
“The pandemic has really increased the succession plans for leadership, and so … I see DPM (Deputy Prime Minister) Heng as an unfortunate accident,” Tan said. He added that Heng looked “very much at peace” with his decision to step aside.