PM Lee to step down: Key milestones of his political career

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at a Merdeka Generation Appreciation ceremony at the ITE Central, on June 2, 2019. 
Raj Nadarajan/TODAY

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that he will hand over the premiership to his deputy Lawrence Wong
Mr Wong will be sworn in on May 15, 2024 at 8pm at the Istana
TODAY looks at the key milestones and events of Mr Lee's illustrious political career

Exclusive: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Speaks Candidly with TIME

[Note: This is a Time interview from 2015, after the passing of Lee Kuan Yew.]

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addresses the nation about the passing of his father, Singapore's founder Lee Kuan Yew, during a live broadcast on Monday, March 23, 2015, in Singapore
Terence Tan—AP

By Hannah Beech

Zoher Abdoolcarim

July 23, 2015


As Singapore gears up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence, the city-state once dismissed as a “little red dot” at the midpoint of regional maps now serves as the epicenter of Asian-style development. By combining Confucian values with state-sponsored capitalism, Singapore in little more than a generation moved “from third world to first,” as a memoir of founding father Lee Kuan Yew puts it.

Singapore’s average sea level now 14cm higher than ‘pre-1970 levels’: Met Service

By Matthew Mohan

23 Mar 2020


SINGAPORE: The average sea level has risen 14cm from “pre-1970 levels” for Singapore, said the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) in its 2019 Annual Climate Assessment Report released on Monday (Mar 23).

"The sea level changes described in the (report) are based on tide gauge records available since 1970s at various locations in Singapore. We have therefore considered this time frame as our period of interest,” explained Dr Hindumathi Palanisamy, a senior research scientist with MSS.

Since the 1970s, Sembawang, Sultan Shoal and Raffles Lighthouse have shown sea level rise rates of about 2.12mm per year, about 2.78mm per year and about 3.55mm per year respectively, said MSS, which has led to an average sea level in Singapore today of 140mm above pre-1970 levels.

Why HDB owners should forget about getting a windfall from Vers

By Christopher Gee

TODAY

09 September, 2018


Singaporeans have come to associate property en bloc exercises with windfall gains, where property owners get prices higher than what they would ordinarily achieve if selling on a stand-alone basis.

Whether in the private property market or via the Housing & Development Board’s Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) for public housing flats, the redevelopment of older (and some not-so-old) properties has resulted in owners cashing out for, oftentimes, widely publicised monetary gains.

Unfortunately, expectations for such gains have also emerged in online and offline commentary on the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (Vers) announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his recent National Day Rally speech.

Few details have been released about the scheme, but Vers will begin to be offered progressively from about 20 years’ time to the owners of HDB flats that have 30 years or less of remaining lease.

VERS announced at NDR 2018

NDR 2018: Scheme planned to redevelop more old HDB flats before leases end

CHANNELNEWSASIA

By Lianne Chia

 

19 Aug 2018

Singapore would have turned out differently if Othman Wok had wavered on multi-culturalism: PM Lee

April 19, 2017


Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong led the eulogies for the late Othman Wok at a memorial service on Wednesday night (April 19). He paid tribute to "one of Singapore’s greatest sons", and thanked the former Old Guard Cabinet minister for the pivotal role he played in helping to forge a multi-racial, multi-cultural Singapore.

Picking the next Prime Minister

Who will lead Singapore next? 

Sep 4, 2016,


The best-laid plans for succession planning can go awry, as two Cabinet members' health scares this year showed
Charissa Yong


When Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced his new Cabinet line-up soon after last September's general election, he made it clear that planning for leadership succession was a key priority.

Younger ministers and new office-holders were given a range of responsibilities to expose them to new areas of work.

The key assignments given to Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat - such as chairing the Committee on the Future Economy - led some observers to conclude he was the clear frontrunner among the fourth-generation leadership.

So when Mr Heng suffered a stroke during a Cabinet meeting in May, undergoing emergency surgery the same day, many were worried that Singapore's leadership succession plans might be disrupted.

Then, two Sundays ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong caused hearts to pound when three hours into his televised National Day Rally speech - moments before he was to announce a recovered Mr Heng's return to Cabinet - he faltered on stage and had to take a break.

PM Lee rested for about an hour before returning to complete his address.

Announcing Mr Heng's return, and talking about leadership succession, he quipped: "After what happened, I think it's even more important that we talk about it now."

Lee Hsien Loong’s American Exceptionalism

Singapore’s prime minister says the U.S. might be roiled by politics, but its leadership on trade and security is indispensable.

By WILLIAM MCGURN
March 31, 2016

By any global measure, a prime minister of Singapore presides over a minuscule patch of earth and speaks for a tiny fraction of the world’s population. Yet notwithstanding the city-state’s small size—or maybe because of it—its prime ministers often have a keener grasp of American interests than Americans do.

So it’s no surprise that Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore’s current prime minister, would come right to the point in a meeting with The Wall Street Journal editorial board. When asked for his take on the Obama administration’s unratified Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which neither the leading Democratic nor Republican candidate for president supports, he answered this way:

“You have an administration which understands America’s international responsibilities and interests, but you have a population which is anxious, tired, and doesn’t want to bear any burden and pay any price. And that’s very difficult for whoever becomes president.”

'I owe Singaporeans a responsibility' to get foreign worker balance right: PM Lee

Keeping the Singapore identity intact for the next 50 years will be a "big challenge", Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong tells Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee in an interview aired on Sunday, Aug 2.

02 Aug 2015


SINGAPORE: It is the Government's duty to grapple with the "very difficult issue" of getting the inflow of foreign labour right - and at the same time maintaining the unique identity of the nation, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

"It is an issue where honestly speaking, there are no easy choices. There are trade-offs," said Mr Lee, speaking on Friday (Jul 31) in a television interview with Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee, chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities.

"I would like to keep this a Singapore-Singapore ... it has to maintain that Singapore character."

The programme, A Conversation with the PM: Our Future, Our People, was telecast on Sunday (Aug 2) on MediaCorp's Channel 5 and Channel NewsAsia. In the show, Mr Lee touched on concerns about the economy, anxiety over job competition with foreigners and a possible identity crisis in the future.

Exclusive: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Speaks Candidly with TIME

Hannah Beech / Singapore

Zoher Abdoolcarim / Singapore

July 23, 2015

On Aug. 9, 1965, Singapore became an independent state. A half-century of unparalleled prosperity later, this Asian trading hub faces very different challenges 

As Singapore gears up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence, the city-state once dismissed as a “little red dot” at the midpoint of regional maps now serves as the epicenter of Asian-style development. By combining Confucian values with state-sponsored capitalism, Singapore in little more than a generation moved “from third world to first,” as a memoir of founding father Lee Kuan Yew puts it.

In truth, Singapore — a mix of majority Chinese and smaller Malay and Indian communities — wasn’t quite as backward upon independence as its boosters claim. The city-state’s economic development was unmatched by individual political liberties. The nanny state admirably manicured Singapore but it had little patience for dissonant voices. Still, as TIME’s anniversary special on Singapore reports in this week’s magazine, the “little red dot” claims outsized geopolitical influence in the region and is a magnet for migrants worldwide.

PM Lee tackles questions on governance at SG50+ conference

In a session moderated by Dr Fareed Zakaria, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong talks candidly on governance in Singapore and the limits to freedom of speech to maintain racial and religious harmony. 

Singapore feeling impact of rapidly ageing population

July 1, 2015

Kelly Ng

SINGAPORE — Stressing how demographics would define the country’s destiny, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday that the ageing population would cause profound problems for the country and that the impact is already being felt today.

The 2014 National Day Rally: An impression of significance

Wed, Aug 20, 2014

Yahoo News

BY DEVADAS KRISHNADAS

Devadas Krishnadas is the Chief Executive Officer of Future-Moves Group, a strategic risk consultancy. The views expressed below are his own.

According to the mainstream media, the 2014 National Day Rally was a big success and signals significant policy changes ahead. The theatrics of high definition graphics, the Prime Minister playing reporter and financial planner and displaying his singing skills was certainly crowd pleasing to the gathering of party faithful.

Announcements about changes to the policy on the Central Provident Fund (CPF) and a rethink on the relative merits of experience versus education played to the gallery of public opinion. But what was the real significance of the latest rally? What does it tell us about the today as a political age?

A less hospitable world without US engagement: PM

JULY 2

In a wide-ranging interview with Politico Magazine during his visit to the United States last week, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke about Sino-US ties, territorial disputes in the South China Sea and America’s role in keeping the international world order. Below is an excerpt of the interview

Asia in 20 years: PM paints two scenarios

May 23

The next two decades present a historic opportunity for Asia, if the dominant regional powers — the United States, China and Japan — can work together peacefully, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. But there are uncertainties and challenges that could lead to tensions and disputes. Mr Lee made these points in a keynote address on Scenarios For Asia In The Next 20 Years at the 20th Nikkei International Conference in Tokyo yesterday. Below is the transcript of his speech.

'Some time the hating has to stop'

Jun 05, 2013

This story was first published in The Straits Times on June 1, 2013

By Elgin Toh


ON HIS visit to Japan last week, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong could hardly have been accused of pandering to his hosts.

Twice in two days, he spoke frankly about the long shadow that Japan's World War II record cast on its relations with some of its Asian neighbours 70 years on.

Once, he did so to a room full of Japanese businessmen during the Nikkei Conference. He spoke about his uncle who was "taken away and never came back" and how, as a 10-year-old, he had seen a mass grave being dug up beside his school.

Keeping Singapore ahead of the competition

May 03, 2013

At the May Day Rally on Wednesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke of the economic restructuring to improve wages and Singaporean workers' lives. Here's an excerpt from his speech.

EVERYTHING we do is about making life better for our people and especially for our workers. We are making progress on our infrastructure, whether it's housing or transportation, we're tackling population issues, including immigration and foreign workers - very sensitive, very difficult to discuss but we have to deal with them because otherwise we are going to have big problems coming to us.

The right policies to ensure success

Feb 09, 2013

WHITE PAPER ON POPULATION

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke during the debate on the Population White Paper in Parliament yesterday. Here are extracts from his speech.