Singapore’s New Prime Minister Lawrence Wong Faces Challenges From Day One

After some twenty years in office, Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, has announced his intention to step down, paving the way for Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to be the next prime minister starting on May 15 and to lead the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) into the next general election.

Wong comes into the office with numerous strengths. The PAP has prepped him for two years as the centerpiece of what it calls the “4G” or fourth generation of party leaders, and thus of Singapore. Despite a growing opposition presence in parliament, the PAP will almost surely triumph in the next election. Wong is a more natural politician than some of the other candidates who were in the running to replace Lee Hsien Loong. For example, he showed his leadership skills during COVID-19, as Lee noted in a Facebook post announcing the shift and Wong’s elevation. Wong also has held a diversity of positions and jobs, unlike some PAP members, giving him potentially greater insight into more sectors of Singaporean society and also the many domestic and regional issues the city-state now faces.

While Lee did not exactly take office at a calm time—the war on terror was in full form, and Singapore was both a terrorism target for Southeast Asia-based militants and also enlisted as a partner in the global battle by the United States—Wong takes office with the city-state confronting a broader range of challenges. At home, the PAP, though still the dominant force, now faces a more organized political opposition that can no longer be easily marginalized as a small group unrepresentative of Singaporean society. The opposition may boost its seat count in the next election, giving it more leeway in parliament to monitor and criticize the PAP.

The ruling party has faced unusual internal struggles in recent years that have impacted its famously clean image, including the first indictment on corruption charges of a (now former) senior minister, S. Iswaran. He has been indicted on thirty-five charges (and counting) related to bribery and corruption, with the prosecution charging that he took a range of gifts from a Malaysian tycoon and developer, as well as from another contractor. His indictment comes on the heels of other problems in the PAP, which the opposition will surely highlight in the run-up to the next general election. These include a mini-scandal from last year in which two PAP members of parliament resigned because they were having an affair, and, as Al Jazeera notes, around the same time, “two senior government ministers were publicly scrutinized for their rental of state-owned colonial-era bungalows. An investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, but prompted some to question how the ministers could rent the properties, given that contracts are awarded through a bidding process.”

Meanwhile, Singapore, always trying to hedge between its economic relationship with China and its desire to maintain a close security partnership with the United States, is finding this balance even more challenging to strike than it was in the early days of Lee’s time as prime minister. China is far more dominant economically in the region than it was in the past. As Xi Jinping has cracked down on private enterprise, significant numbers of mainland Chinese entrepreneurs, business leaders, and other wealthy citizens have decamped for Singapore, where the population is majority Chinese, the environment is far more open to private enterprise, and the city-state has a history of no taxation on capital gains and a wealth of private banking services catering to the super-elite. While this massive infusion of wealth has bolstered the city-state’s economy in some ways, the government seems unsure how to handle the influx and its possible impact on property and rental prices, overall inflation, and domestic Singaporean entrepreneurship. The government also has concerns about how some of this Chinese wealth was earned: last year, it arrested and charged several Chinese nationals with money laundering and related crimes. The Singaporean government is also coming to terms with the fact that its historically minimal social welfare net needs to be modernized and expanded, an approach Wong will likely continue in Lee’s wake.

China is now far more aggressive in regional waters and far more ambitious militarily than when Lee assumed office in 2004. Other than the Philippines, which under Ferdinand Marcos Jr. seems to be clearly siding with the United States on security issues despite China’s economic might, all the other Southeast Asian states (save tiny Laos, Cambodia, and war-torn Myanmar) are still trying to hedge between the region’s great powers.

But it is getting tougher, even for a country with the wealth, significant diplomatic influence, and skilled diplomatic corps that Singapore possesses, to hedge between the two powers. China is playing a larger role, or at least attempting to play a larger role, in the domestic politics of every state in Southeast Asia, and Singapore is no exception. Growing worries about Chinese influence within Singapore’s domestic politics are common among senior Singaporean officials, and parliament has passed a tough foreign interference law. Yet the population overall seems far less concerned about this kind of Chinese influence than officials, especially those in the intelligence and defense realms. The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which resonates among Singapore’s sizable Muslim minority, hurts the United States’ image in the city-state. Further, Washington’s inability through multiple administrations to play any significant role in East Asia’s growing trade integration has also impacted perceptions of the United States.

The PAP, including Wong, cannot help but notice that there is a growing divide between Singaporean elites, who seem most concerned about the prospect of a region dominated by China, and the populace, which seems relatively unbothered by this scenario. 

Wong will have to navigate all these challenges in just a few weeks while also preparing the PAP for a contested general election and reassuring the public, which has mostly been led by members of the Lee family, that he is ready on all these fronts.