Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has revealed his new cabinet line-up two weeks after his party’s decisive win at the general election, with key shifts such as the education chief moving to fill the defence spot and the inclusion of two newly elected faces.
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Among the changes announced on Wednesday, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, who is a former chief of army, will take over as head of defence following the retirement of Ng Eng Hen. Two newcomers, former senior civil servant Jeffrey Siow and ex-chief of army David Neo, will become acting ministers for transport and culture, respectively.
Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Masagos Zulkifli, whose team narrowly defeated their Workers’ Party (WP) opponents in Tampines, is also set to give up his role to minister of state for home affairs Faishal Ibrahim, who will be acting minister. Faishal will also be promoted to senior minister of state for home affairs.
Wong, who will remain as finance minister, did not choose a second deputy prime minister from his fellow fourth-generation leaders, or the 4G as they are known locally. Gan Kim Yong will become his sole deputy and keep his current portfolio as trade and industry minister.
Speaking to the local media during a press conference on Wednesday, Wong said: “We are operating in a changed world, with rising trade barriers, sharper competition, and greater uncertainty. We need experienced hands at the helm. So I’m keeping most of the ministers in their current roles during this critical period.”
Apart from Ng, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean also announced their retirement in the lead-up to the May 3 election.
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The vacancies earlier threw up questions over who Wong would choose from his fellow 4G leaders to fill the post of his other deputy and that of defence minister ahead of the region’s premier defence meeting, the Shangri-La Dialogue, to be held in Singapore at the end of the month.
While there are typically two deputy prime ministers, it is not unprecedented for Singapore’s cabinet to have one, as was the case most recently when Heng, initially chosen to succeed Wong’s predecessor Lee Hsien Loong, was the only deputy between 2019 and 2022.