PM makes ‘decisive move’ with Cabinet for next phase
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the new Cabinet line-up on Sept 28, 2015. Photo: Ernest Chua
SINGAPORE — In the most sweeping changes to Cabinet in recent years, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today (Sept 28) announced the line-up that will take Singapore into its next phase, post-SG50. Describing it as a “transition team” that is bigger than usual — there will be 37 office holders, up from 33 currently — Mr Lee stressed the urgency of preparing the team to take over from him and his senior colleagues.
“The task is urgent and we do not have the luxury of time. Therefore, I am making a decisive move in my new Cabinet, and not just an incremental change,” Mr Lee said at a press conference at the Istana.
With half of the office-holders aged 50 and below, the changes will help prepare the next team of leaders for Singapore. “I am pushing the time-table, I have a deadline to meet. I want to have a team ready to take over soon after the next election. So I want people tested, I want people developed, I want people exposed and known to the public, and confidence built up, and the team shaken down so that within the team they know who can do what, how they can work together ... who can emerge as the leader of the team,” he said.
Bigger changes could be in store when a reshuffle takes place mid-term, in two to three years’ time, he added. “Several ministers have spoken to me to say they are happy to go once we can find suitable successors. But I said that we have to see through this changeover, this transition, and they are fully with me on that. And I think we will make further changes during the term,” he said.
The new Cabinet line-up will take effect from Thursday, when the ministers are sworn in.
There will be changes in the political office holders at all but one of the 15 ministries. The Law Ministry is the only ministry where its political office-holders will stay put. Eight ministries will be led by new Cabinet Ministers.
In fact, the Education Ministry will be helmed by two newly-elected Acting Ministers, former Chief of Defence Force Ng Chee Meng and Keppel Corporation director of group strategy and development Ong Ye Kung.
Coordinating ministers have been appointed to guide and mentor younger ministers helming key ministries. The three co-ordinating ministers are Deputy Prime Ministers Mr Teo Chee Hean and Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, as well as Mr Khaw Boon Wan. They will oversee national security, economic and social policies, and infrastructure, respectively. Apart from Mr Khaw, who will take over the transport portfolio that had been described as a poisoned chalice by analysts, the other co-ordinating ministers will not be helming any ministries so as to focus on their roles.
With Singapore entering a new phase in nation-building and more complex challenges and issues involving multiple ministries arising, tighter coordination is needed across ministries for a more coherent government response to broad important issues, said Mr Lee. Coordinating ministers will allow him to take a chance by having new ministers helm specific ministries and master the job, as they help to “bring the pieces together”, he said.
For the first time, two ministries — education, and trade and industry — will be headed by two ministers each. Mr Lim Hng Kiang and Mr S Iswaran, who are currently the Minister and Second Minister for Trade and Industry respectively, will remain with their ministry but their roles will be redefined, with the two of them splitting the responsibilities of running the ministry.
As for Mr Ong and Mr Ng helming the education ministry, Mr Lee said he has worked with them previously and knows them. They need the experience and exposure to do the job, and will have “enough sources of advice” in the form of Mr Lee himself and former Education Ministers in the Cabinet.
A handful of ministers, including Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, will retain their portfolios.
Mr Lim Swee Say, appointed Manpower Minister in May, will continue in the role. Similarly, Mr Chan Chun Sing and Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, who were respectively appointed labour chief and Minister for Social and Family Development earlier this year, will remain in their current capacities.
“For those who have recently been appointed to their portfolios or are doing good work in their current portfolios and cannot be spared, I have asked them to carry on,” said Mr Lee in his opening remarks at the press conference. “They will be valuable in providing stability and continuity to their ministries in the time of transition.”
The appointments reflect the four priority areas of safety and security, jobs and opportunity, taking care of Singaporeans and transforming our home, said Mr Lee.
Safety and security, for example, is vital and a prerequisite for everything else to work, he said. And Singapore will continue to have a strong and experienced team in security. Mr Teo will continue to coordinate national security while Dr Ng and Mr Shanmugam retain their defence and law porfolios respectively. Mr Shanmugam will swop his foreign affairs portfolio — which will be taken over by Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan — for home affairs, which he had briefly helmed previously. Mr Lee had repeatedly framed the recent General Election as one where leadership renewal was the most important issue.
On the issue of succession, Mr Tharman, who was also at the press conference, noted that “we are never in an ideal situation”. “But this is as good as it gets, where we have experienced people still in Cabinet and we have a new team, each of them solid people with their own track records both in and out of government,” he said.
“In most countries, you’re given one or two years to take over, sometimes not even a year. Here we’ve got five years — shorter than has been the normal practice in Singapore, but I think entirely doable, because these are good men and women and we’ve got experienced hands still in Cabinet.”
