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Lawrence Wong, Singapore’s next PM faces an ever trickier balancing act

When the politician is sworn in next week, he will have to contend with rising social and geopolitical tensions

May 11, 2024, Financial Times

Shortly before Taylor Swift arrived in Singapore in March, the country’s deputy leader, Lawrence Wong, went viral after posting an awkward TikTok video of himself playing her “Love Story” on his guitar. The unassuming US-trained economist will have to get used to the spotlight. On May 15, Singaporeans will wake up to Wong becoming their first new prime minister in 20 years. He will be only the second non-member of the Lee family dynasty to lead the tiny, affluent island city-state of 6mn people.

This is just the third transition of power since Singapore’s independence from Malaysia in 1965. Last month Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced he would step down as head of the ruling People’s Action Party. His late father, Lee Kuan Yew, regarded as the architect of modern Singapore, led the nation from 1959 until 1990.

The older Lee’s combination of economic planning, investor-friendly policies and openness to trade gave the nation some of the highest living standards in the world. Under the current Lee, it has flourished as a global financial centre. But Wong, a former civil servant, will take the reins as the city-state navigates a challenging geopolitical environment. Cracks are also emerging in its heavily state-directed society.

“We punch above our weight in global affairs,” says Chan Heng Chee, a Singaporean academic serving as ambassador-at-large at the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs. But she warns against complacency. “The economic model is changing,” she explains, “shifting away from the globalising forces that helped make Singapore a success towards greater protectionism. Different times call for different leaders.”

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