Singapore PM reveals cabinet including new defence chief and 2 fresh faces
Education Minister Chan Chun Sing will be the new defence minister, while first-time MPs Jeffrey Siow and David Neo will be acting ministers
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.
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.
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.
The new cabinet changes will be effective from Friday, unless specified for various individuals, when most of the new political office holders will be sworn in.
The latest moves did not see Wong promote any of his senior ministers of state to full ministers.
Other changes to the line-up include National Development Minister Desmond Lee moving to the education ministry where Chan is currently deployed, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat moving to replace Lee as national development minister and Culture Minister Edwin Tong helming the law ministry after long-term Minister K Shanmugam relinquishes the portfolio.
Shanmugam, who has been law minister since 2008, will remain in charge of home affairs and also become the coordinating minister for national security.
Vivian Balakrishnan will also continue in his role as foreign minister, a post he has held since 2015.
Prior to the latest changes, Wong previously made minimal changes to the cabinet line-up last May, soon after he took over from predecessor Lee Hsien Loong.
The key changes then included promoting Gan to deputy prime minister, forgoing choosing a 4G minister as his deputy, and giving Lee the title of senior minister, in line with the tradition for outgoing prime ministers.
In Wong’s first general election as prime minister he led his People’s Action Party to win 87 out of 97 parliamentary seats and secured 65.57 per cent of the vote, fending off stiff opposition from the WP, which lost narrowly in the Jalan Kayu single seat and the Tampines multi-seat constituency to the ruling party.
Former cabinet minister Ng Chee Meng, who edged out WP newcomer Andre Low by some 800 votes in Jalan Kayu, last week said he had asked Wong not to assign him a government position.
Ng, chief of the labour movement National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), was ousted from parliament in the 2020 election when WP won its second multi-seat constituency in Sengkang.
