Singapore PM Lee Hsien plans to reshuffle cabinet to support his successor

Singapore, February 28: Boosting young talent and aiming to give them responsibility so that they would restructure and bring creativity and support the next successor, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that he will reshuffle his cabinet once the Parliament will enter a mid-term break in the coming months.

 

Lee is the eldest son of Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew and the city-state’s third Prime Minister since independence in 1965. Lee said in October he would be ready to step down in a couple of years. He said a new election could be called any time before early 2021, when parliament’s current term ends, and that his successor was likely to emerge from the current cabinet.

Citing this information on his Facebook post, Lee said, “I will reshuffle the Cabinet after Parliament prorogues, to give the younger members more exposure and responsibility. This way, my successor will be supported by a stronger and more experienced team, committed to leading Singapore to a better and brighter future,”

Singapore’s parliament is due to be suspended for a mid-term break following a debate on the budget, which starts on Tuesday, and another on ministries’ spending plans.

Parliament will re-open in May with an address by President Halimah Yacob, and Lee said on Tuesday he was asking the next generation of ministers to draft the government’s agenda for the address to “give Singaporeans a better sense of them and their thoughts”.