LEE MAY STEP DOWN IN FEW YEARS’ TIME
Successor likely in cabinet but no clear choice yet, says S’pore PM
SINGAPORE
SINGAPOREAN Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he was ready to step down in the next couple of years and his successor is likely in the cabinet, but a clear choice has yet to emerge.
In an interview with CNBC released yesterday, Lee, 65, said a new election could be called any time before 2021.
“I am ready,” said Lee, when asked if he was prepared to step down in the next couple of years.
But, he said, he needed to make sure there was a successor ready to take over, adding: “there are people in the wings. The question is, who it will be and that will need to be decided.”
“I think it’s very likely that he would be in the cabinet already, but which one, well that would take a while to account,” Lee said when asked if he was close to finding a successor.
Lee was speaking ahead of a visit to the United States starting tomorrow, including a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
Local media and analysts said Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat and Chan Chun Sing, a former army chief and a minister in the prime minister’s office, were among potential successors. Deputy Prime Minister T. Shanmugaratnam could be a candidate, although he has repeatedly said he does not want the job and he would be a surprise choice because he is a member of the minority ethnic Indian community.
Singapore’s leader since independence has always been a member of the majority Chinese community. Questions about succession came into focus when Lee, who has twice survived cancer, took ill during a televised speech last year and stumbled at a podium. Reuters