Lee promotes younger ministers

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong promoted younger ministers in a cabinet reshuffle yesterday as speculation mounts about who will replace him.

The changes saw three ministers from the old guard retire, more women taking leadership roles and younger figures promoted as part of a carefully planned succession process that has made Singapore an oasis of stability in sometimes turbulent Southeast Asia.

Last year, Lee said he was ready to step down in a couple of years.

But with elections due in three years, analysts said the cabinet changes had not given a clear sign of who would succeed Lee, 66, unlike the past two power transitions since independence in 1965.

When founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was succeeded in 1990 by former shipping executive Goh Chok Tong, the choice was known well in advance. The same thing happened when Goh was succeeded in 2004 by the senior Lee’s son, the current leader.

“There appears to be a delay (in the naming of a successor),” said Eugene Tan, a political analyst and law academic at the Singapore Management University.

One of the changes announced yesterday was the appointment of former army general Chan Chun Sing, 48, as trade minister.

Tan said this gives Chan a “slight edge” among other purported front-runners in the race to succeed Lee.

Tan said he expected another more wide-ranging reshuffle that would give a clearer signal on leadership succession.