No timeline yet for taking over as PM, says Wong

A decision on when Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will take over as prime minister has yet to be made, but work is under way to prepare for him to take over from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Mr Wong sketched out two possible scenarios for when the leadership transition could take place.

In the first, he could take over as PM before the next general election, which must be held by November 2025. In such a case, Mr Wong said, he would "clearly lead" the People's Action Party (PAP) and its fourth generation of political leaders, or 4G team, in the election.

In the second, PM Lee could continue to lead the party in the election and then relinquish the position to him if the PAP wins.

Mr Wong was responding to Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait who had asked during an interview on Monday when Mr Wong might assume the role of prime minister and if it will be before the next general election.

"These are the options, but we have still yet to make a decision on the actual timing," he said.

For now, what is most important for him is thinking about organising the team of Singapore's leaders and to become familiar with his own expanded role, said Mr Wong, who became Deputy PM in June.

"My priority for now is really to start thinking about organising the team, how we might want to go about dealing with our immediate priorities, and really take this time to settle into my new expanded responsibilities and portfolios," he said. "In due course, we will make a decision on this important matter (of succession)."

Mr Micklethwait recounted how he had, in an interview with PM Lee last November, compared Singapore's political succession to Squid Game, the popular Netflix drama series which sees contestants violently eliminated as they compete for a prize. Mr Micklethwait said on Monday that Mr Wong seemed to have won the "sort of Squid Game competition", but the minister disagreed.

"It was never a matter of competition, certainly not the Squid Game. We had a very thorough and deliberate process to think about what we might do with succession planning," Mr Wong said. "The plans were disrupted because of Covid-19. Then we had to come back together, and we wanted a process that would allow us to choose a leader while strengthening the sense of team within the Cabinet, and we have done that."

Mr Micklethwait also asked if the real test for whether the Republic has come a long way is if it is able to have a leader who is not ethnically Chinese.

Mr Wong said Singapore chooses its leaders based on their abilities.

"I would certainly welcome a leader in the future who is not from the majority community," he said. "We choose our leaders on the basis of merit and, if there is a leader that emerges down the road who is not Chinese, I would certainly welcome that person."