'Comfortable in his own skin': What's 4G leader Lawrence Wong like to those who know him?

Some 30 years have passed, but music industry veteran Nelson Kwei still remembers a standout member of the Victoria Junior College Choir, which he founded in 1985 and still conducts today.

Hailing from the school's class of 1990, this teenager was a fast learner who overcame a lack of prior experience to attain a polished vocal range in no time at all.

He could act, too, playing the lead role in a choir-only skit based on the popular wuxia novel Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, and winning an award for his improvisation and stagecraft.

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Lawrence Wong as 4G leader: From 'Fabulous Five' to first among equals

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong entered politics in 2011, and handled various appointments before being chosen as the leader of the ruling People's Action Party fourth-generation (4G) team last week (April 14).

Here are some highlights of his political career so far.

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When will Lawrence Wong take over as PM? Could PM Lee lead the next election? 

When Mr Goh Chok Tong succeeded founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in November 1990, he decided to call a snap election nine months later, a mere three years after the last general election (GE) in 1988.

The political winds were judged then to be in his favour, and Mr Goh wanted to seek his own mandate to run Singapore. The economy was doing well, and informal straw polls as well as his own ground visits had suggested that the public had taken well to his more personable style.

Parliament was dissolved three days after his first National Day Rally in 1991. But in the August polls, the People's Action Party (PAP) achieved its then lowest vote share in a GE since independence, at 61 per cent, and lost four seats to the opposition, up from one.

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Lawrence Wong as 4G leader: Personality and political leadership

Unless you've been living under a rock, you would know that the People's Action Party's (PAP's) newly anointed 4G leader loves dogs and plays the guitar. You would also have listened to his Covid-19 briefings and his Budget message of fairness and inclusion.

In the coming months, commentators will parse Mr Lawrence Wong's background and personality traits, hoping to understand his politics. Some Singaporeans, thinking that they have a handle on his values and beliefs, may even lobby him to support certain policies.

This conflation of personality with politics is not new.

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How did Singapore vote in the GE every time the prime minister was changed?

How did Singaporeans vote every time the country saw a change of prime minister?

The Straits Times looks at the electoral landscape from the period since founding PM Lee Kuan Yew's successor was decided.