Connect with us

Politics

New appointments of Cabinet members reminisce their work in the last five years and share their priorities in the new ministries

Published

on

The new Cabinet was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (PM Lee) on Saturday (25 July). There were three retired Cabinet members and seven new appointments. 

In total, the new Cabinet will have 37 political office holders, the same as the previous Cabinet.

The members took to Facebook to share their thoughts and comments on these new roles as well as their tenure in their previous appointments. These appointments have been effected after the Swearing-In Ceremony that took place on Monday (27 July) at 7pm at the Istana and Parliament House.

Retirement

1. Mr Khaw Boon Wan

He has retired as Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Transport. 

On 27 June, Mr Khaw announced his retirement after 19 years in politics. He had been in PM Lee’s Cabinet since his election as prime minister in August 2004. 

Some of Mr Khaw’s most notable contributions include being in the front line in tackling the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak while he was a Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Health, and reforming MediShield and MediSave when he became Minister of Health. 

In his public statement, Mr Khaw thanked his colleagues in Cabinet and Parliament for the “friendship and great memories”. He addressed his continutencies Moulmein and Sembawang as well for the honour in representing them as a Member of Parliament (MP). 

Mr Khaw was most recently admitted into the hospital for dengue fever on Thursday (23 July) but was discharged in the morning of Saturday (25 July). 

2. Mr Sam Tan 

Mr Tan retired as Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development, and as Chairman of the Government’s feedback unit, REACH. He had held these positions since 2018 and 2015 respectively. 

He started his career in the People’s Association in 1983.  Subsequently in 2006, he was elected MP and appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and Industry, and Information, Communications and the Arts in July 2009.

From May 2014 – September 2015, Mr Tan served as Minister of State for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and Culture, Community and Youth, and subsequently in the Ministry of Manpower from Oct 2015 to April 2018. 

On his retirement, PM Lee thanked Mr Tan for being “invaluable to the team, because he’s close to the Chinese ground, and has given (Parliament) reliable feedback on how the community views issues”. 

3. Dr Tan Wu Meng 

He retires as Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Trade and Industry. 

In his public statement reflecting on his political career, he said his time in the ministries have been meaningful, however he felt it is time for him to return to his first love in medical practice.

Dr Tan further assures that he will continue to “put full effort and full heart into serving residents, together with his fellow MPs in Jurong GRC, and to contributing actively in Parliament”.

He was recently embroiled in a public spat with the Workers’ Party leader and MP for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC). Dr Tan questioned Mr Singh’s loyalty to Singapore since he publicly supported playwright Alfian Sa’at’s alleged allegiance to Malaysia. 

Unchanged Appointments 

1. Heng Swee Keat

Mr Heng remains in his posts as Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) after being promoted to this post in May 2019. He will continue to be Finance Minister (a role he has held since 2015) and take up a new appointment as Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies.

He also serves as an MP for East Coast GRC. 

He plans to continue his support for the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force as an advisor, as said in a Facebook post. As Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, he will “bring together all (the) economic agencies to focus on employment and the transformation of our industries”. 

He concluded by saying he hopes to continue to “engage and partner fellow Singaporeans, and those around the world, to overcome this pandemic, and to emerge stronger”.

Prior to being DPM, Mr Heng was Minister for Education from 2011 to 2015. Before he entered politics, he was the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore from 2005 to 2011. 

2. Mr Teo Chee Hean 

Mr Teo retains his post as Senior Minister (SM) and Coordinating Minister for National Security. 

He was appointed SM in May 2019, after stepping down as DPM which he was for 10 years. He is also elected MP for Paris Ris-Punggol GRC. 

During GE campaigning, Mr Teo caused quite a stir when he was filmed on video allegedly telling a resident, Yethidran Prakash Nair, not to “screw things up for PAP”. 

Mr Nair was having beers at a coffee shop located within Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC when he put on a mask that had a thumbs down sign and the words PAP on it to show Mr Teo, who was doing a walkabout.

3. Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam 

He continues to be Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies. 

SM Shanmugaratnam served as DPM from 2011 – 2019. 

Most recently, Singaporeans questioned SM Shanmugaratnam’s decision to include and let a withdrawn candidate Ivan Lim speak at a post-GE conference for Jurong GRC after PAP won. 

Ivan Lim withdrew from his candidacy for the GRC in question after an uproar of criticism from the public over his past and character. 

SM Shanmugaratnam had since explained on Facebook that he “wanted to acknowledge the contribution (Mr Lim) had made, and have him add his own thanks to residents in addition to those of the five MPs”. 

New Appointments

1. Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien

Ms Fu will be appointed Minister for Sustainability and Environment (MSE), which will be renamed from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) on 27 July. She will relinquish her appointment as Minister for Culture, Community and Youth.

In a Facebook post, she recounted her work in the last five years inspiring Singaporeans through the arts and sports, deepening youth engagement and building a more resilient Singapore through strengthening community bonds. 

Moving forward, she acknowledges the mounting sustainability challenges from “climate change and growing resource constraints” and the need to “shore up the resilience of our food and water supplies through harnessing technology and innovation”. 

She seeks to engage in deeper conversations with Singaporeans to tackle these issues, to co-create and co-deliver solutions.

2. Mr Lawrence Wong

He will be appointed Minister for Education. He will remain Second Minister for Finance, and relinquish his appointment as Minister for National Development (MND).

He had helmed the MND since 2015 and will return to his first appointment at MOE when he entered politics in 2011. 

Mr Wong said he had learnt a lot from the “team of dedicated staff and experts in the MND family”. He noted some of the work MND had done for housing issues, such as increasing housing grants, building more flats with shorter waiting times, and shortening queues for rental flats

His plans for MOE are to see through the ongoing reforms, engage parents, educators and stakeholders on new initiatives and programmes for children and for adult learning.

Pre-election, Mr Wong was in the news for announcing that overseas voters will not be allowed to vote unless they returned to Singapore. Post-election he sparked a debate on what is truly the starting point of an expected second wave of infections in Singapore: supporters who congregated together to celebrate the General Election (GE) results on 11 July, or the People’s Action Party (PAP) holding the GE in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. 


3. Mr Masagos Zulkifli

He will be appointed Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for Health. Mr Masagos will remain the Minister‐in‐ charge of Muslim Affairs and relinquish his appointment as Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. 

He had headed the MEWR since 2015. 

In his public post, he felt a great sense of pride at how the MEWR Family has worked together to address Singapore’s inherent resource constraints. 

“We have had to make many difficult but necessary choices. From the imposition of carbon tax and phasing out of pollutive vehicles, to imposing fines on people who do not observe safe distancing, every decision underwent careful deliberation of trade-offs, as we remained steadfast in safeguarding the interests and welfare of Singapore and Singaporeans.” 

Before Polling Day on 10 July, he garnered attention on social media for wrongly addressing Lee Hsien Yang as Prime Minister instead of Lee Hsien Loong in an online rally in Tampines GRC on 3 July, where he was elected MP during GE 2020. 

4. Mr Ong Ye Kung

Mr Ong will be appointed Minister for Transport (MOT). He will relinquish his appointment as Minister for MOE, which he had headed since 2015. Mr Ong first entered politics in 1993 serving in the Ministry of Communications.  

He also serves as MP in Sembawang GRC. 

He cited the work MOE has done in the last five years in ushering in profound reforms to a system. He included revamping the PSLE scoring, phasing out streaming and enhancing Character and Citizenship Education and digital literacy. 

The immediate task Mr Ong foresees for MOT will be to rebuild and secure Singapore’s status as a maritime and aviation hub. He sees a need also to implement a-post COVID-19 transport system that serves the people well, is green, sustainable and affordable.

He made headlines for posting an election campaign video on Facebook on 2 July which violated a rule in the Parliament Election Act. It resulted in a police report filed by someone called Pee Jay as well. In it he chatted with a primary school student. According to the Act, students in primary and secondary schools are prohibited from conducting political activity. 

This issue shed light on another PAP candidate who featured preschoolers and primary school students in a campaign video. However Ms Sun Xueling’s video was not asked to be taken down by the Elections Department. 

Mr Ong’s video in question continued to be points of contention among the public even after the GE when the police report was dismissed, and the alleged double standards in consequences for violating electoral rules between PAP and alternative parties candidates.

In the latest development posted on Monday (20 July), Pee Jay questioned the police for not stating if he had committed an offence in an email they sent to him. 

The second piece of news that gained much attention from the public was the revelation that he was related to newly-elected MP for Jurong GRC, Xie Yao Quan, as first-degree cousins. 

Mr Xie replaced Ivan Lim as a candidate for Jurong when the latter withdrew from GE after a public uproar over his past. 

5. Mr Desmond Lee

Mr Lee will be appointed Minister for MND. He will relinquish his appointment as Minister for Social and Family Development but will remain in the Ministry and be concurrently appointed as Minister‐in‐charge of Social Services Integration.

He was elected as an MP in 2011 for Jurong GRC, and took on the role of Minister for Social and Family Development in 2017.

Mr Lee is now an MP for PAP’s West Coast GRC. 

PM Lee noted during the announcement that rotation of the ministers, especially the younger ones, is to gain exposure and experience. 

“The intent is to expose the office holders to different portfolios, to gain both breadth and depth, to understand the intricacies of the issues and to see things from different perspectives. And ultimately from a national perspective.

6. Ms Indranee Rajah

She will be appointed Second Minister for National Development, and relinquish her appointment as Second Minister for Education. Mr Rajah will remain Minister in the PMO and as Second Minister for Finance, which she has both held since May 2018.

Ms Rajah is currently an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC headed by Chan Chun-Sing, Minister for Trade and Industry. She has been there since 2001. 

In a public statement on Facebook, she counts three of her projects as her most note-worthy accomplishments: initiating ASPIRE which re-oriented the Institute of Higher Learning curriculum to focus on skills and practical training and led on to Skillsfuture; launching UPLIFT which tackles inequality and helps children from disadvantaged backgrounds to level up; the progress in special education (SPED) which increased funding, reduced fees and expanded SPED schools. 

7. Dr Tan See Leng

Dr Tan will be appointed Minister in the PMO, Second Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry. 

He was in the news during the election campaign when the public questioned his bandwidth in being able to serve Marine Parade as a part-time MP. It was claimed that he held 69 directorships. 

Dr Tan clarified in a Facebook post that he only held four dictatorships: Surbana Jurong, the only paid one, and three other unpaid ones at social enterprise raiSE, NUH Fund Ltd and NUH Health Research Endowment Fund. 

His candidacy was significant because he replaced Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong as chairman of the PAP’s contesting team for Marine Parade GRC. Mr Goh was former Prime Minister of Singapore from 1990 – 2004. 

On 25 June, Mr Goh announced he was retired from politics after 44 years, which is the duration that he had chaired Marine Parade GRC as MP as well. 

 

4 Comments
Subscribe
Notify of
4 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Trending