SINGAPORE ELECTIONS FOCUS ON PM-IN-WAITING
SINGAPORE—FOR all the predictability of elections in Singapore, voters will be keenly watching after the city-state votes on Friday whether Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat has what it takes to be a future leader.
Promoted last year to deputy prime minister, 59-year-old Heng is in line to succeed Lee Hsien Loong, who has said he would step down in coming years.
But the campaign of Heng— once described as “one of the finest minds among the civil servants” by Singapore founder Lee Kuan Yew—got off to a rocky start on June 30 as he stumbled over his words during his nomination day speech and spawned internet memes of ridicule.
“For our East Coast residents, we also have a plan for the East Coast. We have a East Coast, Singapore, we have a together and East Coast plan. We care at the
East Coast,” Heng told a befuddled audience as his teammate Jessica Tan stood beside him with her face mask worn upside down.
Even the tourism promotion agencies of neighboring Malaysia and Thailand posted online messages referring to Heng’s confuddled remarks.
“We have stumbled in our delivery as of late, but we too have come up with an East Coast Plan,” Tourism Malaysia posted on Twitter. “We also have a plan for the East Coast. We have a East Coast—malaysia. We have a together an East Coast plan. We care, at Tourism Malaysia Singapore.”
Heng’s supporters tried to justify Heng’s blooper by pointing out that he suffered a stroke during a Cabinet meeting in 2016 and fell into a six-day coma, but that also raised questions about his health and fitness to lead the city-state as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
The public gaffe reminded Singaporeans’ of Heng’s remarks in March when he told students at Nanyang Technological University that while some Singaporeans’ might be happy to have a prime minister from the ethnic minority, the older generation was not ready for a non-chinese premier.
A complaint was lodge with the police, but the attorney general ruled that the remarks were not an offense, unlike opposition candidate Raeesah Khan who was also called out and is under police investigation for making supposedly racist remarks.
Khan suggested on social media that Singaporean police discriminated against minorities and favored rich Chinese and white people.
Having held power since independence in 1965, Heng’s People’s Action Party (PAP) is expected to notch another victory in the July 10 election but politicians said Heng was running in a challenging constituency with many opposing candidates.
Inderjit Singh, a former PAP lawmaker, said even a narrow win would “legitimize” Heng’s future as the PAP was expected to lose the seat before the vote was called.