Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), Singapore's prime minister-designate, yesterday appointed a new government of mostly old faces to tackle pressing problems ranging from a low birth rate to the loss of jobs to fast-growing China.
His 80-year-old father, founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀), stays in the Cabinet with a new title of "minister mentor" while outgoing prime minister Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟) will take his place as senior minister -- the number two position of power -- while also heading the central bank.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The reshuffle mostly swaps existing ministers around without drawing on much new blood, surprising many political analysts and economists who had expected the 52-year-old Lee to usher in a new generation of younger leaders.
Lee, who will be sworn in as leader tomorrow, remains finance minister.
"There are no key changes in the ministries at all. There is a lot of continuity in the change of power. So there will be continuity in policy," said Nizam Idris, an economist at consultancy IDEAGlobal.com. "It is so uneventful."
The elder Lee, who spearheaded Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965 and steered the nation from post-colonial backwater to regional dynamo in a generation, has insisted that his son's political rise was based on merit, not nepotism.
The son was formally invited by President Nathan to head the next government at a meeting on Tuesday after Goh submitted his Cabinet's resignation.
"The president has accepted the resignations which will take effect immediately before the new prime minister is appointed on Aug. 12," a statement from the prime mini-ster's office said.
The reshuffle marks one of the final steps in an elaborately scripted succession that has been expected since Goh became prime minister and Lee his deputy in 1990.
Lee, a former brigadier general, has held all the senior economic posts. He was formally endorsed to replace Goh this year by the long-ruling People's Action Party, which controls all but two seats in parliament.
Surprising some political observers, Lee re-appointed 64-year-old Coordinating Minister for Security and Defense Tony Tan to one of two deputy premier posts.
The other went to long-serving Cabinet member Jayakumar, who gave up his foreign ministry portfolio but remains the law minister.
George Yeo, a trade minister who led the farm trade talks at the WTO's 1999 meeting in Seattle and the agriculture negotiations at the 2001 meeting in Doha, becomes foreign minister.
Singapore has been slowly liberalizing its social system, including relaxing its infamous ban on chewing gum, in a bid to attract more international companies and to match the rising expectations of a better-educated, wealthier people. The new leadership faces a tough initiation with jobs disappearing to the fast-growing economies of China and India while birth rates stagnate at home and the population ages.
However, the new administration inherits fast growth, with figures issued on Tuesday showing the economy expanded 11.9 percent in the second quarter on an annualized basis and is set to grow 8-9 percent in 2004 -- neck-and-neck with China.
"I am now closing my chapter," Goh, who presided over a period of relative liberalism, told reporters late on Monday after celebrations marking Singapore's 39th national day.
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