Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) has successfully undergone surgery for prostate cancer and is expected to make a full recovery, his office said yesterday.
On Sunday, Lee’s office announced that he would have an operation yesterday to remove his prostate gland and would take a week of medical leave, with Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean (張志賢) heading the government.
“The surgery went very smoothly and he is expected to recover fully,” Singapore General Hospital lead urologist Christopher Cheng (鄭畏三) was quoted as saying in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
Lee, 63, was previously diagnosed with lymphoma in 1992, but the cancer went into remission after chemotherapy.
Cheng said that there was no relationship between the lymphoma and the prostate cancer.
Lee’s illness raises questions about the need for a public succession plan if he steps down in the future, as his ruling People’s Action Party has not named a successor.
“Given that prostate cancer is not uncommon among people of a certain age and is, indeed, easily treated, the issue is not urgent,” said Manu Bhaskaran, a Singapore-based partner at Centennial Asia Advisors, a policy advisory group based in Washington. “However, more people could well focus on the issue now.”
However, the strength of political institutions and the durability of a national consensus are more important to political stability, he said.
“On both these scores, Singapore does well,” Bhaskaran said.
Singapore’s two previous changes of prime minister since independence in 1965 involved well-flagged transitions to previously anointed successors.
Lee last month hinted in an interview with domestic media outlets that his successor could be a member of his Cabinet.
“Yes, he may already be in the Cabinet, but it is not entirely certain, because I will bring in some MPs and some new people [of] leadership caliber in the next general election,” he said.
The next election must be held by January 2017, but media outlets and Internet sites have speculated that it could come as early as this year, after celebrations in August of Singapore’s 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
RSS