Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday that Lawrence Wong’s deputy will be decided by him at a later date.
PM Lee was speaking at a press conference after the announcement that Wong will be the leader of the PAP’s 4G team.
In an exercise conducted by former party chairman Khaw Boon Wan, the exercise was to choose the leader of the 4G team and not his deputy, hence no decision was made on his deputy, yet.
PM Lee added that “in due course, Lawrence will decide who will be his deputy and who will be in his core team. And I hope he and his colleagues will work hard to identify and induct more promising leaders into the team to build up the 5G team for Singapore”.
PM Lee added that Wong will succeed him as Singapore’s next prime minister if the PAP wins the next general election in 2025.
On the issue of deputy prime ministers, Lee said that in his father’s case, Goh Chok Tong was identified as his successor and Ong Teng Cheong as the 2nd deputy.
And in his case, the ministers “settled on him” and after, he appointed his deputy prime ministers.
He added: “In the case of Mr Heng Swee Keat and Mr Chan Chun Sing, on that occasion, the ministers who caucus, who were involved, thought that they wanted to have a pairing and that would be the best choice.”