In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Workers’ Party (WP) chairperson Sylvia Lim said that Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Heng Swee Keat is “more comfortable crunching numbers” and that “charismatic is not a term we would ascribe to him (sic)”, when asked to comment on Heng taking over as Prime Minister from Lee Hsien Loong.
Lim revealed that she and DPM Heng actually go way back, she said: “I actually know DPM Heng personally, althought not very well because he was a police scholar and I was a police officer in the past.”
Lim added: “I supposed in a sense, he might be more comfortable crunching numbers and so on. I mean, charismatic is not a term that we would ascribe to him.”
Lim also added: “He can show competence in other ways, so I do believe that as and when DPM Heng becomes PM, he will have his own style of leadership.”
Giving Heng the benefit of the doubt, Lim suggested that it is unclear whether Heng’s performance at East Coast GRC during the General Election 2020 (GE2020) was a referendum on his leadership of his party’s.
Lim commented: “I do not know how much time he and his team had to really work out a strategy, it appeared as if the campaign wasn’t well prepared.”