Wong faces new world of challenges

Singapore's first leadership change in two decades took place last evening with Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai being sworn in as the fourth prime minister since the city state's independence from the United Kingdom.

Lee Hisen Loong, the country's third prime minister, will continue as a senior minister in Wong's cabinet - an arrangement full of Singaporean characteristics to emphasize continuity.

A general election will have to be held before November 2025 but it may be called sooner than that.

When Lee - the son of modern Singapore's founder Lee Kuan Yew - came to power in 2004, he faced a challenging environment still reeling from the impact of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS epidemic and a US-led war on international terrorism.

Two decades later, Wong faces no less a challenge.

It may be ironic but, thanks to his predecessor's tremendous success, the economic miracles that Singapore has gone through over the past 20 years have also made the city state the most expensive place to live, with the cost of renting an apartment more than doubling during the period.

Nobody would deny that Hong Kong is expensive as citizens continue to flock to Shenzhen in large numbers for weekend shopping and entertainment to take advantage of cheaper costs across the border.

However, while Hong Kong is expensive, Singapore is even more so, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

As Singapore's per capita GDP surged to US$88,450 in 2024 from US$27,610 in 2004 when Lee's premiership began, its birth rate fell to an all-time low of 0.97 in 2023.

The aging population will be an increasingly crucial issue for the Wong administration.

It is predicted that the proportion of Singaporeans aged 65 and above will continue to rise from a little more than 19 percent in 2013 to about 25 percent by 2030.

As the population ages, the city state may have to depend on migrants more than ever to help power the economy which, at the same time, will lead to social rifts that countries compounded with migrant influx have been facing.

Wong will face a challenge of a different kind too.

In addition to the domestic issues he must deal with in order to maintain social cohesion, the new prime minister will also have to walk a delicate balance internationally as US-China conflicts escalate.

The most outstanding difference in the political situation between now and then is that, when Lee assumed the premiership, the global order was one of economic globalization and Lee was able to make the most out of the world's two largest economies.

Wong is deprived of such a privilege. Rather than a liberal global economic environment, he faces a world fractured with political blocs, to which the old formula of pulling economic miracles out of the hat may no longer apply.

Wong will come under pressure to produce a new formula of success in his own right