Everything About the S’pore Cabinet Reshuffle That S’poreans Should Know

By
George Yang
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You know it and I know it: Yesterday, 23 April 2019, was an important day for many Singaporeans.

After so many years, it’s finally boiled down to this day: the eve of Avengers: Endgame that—

Editor: Oei, idiot, not that lah!

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Oh, not that?

Then I suppose it’s another important event: the Singapore cabinet had a reshuffle.

And let’s face it: to some Singaporeans, a cabinet is this:

Image: Maffi / Shutterstock.com

And a cabinet reshuffle is for the ladies who’ve too many shoes, and they decided to place the high heels on the top and the flats on the bottom.

Image: Pinterest

But hey: if you’re one of those “some Singaporeans”, then you might want to know this, because while you can be apolitical, you should at least know who our leaders are.

Now, for a start:

What’s a Cabinet?

A cabinet comprises high-ranking state officials who are heads of various ministries. For example, our Defence Minister is Ng Eng Hen, and our Education Minister is Ong Ye Kung. Put all ministers together and it’s the Singapore Cabinet.

In other words, they’re important members of the Singapore Government.

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So, what’s a cabinet reshuffle?

Cabinet Reshuffle

It’s common for cabinet to reshuffle regularly; reshuffle means that the ministers rotate or change their roles.

Usually, it’s to replace ministers who have retired or a way to “refresh” the Government; sometimes, it’s to let other minsters have more experience in other roles or to promote certain ministers.

The last Singapore cabinet reshuffle occurred last year around this period as well, whereby the younger ministers took on heavier responsibilities.

 So, What’s New for This Reshuffle?

Unlike last year’s reshuffle, this year’s reshuffle is like a deck of cards that’s shuffled by Doraemon: there’s only a few changes, though one of the changes can have long-lasting effect.

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Firstly, both deputy prime ministers Teo Chee Hean and Tharman Shanmugaratnam will relinquish the role, giving the role to a single person, Heng Swee Keat, whom we all know is the frontrunner to be the next prime minister. This means that when our prime minister is on leave, Mr Heng would be the acting prime minister.

Mr Heng will concurrently still be the finance minister, so if there’s no reshuffle before next year’s budget, we would still be seeing his smile on next year’s budget speech.

In addition, another change could be Mr Tharman’s role: the highly popular minister will be re-designated as Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, and will continue to advise the Prime Minister on economic policies.

And…that’s about it, folks.

Now you know why it’s like Doraemon shuffling a deck of cards, eh? It’s not a series of major changes but just a tad little change.

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But like what a wise man once said, “A little change in cabinet and a big change in leadership.”

Geddit?

Anyway, the new cabinet will take effect from 1 May 2019, so don’t go around calling Mr Heng “Mr Deputy Prime Minister” yet.

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]