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Everything About the ‘New’ PAP Leadership Team That’s Not Surprising

Chew Ming Hui

2022-11-06 , 10:03 pm

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On Sunday (6 Nov), the People’s Action Party (PAP) went through an important internal election.

The Biennial Election for the Central Executive Committee (CEC)

It just looks like a bunch of words with a nice ring to them being strung together, but the CEC is more than that.

The CEC is PAP’s highest decision-making body.

More than 3,000 party cadres, through this biennial election, will directly elect 12 CEC members, while another six members can be co-opted.

Subsequently, these elected CEC members will elect the office-bearers for several posts.

Under the PAP’s constitution, these elected CEC members “shall elect, from amongst its members, the office-bearers for the posts of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary-General, Assistant Secretary-General, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer and such other posts as it deems necessary to establish”.

Meet the new PAP CEC, (almost) the same as the old one

The new PAP CEC consists of the following members:

Lee Hsien Loong
Lawrence Wong
Heng Swee Keat
Chan Chun Sing
Masagos Zulkifli
K Shanmugam
Grace Fu
Desmond Lee
Indranee Rajah
Ong Ye Kung
Tan Chuan-Jin
Vivian Balakrishnan
Josephine Teo (co-opted)
Edwin Tong (co-opted)

Wah, this one longer than my grocery list sia.

None of the members are new to the CEC. All members were elected or co-opted in the previous 2020 CEC election.

Notably however, Indranee Rajah has replaced Gan Kim Yong as one of the 12 directly-elected CEC members. She was previously co-opted into the 2020 CEC election.

Josephine Teo and Edwin Tong, having received the 13th and 14th highest number of votes in the CEC election, were co-opted.

Retirement of PAP Chairman Gan

PM Lee paid tribute to PAP Chairman Gan, who did not stand for re-election to the CEC after announcing his step-down as Chairman.

“I thank him for his many, many contributions and services to the party,” Lee said.

He also added that Gan still carries many heavy responsibilities in the PAP, such as leading the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and co-chairing the Multi-Ministry Taskforce.

In Gan’s last speech as Chairman, he also thanked PM Lee and his fellow CEC members.

Gan added that he had “full confidence that my comrades in the new CEC will continue to serve our people well and will enjoy your full support”.

Chairman Gan, pang gang loh!

All eyes on Lawrence Wong

The party will announce its slate of CEC office-holders in the coming weeks.

Any guesses as to who will be holding which offices?

Mr Wong is widely expected to be appointed as the PAP’s first assistant secretary-general, taking over from Mr Heng Swee Keat.

When Mr Heng assumed the role in 2018, it was seen as an indication that he was the frontrunner to be Singapore’s next Prime Minister.

Historically, prime ministers-in-waiting such as Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong were elected into top roles in the CEC before taking up the job of the prime minister.

So, watch this video to find out why Mr Wong is likely to become our next Prime Minister:

PM Lee: Why PAP needs to continue being the clear choice for voters

Speaking at the conference, PAP’s secretary-general Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that whether voters give the PAP a strong or weak mandate makes a crucial difference.

The conference was held at Resorts World Sentosa, where cadre members met for the biennial elections for the CEC.

Mr Lee added that with a strong mandate, the Government will be able to act strongly and decisively.

“Imagine if in 2020, the PAP had been re-elected narrowly, at 51-49, we would still have formed the government (and) we would still have governed Singapore to the best of our ability, but we would have lost many good MPs and capable ministers.”

“The leadership team would have been considerably weakened.”

Mr Lee said that with the many years that PAP has been in power, there is a growing psychology among Singaporeans who want the PAP to continue governing Singapore but also to elect more opposition MPs to keep the Government in check.

“Unfortunately, we cannot have it both ways,” said Mr Lee.

Mr Lee elaborated that “the more constituencies are hotly contested, the more the General Election becomes a decision on which party will form Singapore’s next government.”

This is why PAP needs to continue to be the clear choice for voters, Mr Lee said.

PAP to work “doubly hard, triply hard”

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong also spoke at the conference, adding that the party will work “doubly hard, triply hard” to regain the seats it has lost.

Mr Wong also said that the party will go all out to earn Singaporeans’ support, in order to secure a strong mandate to govern.

Hopefully there’ll be something that tops the East Coast Plan…

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He noted that the WP had contested six constituencies in the last election.

“What if the WP had contested more seats? Would the PAP still have won 61 per cent of the votes nationwide? Would we still have returned to power?” he asked.

He added that as a political party, the PAP has to be clear-eyed and confront its political challenges and challengers head-on.

External and domestic challenges

Mr Wong also surfaced challenges that could be faced by our little red dot – a world where war cannot be ruled out, an ageing population and the climate crisis, amongst others.

All these challenges will ultimately affect social cohesion and if Singapore is to succeed, it cannot wish away these challenges but must confront them head-on, bravely and wisely, said Mr Wong.

Mr Wong noted that having emerged from the COVID-19 crisis stronger, he is confident that PAP will overcome these challenges and prevail.

“We must show through our words and actions that the PAP is the only party with the ability and determination to take Singapore forward.”