PM Lee Denies ‘Squid Game’ Analogy When Asked if Lawrence Wong or Ong Ye Kung Will Be the Next PM

Squid Game, a South Korean Netflix Original series, has taken the world by storm.

Its cast found their Instagram accounts’ following growing to millions of followers, from as low as 10,000.

Their lives, including how long they’ve cooked breakfast for, became headline entertainment news.

The show was so popular it started a new craze over South Korean traditional games (gganbu, anyone?) and infected many scenes, including the recent Bloomberg New-Economy Forum.

PM Lee Denies ‘Squid Game’ Analogy When Asked if Lawrence Wong or Ong Ye Kung Will Be the Next PM

With DPM Heng Swee Keat, the frontrunner for the position of Prime Minister, retreating from the race, everyone is wondering who the next great leader will be.

This includes everyday Singaporeans like you and me, and Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait.

At the recent gala dinner for Bloomberg New-Economy Forum, Micklethwait asked PM Lee if he is choosing his successor “Squid Game” style.

He was referring to how PM Lee placed both Finance Minister Lawrence Wong and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on the COVID-19 task force and asked if PM Lee is playing an elimination game with them:

“It looks a little like Squid Game. Do you have any idea how are they performing? Are you thinking of eliminating them or continuing?”

PM Lee, however, denied the analogy.

He stated that he is trying to build a team that can offer different skillsets, and not eliminate any “participants”:

“I do not have spare. I am not looking for a winner. I am trying to build a team, and the team needs many different skills and many different people to carry a very heavy responsibility of taking Singapore into the next generation, beyond me and my age group of leaders.”

As for why people are placed on the task force, it’s because they have “something to offer”.

“If I do not put the best people available on the Covid-19 team, what am I doing with them?”

Persuading People That It’s Okay To Have Thousands Of Cases Per Day

If you find yourself unsettled by the high amount of cases daily, here’s what PM Lee has to say: It’s the new normal. Relax.

Okay, maybe, not word-for-word, but that’s the general idea.

Singapore is slowly easing restrictions without making sudden U-turns that makes people nervous, and trying to pull through “without paying the high price” that other countries went through.

Since the day Singapore announced its intention to turn COVID-19 endemic, the government has been saying that “there will be more cases”.

There will be casualties, but life has to move on.

“It is just the way life is and it is the way influenza and pneumonia and other diseases carry off old folks by the thousands every year.

“We accept that and we have to manage this going forward without letting it go out of control.”

And for that to happen, trust between the people and the leaders is invaluable.

Wealth Tax?

Will rich people be made to pay more taxes to keep Singapore running? That isn’t impossible but it’ll take time.

The tax must be seen as “progressive” and “fair”. Inequality, PM Lee added, is something that’s difficult to measure.

The focus is to ensure that each generation starts from “as equal a starting point as possible”.

You can watch his full discussion below:

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Feature Image: MCI / YouTube