Under Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore has held its own in an era of globalized finance and cutting-edge tech, even as he continued his venerated father’s policy of muzzling free media and snuffing out dissent.
The premier steps down Wednesday, passing the baton to his deputy Lawrence Wong, the second non-member of the Lee family to lead the wealthy Asian nation.
As the son of the country’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong had to live with the perception that he could not have become prime minister without his pedigree.
But after nearly two decades at the helm, steering Singapore through a global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic while diversifying its economy, he has left his own imprint on the city-state.
He has not hesitated to use defamation laws against critics, suing anyone who suggested corruption or nepotism in the government.
Under his watch, rules against public protests have been tightened; even a one-person demonstration can be dispersed as an illegal assembly.
Lee Hsien Loong was sworn in as the nation’s third prime minister on Aug. 12, 2004 at age 52.
Lacking his father’s fiery oratory and iron fist, the younger Lee, now 72, has projected a more consultative style.
He has presided over efforts to retool the city-state’s export-driven economy by focusing on advanced industries such as biotechnology and electronics, as well as financial services.
Singapore — a small and open economy that imports most of its needs — forged a wide network of bilateral and regional free-trade agreements.
Lee Hsien Loong was born on Feb. 10, 1952, to lawyers Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo during a time of race riots, trade union militancy and rising communist influence in the British colony.
The elder Lee was carving out a reputation as a steely leader in the rough and tumble of Singapore politics ahead of self-rule in 1959 — when he became prime minister — and eventual independence in 1965.
Singapore’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew. His son Lee Hsien Loong had to live with the perception that he could not have become prime minister without his pedigree, but after nearly two decades at the helm, the younger Lee has left his own imprint on the city-state.
Singapore’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew. His son Lee Hsien Loong had to live with the perception that he could not have become prime minister without his pedigree, but after nearly two decades at the helm, the younger Lee has left his own imprint on the city-state. | REUTERS
“Of course, growing up as my father’s son could not but mean being exposed to politics very early … Growing up with my father, living through those years with him, made me what I am,” the younger Lee said in a eulogy after his father’s death in March 2015.
He joined the Singapore Armed Forces in 1971 and graduated on a scholarship from Britain’s Cambridge University in 1974 with first-class honors in mathematics and a diploma in computer science.
When Cambridge’s Trinity College offered him a fellowship to teach math, he wrote to his tutor: “I must go home. I’ve joined the Singapore Armed Forces, my father’s the PM and for me not to go home and do what I have to do would be bad for the country and for me.”
He eventually attained the rank of brigadier-general, but left the military in 1984 to become an MP.
Lee Kuan Yew stepped down in 1990 as part of a succession process worked out within the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), his son becoming deputy to successor Goh Chok Tong.
Before ascending to the top job, Lee Hsien Loong was chairman of the central bank, as well as finance minister.
Family feud
Balancing Singapore’s strong cultural and historic ties to both East and West, Lee Hsien Loong has refused to pick a side in the rivalry between the United States and China, carving out a niche for the country as a diplomatic honest broker.
Under his leadership, Singapore hosted historic summits between then Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou and China’s Xi Jinping in 2015, as well as 2018’s meeting between U.S. president Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Despite his seemingly charmed life, Lee Hsien Loong had to endure two major personal crises.
In 1982, his first wife Wong Ming Yang, a Malaysian-born doctor whom he met at Cambridge, died after giving birth to their second child.
Three years later, he married senior civil servant Ho Ching, who went on to become chief executive of state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings. They have two children.
In 1992, Singapore was stunned when the country’s two deputy prime ministers — Lee Hsien Loong and Ong Teng Cheong — were both diagnosed with lymphoma, a form of cancer.
The former underwent intensive treatment and was pronounced cured in 1997, but the latter died of cancer in 2002 after serving as the republic’s first directly elected president.
Seen as an aloof intellectual when he first entered politics, Lee Hsien Loong has undergone an image overhaul since becoming prime minister. A month after taking office, he hit the dance floor at one of Singapore’s trendiest discos in a bid to reach out to younger Singaporeans.
But the family’s image was stained by a bitter sibling feud that blew up after the patriarch’s death in 2015.
Lee Hsien Loong’s sister and younger brother accused him of going against their father’s wish to have the historic family bungalow demolished.
The sister, Lee Wei Ling, publicly called him a “dishonorable son” and accused him of trying to capitalize on their father’s legacy to build a dynasty — a charge he has rejected.
In his last major political speech as prime minister on May 1, Lee said he felt “a sense of satisfaction and completeness” as he hands over the top job.
“I have done my duty, and I am very happy I chose this path of public service all those many years ago,” he said.