Singapore in 'mid-life crisis' as Lee Hsien Loong marks 10 years in power

At Singapore's 49th National Day parade last week, the loudest cheers weren't for the dazzling fireworks or for the fine military displays.

They were reserved for the arrival of Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. Lee, who turns 91 next month, was prime minister from 1965 to 1990 and transformed a little red dot on the map to a cosmopolitan economic miracle.

Will his son Lee Hsien Loong receive the same kind of deafening standing ovations at parades many years from now, after he is no longer prime minister? The road is paved with many challenges for the younger Lee, who marked a decade in power on Tuesday.

"I am grateful for this opportunity to serve my country and fellow citizens," Lee wrote on his Facebook page. "My team and I will continue to do our best for Singapore."

Lee, who studied at Cambridge, took over from Goh Chok Tong to become Singapore's third prime minister in 2004, after 20 years in the political arena. Prior to that, he had been in the military, where he attained the rank of brigadier general.

But life hasn't been easy for Lee. His first wife died in the early 1980s and he suffered a bout of cancer the following decade.

Lee, who is the world's highest-paid prime minister, is now married to Ho Ching, the 59th most-powerful woman in the world according to a Forbes list. Stanford-educated Ho is the CEO of sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings.