Why is Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong moving young gun minister from cabinet to the speaker’s chair?
Social and family development minister Tan Chuan-Jin had been one of six contenders to take over from the Lion City’s premier when he retires
The prime minister’s announcement on Wednesday that he was recommending the social and family development minister Tan Chuan-Jin as the city state’s next parliament speaker was “confounding and confusing”, one observer said, as the move all but snuffed out the former army brigadier general’s chances for top political leadership.
Tan will need to quit as a cabinet minister to take up his new role. He will be appointed by lawmakers when parliament next sits on Monday. The ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) holds 83 out of 89 elected seats. The speaker position fell vacant in August after the incumbent Halimah Yacob resigned to stand in the country’s impending presidential election.
Tan, who made his political debut in 2011, was previously seen as among a group of six “fourth generation” ministers who were being primed to take over from Lee and his key lieutenants upon their expected retirement soon after the next polls due in 2021.