Prime Minister Lee’s podium wobble exposes uncertainty facing Singapore’s leadership

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Lee Hsien Loong speaks at a lunchtime rally in the central business district in Singapore in 2015. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:36pm, 23 Aug 2016Updated: 10:38pm, 23 Aug 2016

One of Singapore’s greatest strengths is its predictability: in a region where coups and economic meltdowns are not uncommon, it has long been a haven of stability for investors and businesses.

But when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong almost collapsed during a National Day speech on Sunday, it brought into focus concerns that have been simmering for months about the future of the wealthy city-state.

It is a concern that we are quite late in putting in place the fourth-generation leadership

Inderjit Singh, a former lawmaker

The economy has lost some of the zest it had under the open trade-oriented model created by founding father Lee Kwan Yew, whose death last year for many marked the end of an era. Doubts have also started to emerge about Singapore’s position as one of the world’s leading financial capitals.

Singapore is vulnerable to attacks by Islamist militants: just this month, two Singaporeans were detained before they could join Islamic State in Syria and Indonesian police foiled a plot to attack the island nation with a rocket.

And, now, Lee’s stumble at the podium has exposed the apparent lack of a chosen successor, a remarkable state of affairs for a country where politics has been carefully managed since independence half a century ago under one powerful party.