Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong to reshuffle cabinet in coming months to make way for young blood

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday he will reshuffle his cabinet after parliament breaks in coming months to give more responsibility to the next generation of leaders who will support his eventual successor.

Lee, the eldest son of Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew and the city-state’s third prime minister since independence in 1965, said in October he would be ready to step down in a couple of years.

He said a new election could be called any time before early 2021, when parliament’s current term ends, and that his successor was likely to emerge from the current cabinet.

“I will reshuffle the Cabinet after Parliament prorogues, to give the younger members more exposure and responsibility. This way, my successor will be supported by a stronger and more experienced team, committed to leading Singapore to a better and brighter future,” Lee said in a Facebook post.

Lee said parliament will reopen in May after a midterm recess, or prorogue.

Questions about succession in the wealthy Southeast Asian city state – which has been governed by the People’s Action Party (PAP) since independence – came into focus when Lee, who has twice survived cancer, fell ill during a televised speech in 2016 and stumbled at a podium.