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Singapore
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Is Singapore ready for an Indian or Malay prime minister? Survey suggests so

  • More than three in five Singaporeans surveyed said they were ready for a PM from an ethnic minority group – with younger people most in favour
  • All three prime ministers elected since independence in 1965 have been Chinese, fuelling a perception the ethnic group has more privileges

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Pedestrians cross a road in Singapore last month. More than three in five Singaporeans are ready for an Indian or Malay prime minister, a new survey found. Photo: Bloomberg
Bloomberg

Singaporeans are ready to accept a prime minister from the minority community, a new survey showed, nearly two weeks after the Southeast Asian nation picked an ethnic Indian as its head of state.

More than three in five Singaporeans told polling company YouGov Plc that they are ready for an Indian or Malay prime minister, according to the survey published on Wednesday.

Younger Singaporeans were more in favour of a qualified leader from an ethnic minority group compared to the older generation of citizens, the findings showed.

Singapore’s new President Tharman Shanmugaratnam won last month’s election for the post in a landslide. Photo: Reuters
Singapore’s new President Tharman Shanmugaratnam won last month’s election for the post in a landslide. Photo: Reuters

The results reflect a growing acceptance of giving minority leaders an opportunity to lead the Southeast Asian nation, made up mostly of ethnic Chinese with a sizeable Indian and Malay population.

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Three prime ministers elected since Singapore’s independence in 1965 have been Chinese. There’s a perception among some Singaporeans that this ethnic group has more privileges, a claim Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said is “entirely baseless.”
The topic has come to the fore after Tharman Shanmugaratnam won the presidential race in a landslide, beating two Chinese contenders. Tharman, who served key positions in the ruling People’s Action Party and was a senior minister before resigning to take part in the election, clinched 70.4 per cent of the vote.

This week, a leader from the PAP said that it was too early to draw a conclusion that Singapore was ready for a non-Chinese prime minister based on Tharman’s victory.

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