Singapore’s next leader Lawrence Wong fires fresh salvo at opposition and ‘populist ideas’

Singapore will remain ‘pro-growth’, says city state’s No 2 leader as he criticises the opposition for objecting to the government’s GST increase

There are no plans for Singapore to go down the path of welfarism even as it expands social support and enhances policies, Wong adds

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DPM Wong noted that in parts of Europe and the Nordic region where welfarist policies were prevalent, the state spent more than 40 per cent of GDP on welfare provisions compared to Singapore’s 18 per cent. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:00pm, 17 Apr 2023Updated: 10:37pm, 17 Apr 2023

Singapore’s next leader Lawrence Wong on Monday said the country needed to remain “pro-growth” to sustain efforts to broaden its social safety net, as he sought to dismiss suggestions that the ruling party’s younger leaders were in favour of leftist economic policies.

Addressing parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Wong said “some” had asked whether the fourth generation, or “4G”, leaders of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) had “shifted to the left” given various initiatives being undertaken to strengthen the country’s social compact.

“It’s not so simple. Our governing approach is not so easy to characterise along the traditional political spectrum of left and right,” Wong said in a speech on a Motion of Thanks following President Halimah Yacob’s address to the legislature last week.

“After all, we have always strived to appeal to a broad base of Singaporeans and we have always taken care not to base our legitimacy on any narrow social group or class. We also do not blindly copy or replicate the models of other countries,” added Wong, who is also finance minister.

Like the Monarch’s Speech in Britain, the Singapore president’s speech is delivered on behalf of the incumbent administration and outlines its legislative agenda.