While several Cabinet members have military backgrounds – such as Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Education Minister Chan Chun Sing – observers said the role requires more than operational expertise.
Only one former military officer has ever gone on to become a full defence minister: Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, who held the portfolio from 2003 to 2011.
Assoc Prof Chong said the role of a defence minister is very different from that of a senior uniformed officer, as it deals more with policy, legislation and budgets.
There is no clear heir apparent to Dr Ng. The government has in the past drawn from former military leaders for Cabinet roles, and some MPs such as Gan Siow Huang and Desmond Tan – both ex-brigadier-generals – have already taken on political office.
“We now have a number of ex-uniformed services leaders in Cabinet, so the PM could rely on familiarity and appoint one of them, or continue in the spirit of having a different, outside view, and appoint someone not from the defence forces,” said Mr Singh.
The job requires stature, political capital and gravitas to be able to navigate bilateral defence ties, he added.
WILL PM WONG RELINQUISH FINANCE?
Mr Wong’s decision on whether to continue as finance minister will also be closely watched.
He could decide to hand over the portfolio to focus on national leadership. Then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stayed on as finance minister for three years before passing the role to Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam in 2007.
Mr Wong has done “a lot of the heavy lifting” to shore up Singapore’s fiscal position in recent years and may now delegate the finance portfolio, said Mr Singh.
Dr Teo added that while understanding the ins and outs of the finance ministry is helpful, the workload is “taxing” given that it is a heavy portfolio.
Still, others believe he may keep the portfolio in the short term. This will help him to fully implement the Forward Singapore agenda, which will unfold over several Budgets, said SMU’s Assoc Prof Tan.
“He may want to stay in the leading role and hold onto the purse strings,” Assoc Prof Tan added.
Observers also expect Mr Wong to appoint a second deputy prime minister with Mr Heng stepping down, restoring the dual-deputy structure that was in place under past leaders.
“Usually there are two different DPMs – one for the economy, the other more of looking into the defence and security landscape,” said Dr Felix Tan.
NEW FACES IN POLITICAL OFFICE
Observers expect several new MPs to be appointed as political office holders in this reshuffle.
During the campaign, Mr Wong highlighted several candidates as having leadership potential: David Neo, Dinesh Vasu Dash, Jeffrey Siow and Hamid Razak.
Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam also said before the hustings that Nee Soon GRC new faces Goh Hanyan and Syed Harun Alhabsyi are potential political office holders.
