GE2025: ‘Equip yourselves with the best team to take our nation forward,’ PM Wong says to Singaporeans

SINGAPORE: While the opposition presence in Singapore politics is here to stay, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday (Apr 23) urged Singaporeans to “equip yourselves with the best team” to take the country forward in a much changed world.

“In the past, people would say, in challenging times, in difficult times, Singaporeans would tend towards voting for the PAP,” he said.

“I don’t take that for granted at all. Certainly, when we went to the last election amidst COVID, this did not happen. So I fully expect this election to be a tough contest.”

Mr Wong was speaking to reporters from the party’s headquarters in East Coast, accompanied by five other Cabinet ministers in the party leadership — Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah, and Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli.

In his opening remarks, the prime minister emphasised that the stakes are high in this election.

“We are in a changed world with turbulence all around us. It’s not the first time you have elections amidst challenging circumstances,” he said.

He noted that the last election in 2020 was held under similar circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic. This time round, the challenges are more severe, said Mr Wong.

Through his interactions with businesses and union leaders, he has seen that they are worried as they can already feel the slowdown, and are also concerned about the impact of the global uncertainty on jobs and incomes.

He shared that he had met with investment advisors to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC after nomination proceedings on Wednesday, and found that “across the board, there is a consensus that things will not go back to the way they used to be”.

Mr Wong said that this uncertainty is not something that can be addressed within this year, as it may stretch on for quite some time.

“The opposition says, ‘Don’t fear. This is an overreaction. The PAP is overdoing it.’. But I think if you truly examine the facts and ask yourself: Is the world changing? Is something different? The answer is yes,” he said.

With no knowing what a new global order would look like amid a very messy and unpredictable transition, so much is at risk for Singapore as a trading nation, said Mr Wong.

“Who Singaporeans select to be the elected government in this changed world is critical. Under these circumstances, I asked Singaporeans to equip yourselves with the best team to take our nation forward,” he said.

ELECTIONS “A DYNAMIC MATTER”

Mr Wong also fielded several questions about the PAP’s deployment strategy for this year’s General Election.

“Preparing for an election is always a dynamic matter,” he said, after the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) sprung several surprises on Nomination Day.

He was responding to a question from CNA on how voters will take to the party’s Nomination Day late swapping of anchor ministers across some constituencies, given that the slates in several wards had already been unveiled in the lead up to Wednesday.

Noting that unexpected changes in candidates have happened before, Mr Wong said there are various moving parts and different considerations that the party needs to take in deciding where to deploy its candidates.

“We try our best not to have too many movements, but from time to time, we have to make some of these, and we have done so in this election,” said Mr Wong, who is also secretary-general of the PAP.

The party unveiled several electoral surprises on Nomination Day, after keeping mum about its slate in five slates: East Coast Group Representation Constituency (GRC), Tanjong Pagar GRC, Punggol GRC, as well as two SMCs Queenstown and Radin Mas.