According to the relevant provisions of Singapore's general election, the transfer of power of the prime minister should take place on May 15. But the incumbent Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was no longer willing to wait and submitted his resignation to the president two days earlier, on the 13th.
As a mature politician, he still has to participate in the handover ceremony two days later, after all, only in this way can he draw a symbol of perfection for himself and the whole family.
It is reported that the successor Prime Minister of Singapore, Lawrence Wong, is the current deputy prime minister and finance minister of the government, and has no blood relationship with the Lee family. This means that after Lee Hsien Loong's departure, the Lee family, which has ruled Singapore for more than 70 years, will completely retire from the political scene. But what is left is not necessarily a full stop or exclamation mark, there should be a semicolon or even a question mark.
There is now growing evidence that while Singapore is a developed country with a high level of GDP per capita, the standard of living of the average Singaporean is not high. Not only do the vast majority of Singaporeans live in cramped apartments provided by the government, which can only meet the minimum living needs, but many Singaporeans in their sixties and seventies are still struggling to make ends meet, because the pension standard provided by the government is too low to meet the needs of daily life.
Nowadays, prices in Singapore are very expensive, and a casual meal can cost dozens of Singapore dollars. The average Singaporean's pension is only more than S$1,000, so you have to spend every coin carefully.
As a result, people who travel to Singapore can easily find that most of the people who open taxis are elderly, working more than 10 hours a day just to subsidize their families.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, with strict rules and harsh punishments making it difficult for ordinary Singaporeans to find joy in life, and self-deprecation is nothing more than the walking dead. Many scholars believe that this is to satisfy the needs of the hierarchy.
Therefore, many people have the impression that Singapore can only be regarded as a garden city, but it is by no means a place that can provide full happiness.
However, Singapore's civil servants can be masters, and the Lee family is in charge of a number of investment funds in the name of the government, which receive a large amount of dividends every year. They have formed a privileged class, and the gap between them and ordinary Singaporeans is widening.
And as capital, the most worrying thing is political risks. In the current tense situation in the South China Sea, Singapore is at the center of various whirlpools, and the slightest mistake in making a statement could become a scapegoat for one party. Therefore, in order to protect his vested interests, Lee Hsien Loong preferred to submit his resignation in advance, hoping to disconnect from the political turmoil.
With Singapore lacking strategic depth, without the leadership of a strong leader and without the opportunity to showcase its talents, the future prospects are very worrying, either in alliance with a new world power or re-annexation by Malaysia.