The reality of leadership succession - you can't predict how it will turn out, you can only hope for the best
For now, we are alright. I have a balanced cabinet, some ministers with more than 20 years’ experience, just the right amount of grey hair, battle-tested, some who joined in the last general elections, long runway ahead of them. They have mastered their portfolios, they have learnt about politics. They have gained the trust of Singaporeans, I think they have come under some fire and they have come through and they have gelled and worked together as a team, not so many soloists but a team. That is very important but we all grow old and we all need successors. I am already 63 years old this year. I just came back from Jakarta, the Asia-Africa summit. It is held every 10 years. It is the commemoration of the Bandung meeting in 1955. So 10 years ago, President SBY held one. This year President Jokowi held one. I went in 2005. This is the second time I am attending. Ten years from now, 2025 they may hold an Asian-African Summit again. I would be 73 years old. I really should not be attending. But you must make sure that whoever is the Prime Minister in 2025 when he goes he will do us proud and advance our interests.
This year my doctors discovered I had prostate cancer. Luckily they discovered it early. I went for an operation in February. It was successful. Now I am back to work. No medical leave on May Day. After the ops doctor told me, you wait for two months to do a blood test, then we will know if you are clear and then we will see. Two weeks ago two months were up, and I went for the follow-up blood tests were good and doctors gave me all clear. But they are very precise. They never say you are completely out of the woods, they say prostate cancer-specific survival rate 15 years – 98 per cent. What that means is 15 years from now, over the next 15 years, my chances of dying because of the prostate cancer is just 2 per cent which is not bad but - you can go to the bookies with that one - but 15 years from now I will be 78 years old. Even if the prostate cancer does not cause me trouble, something else will act up. It is not just me. It is the same with my team. Just because you are a minister, it does not mean that you are a superman, it does not mean you will not get ill, it does not mean you don’t grow old. And from time to time, Ministers get ill. As a courtesy, they usually let me know, so that I can share their worries. If I lose any of them, my team will be weakened. Can I replace them quickly? With people of the same quality and experience? And if the team is weakened can the government deliver on what Singaporeans expect of us.
Did he know beforehand that HSK has a health issue ?
