Bertha Henson :
LW doesn’t want a deputy in the traditional sense of the word, at least not now. He wants advisers. As PM, he will have two advisors - Teo Chee Hean and soon, LHL. Now he wants to tap on two others, Heng Swee Keat and - Gan Kim Yong!
I only know of one person who predicted Gan’s elevation, and I thought he was talking through his hat! He said that Gan would be a safe bet to insulate LW from any challengers from within until he secures a mandate in a general election. And that the GE will be held soon, very soon. I don’t know if he has inside information but his first prediction was accurate.
My comeback is the same as those of the ‘observers’ canvassed by the ST - that Gan is 65 compared to LW’s 51. He is from an earlier cohort, and had just stepped down from the PAP chairmanship. I was looking at the deputy in the traditional sense of the word - as an assistant being groomed to succeed. I recall that Heng Swee Keat picked his own deputy when he was anointed heir - Chan Chun Sing, his contemporary but a younger man. I saw it as Heng ensuring a stable hierarchy within the Cabinet which he would come to lead one day. He was putting his house in order early, so to speak.
Yes, there is a precedent for LW’s move. PM Lee had two seniors, Tony Tan and Jayakumar, as his deputies. But remember that PM Lee had a long runway as DPM before he became PM, and having two seniors wouldn’t shake the people’s confidence that he had everything in hand. Wong became deputy only in June last year.
Maybe the deputy is too important a post, with the connotations of inheritance, to be entrusted to someone so soon. This is especially given the long and complicated process which led to LW being decided on as "first among equals''.
LW will know enough the perils of finding a successor too late to get a handle on State affairs. He admitted as much himself when he said he hadn’t worked with some of the ministers to take a measure of their leadership abilities. (This makes you wonder why even such minimal changes were announced at all!) But in Gan’s case, he was his co-chair at the ministerial task force, he said. He didn’t add that other ministers had also shared the stage with him.
So the current placements of DPMs can be viewed as an interim measure, placeholders until he decides on his line-up of 4G ministers, perhaps after the GE when he has more chess pieces to move around the board.
So for now, he talks about “continuity and stability’’ rather than continuity and change. I see his Cabinet moves as an assurance to people who wonder about his abilities to lead as PM, with the senior ministers and deputies acting as a buffer. Some would view this as insecurity; others will say he is being cautious. Yet others will discern a heavy 3G hand in play.
Whatever the reason, I think it is important that the 4G leaders get behind their man in the run-up to the election. Not so much in words like FB endorsements, but in action. And that can be made evident in the next PAP central executive committee election in November.
When my friend predicted that the GE will be soon because LW will want a quick mandate, I said this can't be. This would be before LW gets the chance to be secretary-general, I argued. The full backing of the party is imperative, precisely because he seems like a last-minute, compromise candidate, I added. The top leaders in the CEC (mainly the current Cabinet) who decide on posts should elevate him from deputy to full secretary-general.
Lawrence Wong should go into the election with the full mandate of the PAP, before seeking one from us. Let the PAP show its trust in him first!
