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Singapore’s turbulent yet tantalising 2023: from political scandals to pop sensations
- It was a year of political resignations, a massive money laundering case and the spectre of corruption haunting the typically staid city state
- But there were bright spots too, with the election of Tharman Shanmugaratnam as president and international A-list acts booking tour dates
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For Singaporeans who had grown accustomed to the city state’s rather sedate way of doing politics, 2023 will go down as one of the most turbulent years in decades.
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But as a high-level corruption case and string of political resignations rocked Singapore, it also shone on the global stage by attracting the likes of international musical acts Taylor Swift and Coldplay.
Here are the top Singapore stories This Week in Asia covered in 2023:
A month of scandals
In July, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) faced what analysts described as a major internal crisis, following the arrest of Transport Minister S Iswaran in relation to a corruption probe, and the resignation of two members of parliament just a week later for being involved in an extramarital affair.
On the other side of the political divide, the Workers’ Party – the PAP’s biggest rival – was also fighting fires of its own, with two leading members also resigning in July over an extramarital affair.
The month before that, the PAP had found itself dealing with a separate matter following an anti-corruption investigation into veteran ministers K Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan over the rents they paid for state-owned colonial bungalows. Both ministers were later cleared of any wrongdoing.
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