Who is Singapore’s Lawrence Wong? How an underdog with no grand political ambitions became the next prime minister
- Those who know Wong say he is a ‘highly relatable political leader’, and laud him for being a team player, a quiet go-getter and a persistent doer
- Wong will have his political mettle tested not only at home, but also leading Singapore in a far more turbulent world amid US-China rivalry
“I had not yet found my calling in public service,” Wong, who was then at the Ministry of Finance at the turn of the millennium, said in a media interview.
“So I was getting restless and [the] private sector beckoned at that time, beckoned with more enticing offers, a better job, more salary. I was very tempted to leave. In fact, I had an offer and I was going to leave.”
But word soon reached his then-boss, former permanent secretary Lim Siong Guan, who persuaded him to be “patient” and seize opportunities unavailable in the private sector.
That advice proved invaluable as Wong stayed the course and soon found himself working on national policies and “doing a lot of meaningful work, work that I certainly could never have done in the private sector”.
Singapore has Lim to thank for providing wise counsel, as Wong moved steadily up through the public-service ranks, to reach the pinnacle two decades later. On May 15, he will be sworn in as the city state’s fourth prime minister since independence.
