Singapore: Under Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore finds itself in the age of globalized finance and cutting-edge technology, while continuing the policy of his respected father suppressing a free press and suppressing dissent.
The prime minister stepped down on Wednesday and handed over his wealth to his deputy, Lawrence Wong, who is not the second member of the Lee family, who has led the wealthy Asian country.
As the son of the country’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, Lee had to live with the understanding that he could not become prime minister without his lineage.
But after nearly two decades in power, he has led Singapore through the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic by diversifying its economy and leaving its mark on the city-state.
He does not hesitate to use libel laws against critics, prosecuting those who suggest corruption or nepotism in the government.
Under his supervision, the rules against mass protests were strengthened; even a one-person demonstration can be dismissed as an illegal assembly.
Lee was sworn in as the country’s third prime minister on August 12, 2004 at the age of 52.
Lacking the steel and iron fist of his father, the younger Lee, now 72, has taken a more suggestive approach.
He led efforts to revive the city-state’s export-based economy, focusing on advanced industries such as biotechnology and electronics, as well as financial services.
Singapore, a small and open economy that imports most of its needs, has established an extensive network of bilateral and regional free trade agreements.
Lee Hsien Loong was born on February 10, 1952, from lawyers Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Cho, during a time of racial unrest, trade union militancy and the rise of communist influence in British colonies.
He established himself as Singapore’s harsh political leader in 1959 – when his father became Prime Minister – and at independence in 1965, before self-government in 1959.
who I am,” the younger Lee said in a speech. after his father died.
He joined the Singapore Armed Forces in 1971 and graduated from Cambridge University in 1974 with a first class degree in mathematics and a diploma in computer science.
When Trinity College, Cambridge, offered him a scholarship to teach mathematics, he wrote to his teacher: “I must go home. I went home and did not do what I should have done.”
He became a brigadier general but left military service in 1984 to become an MP.
Lee Kuan Yew resigned in 1990 and was succeeded by his successor Goh Chok Tong under the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).
Before taking the top job, Lee served as central bank governor as well as finance minister.
Balancing Singapore’s strong cultural and historical ties with East and West, he refused to take sides in the US-China rivalry and cast the country as a diplomatically honest broker.
Under his leadership, Singapore hosted the historic meeting between Taiwan’s then President Ma Ing-jeou and China’s Xi Jinping in 2015, as well as the 2018 meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Despite his seemingly charmed life, Lee faced two major personal crises.
Wong Ming Yangang, a Malaysian doctor she met at Cambridge in 1982, died after giving birth to her second child.
Three years later, she married Ho Ching, the former CEO of Temasek Holdings, a state-linked investment company. They have two children.
In 1992, Singapore was shocked when the country’s two deputy prime ministers, Lee and Ong Teng Chong, were both diagnosed with lymphoma.
Lee underwent intensive treatment and was declared cured in 1997, but Ong died of cancer in 2002 after serving as the republic’s first elected president.
Lee, who was seen as an unknown intellectual when he first entered politics, has changed his image since becoming prime minister. After a month on the job, he took to the dance floor at one of Singapore’s trendiest discos to connect with young Singaporeans.
But in 2015, the family image was marred by a bitter sibling feud that erupted after the death of the patriarch in 2015.
Lee’s sister and brother accused him of resisting their father’s bid to destroy the historic family home.
Li Wei Ling’s older brother openly called him a “dishonorable son” and accused him of trying to use his father’s legacy to build a dynasty, which his older brother denied.
In his last policy speech as prime minister on May 1, Lee expressed “satisfaction and complacency.
