The ruling party’s new leader-in-waiting is meant to show its softer side
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskYet he is also the kind of bloke you could drink a beer with. That, at least, is the impression one gets from Singapore’s state-owned media, which have been full of glowing reports ever since it was announced, on April 14th, that Mr Wong will take over as leader of the People’s Action Party when its current boss, Lee junior, eventually steps down.
Mr Wong grew up, he has said, in an “ordinary family”. His father was a salesman and his mother a schoolteacher. Like most Singaporeans, they lived in public housing. And unlike many leading politicians, he attended his local high school rather than an elite institution.His private life is not picture perfect. In a socially conservative country, he is a divorcé, since remarried, and has no children. He has hobbies—he likes to play the guitar—and a softer side.
The 49-year-old Mr Wong is a bit more personable. Perhaps the first time the public took notice of him was in 2020 when, while giving a speech in Parliament about the sacrifices made by front-line workers at the height of the pandemic, he broke down in tears. His sniffles endeared him to the public, who think of the party’s elite as cold and calculating.
Mr Wong is not considered a charismatic visionary, says Linda Lim, a professor at the University of Michigan who has known him since his student days. But he is “a decent guy” who is comfortable showing emotion. If the men in white, asMr Wong’s more human bearing may have won him the job, but he is unlikely to take the country in a different direction, reckons Michael Barr of Flinders University in Australia.
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