SINGAPORE: Less than three weeks after the General Election where the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) won a resounding victory, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced his first full Cabinet lineup on Wednesday (May 21).

The new Cabinet marks a significant reshuffle that includes three coordinating ministers and confirms Mr Gan Kim Yong as the sole deputy prime minister. It also features 15 full ministers and two acting ministers across the Prime Minister’s Office and 16 ministries.

This is the first complete team formed under Mr Wong since he succeeded Mr Lee Hsien Loong last year.

Mr Wong, who remains the finance minister, also appointed nine new political office holders, drawn from the backbench and among first-term MPs – a number he described as “one of the highest in recent history”.

Mr Wong said he has “a solid team behind me”, highlighting that he has four senior leaders, comprising one deputy and three…

EMBARRASSING MUCH?

SINGAPORE — In his Chinese New Year message on the eve of CNY, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reminded the population to stay vigilant despite the stable COVID situation and cherish family time, making it a greater priority.

“After nearly three years battling the pandemic, I am glad that we can fully resume our Chinese New Year celebrations. I am sure this year’s festivities will be especially meaningful for many. The lohei will be tossed extra high, cheers of “Huat ah” will be extra loud, and family gatherings extra joyous.:” said PM Lee,

This is true given that during the pandemic, the Ministry of Health had instructed that the “lohei” should be done without any verbalisation of the usual auspicious phrases and diners are reminded to avoid raising their voices.

PM Lee also thanked the hard work and sacrifices of those fighting at the frontline against COVID-19 pandemic and keepin…

The Government announced and state media reported that the economy had grown by 4.4% in the second quarter on a year-on-year basis. This was itself a slowdown from the advance estimate of 4.8% announced in July though of course the downward revision was not admitted in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) press release. To paint a rosier picture, MTI said this was faster than the 3.8% growth recorded in the first quarter.

However reading a little further I discovered that far from growth having accelerated in the second quarter, it was actually negative. On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted annualized basis the economy contracted by 0.2% . This should have been the significant news since it is a snapshot of how the economy is actually doing now rather than compared with the past. The figure of 4.4% is particularly misleading because there was a “circuit breaker” (the PAP’s euphemis…