Coronavirus: Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong warns of trouble brewing

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has warned of a ‘less prosperous, more troubled’ post-COVID-19 world.

Lee Hsien Loong is widely expected to call an election for next month.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has kicked off an unofficial election campaign with a national address highlighting his efforts to help the ­nation survive in a “less prosperous, more troubled” and dangerous post-COVID-19 world.

Describing the pandemic as “the crisis of a generation”, the 68-year-old outlined a “difficult and disruptive” short-term future in which Singapore’s reputation for political stability and “playing by the rules” with investors would give it a critical advantage in its economic recovery.

“Countries will have less stake in each other’s wellbeing and will fight more over how the pie is shared rather than work ­together to enlarge the pie for all. It will be a less prosperous world and also a more troubled one,” Mr Lee said during his Sunday night televised speech.

While such developments would hit Singapore hard, “our strong and trusted international reputation will help us greatly”, he added.

“In a troubled world investors will value the assurance of a government that plays by the rules. A people who understand what’s at stake and a stable political system that enables business to continue operating even in a crisis.

“The way Singapore has ­responded to COVID-19 — openly and transparently, neither avoiding reality or acting ­arbitrarily at the first sign of trouble — has only strengthened that advantage greatly.”

Mr Lee’s 22-minute address was the first of six by ministers who will lay out the post-pandemic plans of the People’s ­Action Party, which has governed Singapore since the 1959 election when Mr Lee’s father, Lee Kuan Yew, became the city state’s first prime minister. PAP holds 83 of 89 parliamentary seats. Singapore this month began a three-phased reopening of its economy, which Mr Lee said on Sunday could contract as much as 7 per cent this year.

He is widely tipped to call an election for next month, when many of the restrictions will have been lifted. An election must be held by next April but many pundits have tipped that, with the country facing worsening job losses and possible fresh infection spikes, the government will want to go to the polls as soon as possible.

Some 37,910 people have been infected in Singapore, the vast majority of those cases involving residents of overcrowded migrant worker dormitories, which the government has ­admitted was a “blind spot” in its pandemic preparedness. However, it still has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world from COVID-19 with just 25 deaths.

Singapore has passed new laws providing for the holding of an election during the pandemic, including provisions for voters under quarantine to be able to safely cast their ballots, and for candidates to be allowed to file nomination papers in absentia.

The government has also ­announced almost $100bn in stimulus and rescue measures, half of which will be drawn from the country’s wealth reserves, to reconfigure an economy that ­depends heavily on global trade and investment flows.

On Sunday, Mr Lee predicted that challenge would be made more complex by a “changing strategic landscape” in which the pandemic had worsened relations between China and the US.

“Actions and counter-actions are raising tensions day by day. It will become harder for countries to stay onside with both powers. It will be a more dangerous world for a small country like Singapore,” he said. “We must ensure our security and protect and ­advance our interests when dealing with other countries big and small. We must also work with like-minded countries to support free trade and multilateralism.”

Those warnings follow a similarly sombre analysis by Mr Lee of the challenges facing Asian countries seeking to prosper “at the intersection of the interests of various major powers”.

In a Foreign Policy article last week, he cautioned the long-predicted Asian century was “neither inevitable nor foreordained”, and could easily be scuttled by heightened confrontation between the US and China and an attempt by either power to force others to choose sides.