'I've never hankered for post, position or power': Lawrence Wong
The People's Action Party's new fourth-generation leader Lawrence Wong outlined his guiding principles and the challenges ahead at a press conference on Saturday (April 16). Here is the Finance Minister's opening speech:
Throughout my life, I've never hankered for post, position or power. I've always been realistic about my own abilities and strengths. My philosophy in life, instilled by my parents from young, is that whatever task I'm assigned, I will give off my best. And if my best falls short as it surely will from time to time, I try to learn and I strive to improve and do better.
So, I have never gone out looking for work, additional work, but somehow the work finds me, and over the last 25 years in public service, my duties and responsibilities have kept on growing.
It's like what happened two years ago when I was in MND (Ministry of National Development) then and DPM (Deputy Prime Minister) called me out of the blue.
He asked, "Have you heard about the virus in Wuhan?"
And before I knew it, I was co-chairing the MTF (Covid-19 multi-ministry task force) with Gan Kim Yong. Now I will be taking on what would possibly be the biggest responsibility of my life.
I am under no illusions about the demands of the job. It will get more challenging with greater political contestation and the growing desire for diversity in Parliament. And as PM said in Parliament recently, we do not assume that the PAP will win the next general election. Every GE from now on will be about which party will form the Government, not just how many seats the opposition wins or what percentage of the votes the ruling party gets.
Knowing full well that we will have to earn the right of leadership, I will continue with the same principles that have guided me all these years, which is to give of my best, to engage and listen, and to learn and improve continually.
And as I have repeatedly emphasised, leadership, and political leadership is never about one person, it's always about the entire team. Even a giant like Mr Lee Kuan Yew had a team. The same was true for Mr Goh Chok Tong, and now PM Lee. He has SM Teo, SM Tharman, and many others. So much more the case will be with me.
I need each and every one of the 4G team, the ministers, the SMSes, the MOSes, the parl-secs and the MPs. As a team we have worked together to fight Covid-19 these past two years. We've gelled and grown closer together as a team. I believe we have strengthened our bonds with Singaporeans too through this crisis of a generation and the bonds among Singaporeans have also been strengthened by the crisis.
In some societies, the crisis depleted social capital and weakened political trust. In Singapore, I think we have dealt with the crisis in such a way as to add to our social capital and strengthen political trust, and I am very grateful for that.
But beyond this crisis, there will be many more challenges ahead of us, especially as we enter a more complex, volatile and unpredictable world. We need to get through this pandemic and the pressing economic challenges we are facing today, and we must work hard to build a better Singapore tomorrow.
We can overcome all of these challenges only as a strong and united team with a single-minded focus to serve Singapore and Singaporeans. And that's why I value the contributions from everyone in the team, including our broader team of hardworking and dedicated party activists.
I look forward to bringing in more people to join our cause, to contribute in different ways and help strengthen our team. And of course, I will continue to benefit from the advice and guidance of our seniors, especially PM and our two SMs.
I look forward to working closely with everyone to take the PAP and Singapore forward, and to earn the trust and support of each and every Singaporean.
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