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What a minister’s reluctance to be PM reveals about race in Singapore

The government holds that the city state needs an ethnically Chinese leader, but citizens may not agree

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The survey suggested Tharman Shanmugaratnam would be a popular pick for PM. Photo: AFP

The move on Wednesday by Singapore’s popular deputy premier to emphatically quash suggestions he wants to take over from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong exposes the conservative ethnic consensus in the country’s leadership, despite a public clamour for greater political openness, observers say.

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Public speculation about Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s fit as Lee’s successor has been swirling in recent years, and resurfaced on Monday after an independent survey showed nearly 69 per cent of Singaporeans would support the 59-year-old ethnic Tamil as the country’s next leader.

“Just to be absolutely clear, because I know there’s this talk going around… I’m not the man for PM, I say that categorically. It’s not me,” Tharman told local media late on Wednesday.

Tharman said the top job was not his ambition.

He is one of two deputy prime ministers and oversees financial and social issues. The former central bank chief took the job in 2011, having entered politics in 2001. He was finance minister from 2007 to 2015, and an education minister before that.

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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: EPA
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: EPA
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